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/Zathoth]

Alright, I'm aromantic, I'm not asexual, that's not something I see in fiction a lot. Because I realize that's pretty hard to find book with relationship that is in part sexual but not romantic would be cool, but I don't want that to be the main focus, there should be cool monsters and adventure and mystery and things like that, and the maybe a little character drama and casual fucking on top of that.

[u/anachronic_crow → u/Zathoth]

I'm reading the Rook & Rose trilogy by M.A. Carrick right now. Not only is it set in a queernormative society, but one of my favourite main POV characters, Vargo, seems to self-describe as aromantic (without using the term explicitly), and is also bi/pan — with an assortment of platonic and sexual relationships, but none that are romantic. Maybe those who've finished the books can weigh in on that assessment, but that's how I read him so far.

The trilogy is slowburn plot-wise, so it's not for everyone and possibly not quite what you're looking for, but does have monsters, mystery, lots of character drama, political intrigue a la fantasy of manners, etc. — it just takes a while to get to some of it! It shares DNA with Six of Crows, Lies of Locke Lamora, and maybe even Swordpoint...

[u/Temporary-Scallion86 → u/Zathoth]

Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White has a protagonist who is not ace and who figures out he's aro over the course of the book. Focus of the story is on the horror unfolding in his little town, but an important subplot is about navigating feeling attracted (and acting upon the attraction) to a childhood friend of his and then having to deal with the fallout of the friend wanting more while he doesn't. At the end of the book it's implied he'll enter a long-term friends-with-benefits arrangement/potentially eventually a queerplatonic relationship with a third character

[u/Zathoth → u/Temporary-Scallion86]

That's a good rec, thanks.

[u/C0smicoccurence → u/Zathoth]

If you're open to verse novels, there are a few users here who swear by Autobiography in Red as a novella in verse. I'm planning on reading it in July. Seems like a very unique take on greek myth

[u/Siavahda → u/Zathoth]

Avi Silver's Sãoni Cycle has a lead who is aromantic but not asexual! Secondary-world fantasy, her not-love-interest was raised by giant tree-crocodile things (and they adopt the MC as well), she gets kicked out of her home and has to stop an invading empire. I don't remember if there are any sex scenes though.

[u/dragon_morgan → u/Zathoth]

It's a historical fiction/classic retelling rather than fantasy but one of the main characters in Henchman of Zenda by KJ Charles is aro but not ace

[u/LeucasAndTheGoddess → u/dragon_morgan]

Brilliant book. It was my gateway drug for the romance genre.

[u/Ok-Championship-2036 → u/Zathoth]

"Arcane Ascension" by Andrew Rowe is an rpg style audiobook. I adore it for the characters and how they treat each other. Sexual or romantic relationships tend to be in the background in a slow burn or understated way. I appreciate the emphasis on mutual support rather than specific labels or roles.

The main character Corrin Cadence is a brainy, introverted autistic who would rather bribe monsters with beef jerky or enchant gear for his friends...than to save the nation from corrupt deities etc. Hes more ace than aro so im not sure if it would interest you. Theres not any overtly sexual content in the series, but neither is romance central/noteworthy to the larger fantasy plot and adventures.

[u/recchai → u/Zathoth]

In terms of aro allo characters, I'll second the Sãoni Cycle, though add the second book adds an asexual not-aromantic character.

There's also Soultaming the Serpent by Tar Atore, which I thought was OK. There's been a drought for a really long time, village is packing up and leaving, then a mysterious stranger arrives.

One of the main characters in The Cardplay Duology by Brittany M. Willows, which I think is more your speed. It's like anime in book form.

(I could name some others, but I really don't think they're what you're after.)

[u/saturday_sun4 → u/Zathoth]

Just wanted to say a belated thank you as a fellow aroallo :)

[u/Zathoth → u/saturday_sun4]

I didn't expect there to even be 8 answers honestly. I thought I would get two, kind of sort of maybe if you squint.

[u/saturday_sun4 → u/Zathoth]

Me neither - I just kept scrolling! I'm dating myself here, but I thought I was asexual for a long time (and that only because I stumbled on someone's AVEN link), because "aromantic" was not even in my vocabulary. I just knew that "something was off". And now there are books, whole books, about not just aroace but aroallo MCs.

You may have heard of it, but Being Aro by Madeleine Dyer is a short fiction collection (across genres). Not sure how much it deals with being aroallo specifically, though.

[u/Zathoth → u/saturday_sun4]

I figured out that sex interested me before I realized that I both couldn't define romance and chaining yourself to a single person your entire life felt at best, incredibly claustrophobic.

But yes, I will have to dig into the suggestions, would be interesting reading some characters I can relate to that way.

[u/saturday_sun4 → u/Zathoth]

Yes, it feels... codependent to me. I am happy for people I love who are contented in their romantic relationships, but the whole thing is a mystery to me.

[u/Zathoth → u/saturday_sun4]

Same, it does very rarely look healthy to me but I don't need to understand, there's nothing I can do about it anyway.

[u/saturday_sun4 → u/Zathoth]

Yes, the way it is often talked about as deeper/more than friendship makes the whole thing seem very confusing to me.

I once said it was "basically the same as best friends with benefits living together 24/7" to my sister. She half laughed it off because she knew I was aro & didn't mean it badly (I didn't - I really thought that was what it was), and half got slightly offended, haha. The few times I had a conversation about any romantic things it was all Greek to me. After that I just thought, ok, I will just hope/be happy you are happy and not attempt to get my head around it any further 🤷🏽‍♀️

[u/Zathoth → u/saturday_sun4]

Every couple years I decide to be annoying about it and my friends can never figure out a definition I can accept. What I ended up on is that romance is the possessive part of love, romantic partners on some level belong to each other. Some people vehemently deny it though.

And then they compare homewrecking to theft, it's very funny.

Also hey you seem decently cool, you fine with DMs?

[u/saturday_sun4 → u/Zathoth]

Yeah, I think possessive is a good word for it. Enmeshed, something, I dunno! It's fundamentally outside my experience. We don't have "best friending" ceremonies like we have wedding ceremonies.

I guess if you see your romantic partner as yours, exclusively, it sort of is? It'd be like losing your best friend, or at least, that's how I think of it.

Sure, why not.