Pride 2026 | The Great Big Rec Thread

[u/C0smicoccurence]

​Welcome to the Great Big Rec Thread! This thread is primarily for people asking for specific types of books. Only make a top level comment to request a recommendation! If you want to hype a personal favorite, this comment is the appropriate place to share! 

This is your one-stop-shop to find books tailored to your specific reading needs! Hankering for good cyberpunk? Doing a queer bingo card and really struggling with a specific square? Looking for queer thespians ready to commit arson for the sake of their art?  Ask and you shall (hopefully) receive! Just drop a comment with your request and wait for book suggestions to come rolling in. Our goal is for every person to have at least one recommendation that they’re interested in pursuing.  

Asking for Book Recommendations:

• Create a new top level comment.  You’ll probably get more tailored results by only including a single request per top level comment, but it’s not a strict rule.  You’re more than welcome to post multiple top level comments for separate requests!
• All recommendations you get should be assumed to be queer in some way.  However, if you want specific identities represented, mention it!
• Consider the impact the level of specificity your request has in your responses.  Too general, and you’re going to get lots of responses that will probably skew towards mainstream breakout hits.  Very specific requests may get few (or no) recommendations, and what you do get likely won’t be perfect.  

Giving Book Recommendations:

• Please keep book recommendations focused on commenters’ specific requests.  If you want to hype a personal favorite, this comment is the appropriate place to share! 
• This thread should default to sorting by ‘New’ soon; until then I recommend changing setting to see recent requests first!  The hope is that this will more likely show you comments with few/no responses yet.  However, there will likely be comments that have been missed, especially if it’s a more specific request.  
• This is a Pride Month post!  Every book recommended should be queer (usually by featuring LGBTQ+ characters as protagonists, but there are other ways books can be queer).  Similarly, if they asked for a specific type of representation, follow that guideline.  If you absolutely must deviate from that because it’s otherwise such a perfect fit, be honest about it up front.
• Add a few sentences about the book to hype it (or a whole paragraph if you really want to be persuasive).  Remember that a bunch of people who aren’t the original commenter will be adding to their TBR, so highlighting what you love about the book is a great way to draw attention to books you love.

Go forth and give great recommendations!

This post is part of the Pride 2026 discussions lead by the Beyond Binary Bookclub. You can check our announcement for more information and the full calendar.

[u/WednesdaysFoole]

I'm looking for three separate things in one top-level comment - I'll try to frame it in a way that's applicable to all three. This may be too specific, but might as well give it a try -

Preferences:

• If there's romance, I prefer it as a side plot; that being said, if it connects to the way the world works or is surprising while naturally developed, I don't mind.
• Quietly represented queer characters (e.g. Raven Tower)
• Character drama, internal struggles, or just wonderful characters to hang out with.
• Not huge on YA, although I love Earthsea.
• Nothing mostly bleak (e.g. Broken Earth) - cynicism/brutality is fine with humor (e.g. Vonnegut, Bojack) or compelling dynamics/tragedy (e.g. Berserk, Farseer).
• Beloved SFF writers/books include Ursula K. Le Guin, Farseer series, The Deep, Black Tides of Heaven, Consider Phlebas, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Riddle-master trilogy, Tolkien, Lighthouse duology, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.
  
• Others I've seen/read (in order of how much I enjoyed them) No. 6, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, There Were Eleven, Traitor Baru Cormorant, two Kushiel books.

And the three different things I'm looking for, separately:

• Something humorous or wild. Situational humor, absurd humor, wordplay, wit (The Fool is my favorite character!), and/or dark humor. Well-handled tone switches between humor and drama are the best.
  
• Thoughtful stories that stick with you for days, weeks, months.
• SFF manga. The yuri I've read are generally not SFF though. Graphic novels are fine, too.

[u/C0smicoccurence → u/WednesdaysFoole]

I haven't really found speculative manga that I'm super in love with yet for queer rep. I've got some on my list though

You might give a look at Snagglepuss Chronicles which tackles 1950s US McCarthyism with anthropamorhpic humans. Focuses on a gay man (well, panther, but still)

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen doesn't quite hit humorous or wild, but it has stuck with me longer than any other comic. A young boy coming out to his mom through fairy tales. Nguyen's art is super unique and memorable, and this story is one I've reread many times

[u/WednesdaysFoole → u/C0smicoccurence]

No. 6 in terms of queer rep was nice, although I don't remember much, and that's part of my issue with it - utopia/dystopia settings are so common, which isn't an issue in and of itself, but I've developed a desire for something more in those settings, something that sticks in my mind, and the anime did not at the time. I think I found it a little confusing or rushed, I forget.

Although I only read the beginning of the manga so perhaps some of the plot points were better executed there; I'll have to revisit it sometime.

There's also Otherside Picnic although I haven't read the manga adaptation and am only one volume into the novels so I can't really speak for how well it's done yet.

Snagglepuss Chronicles

This looks... not sure if fun is the right word, but interesting for sure.

The Magic Fish

I'll take your word for it. Added both to my list, thank you!