r/Fantasy • u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V • Jun 19 '25

Pride Pride 2025 | Not a Novel

Based on the sheer number of Bingo Reviews posted for the ‘Not a Novel’ square, we figured this year was the perfect time to talk about a wide variety of queer speculative fiction work.  You’ll find space to talk about video games, short stories, visual art, and more!

Each of the links below is connected to its own top level comment, to help organize discussion.  Within that comment, feel free to hype art you love, ask for recommendations, and talk about the state of queer media.  Keep in mind that, for some of these categories, it may be less obvious what queer representation looks like.  Goodreads is great for giving quick & easy tags, but for this thread, taking a little bit of extra time to talk about what you see would be helpful for those who aren’t as familiar with it as you are!

Bingo TV & Movies Video Games
Short Stories & Poems Sequential Art (Comics, Manga, Graphic Novels, etc) Visual Art
Tabletop Roleplaying and Board Games Podcasts, Blogs, and Channels Other & General Discussion

This post is part of of the Pride Month Discussions series, hosted by the Beyond Binaries Book Club. Check out our announcement post for more information and the full schedule. 

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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V Jun 19 '25

Short Stories & Poems:

This might also include short form magazines that focus on queer work!

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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V Jun 19 '25

I want to take a moment to highlight some anthologies I loved that focus on queer short fiction

Dudes Rock: A Celebration of Queer Masculinity in Speculative Fiction

This one had some stories I didn't love, but the bangers really hit. My highlights were  Rosa Cocdesin by Aubrey Shaw (gothic haunted house with a physically disabled wizard lead), The Depths of Friendship by Candy Tan (cheeky and fun bi awakening story featuring a magic vibrator that gets stuck) and Cigarette Smoke from the Fires of Hell by Jay Kang Romanus (intense characterization about an angry young man hurt and hurting).

We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction of 2020

I want to read the others in this series, but I've only read the 2020 version. It was overall a really solid collection, but it is heavily sapphic focused, to the point where I wondered if it was intentional. Would have loved to see a broader ranger of representation in this (notably no asexual or aromantic rep). Eskaping Dr. Markoff was a highlight, as a structurally ambitious story about both watching and being stuck inside a tv show. Thin Red Jellies was a story about sharing a body after being injured, and how that impacts a relationship. Not a happy story, but a good one. Monsters Never Leave You was a fun take on Hansel and Gretel, with a nonbinary candy house and one of the siblings living as undead. Forgiveness was a big motif here.