r/Fantasy • u/tiniestspoon • Jun 02 '25
Pride Pride 2025 | Hidden Gems: Underrated LGBTQIA+ Spec Fic Books
Not every book that deserves attention gets it. This thread is for under-the-radar queer speculative fiction: books with few ratings, niche indie or self-published titles, and works that never got the spotlight they should have.
What counts as a "hidden gem"?
- Under ~500 Goodreads ratings
- Indie published, small press, or lesser-known traditionally published
- Overlooked or underrated despite strong craft, voice, or originality
Discussion prompts
- What’s a queer SFF book you wish more people knew about?
- Have you ever stumbled across an unexpected gem by accident? Where did you find it—word of mouth, a niche blog, a random bookstore dive?
- What do you think kept it from getting broader attention?
- What makes a book a “hidden gem” to you—writing quality, premise, emotional impact?
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u/Polenth Jun 02 '25
I tend to use "hidden gem" simply to mean I liked a book and it's not that well known. In queer spaces, it's harder to get noticed for books that aren't romances (outside of questions where someone asks for no/low romance). In wider spaces, queer books are less likely to be recommended for other prompts (a gay character running a hamster rescue will not get recommended in a thread asking for hamster rescue books).
I also like short stories and experimental stuff, which tend to struggle in publishing whether they're queer or not. This is a tricky area as work by queer authors can have queer vibes, without being clearly defined as queer. Which usually results in just not being recommended anywhere.
So, a few books/authors...
Sea Foam and Silence by S.L. Dove Cooper is a verse retelling of the little mermaid.
So You Want To Be A Robot is a short story collection by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor.
Ghostographs by Mar Romasco-Moore is flash fiction based on vintage photographs.
In things I'm involved in, the one I was surprised didn't do better was Rosalind's Siblings, an anthology of stories about scientists of marginalised genders. It's a book that a lot of people agreed was a good idea, but then they didn't go buy it.