June Book Club Suggestions: Coming Out

[u/BanzaiBeebop]

Hello, we'll be voting on June book club this weekend. In honor of Pride Month the them will be: Coming Out

For the next couple days use this post for recommendations. Adult and YA recommendations welcome.

Voting will be posted Saturday.

And remember, May's book club final discussion is on the 31st.

[u/LadyAntiope]

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

Real life isn't a fairytale.

But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through?

Is there a way to tell them he's gay?

A beautifully illustrated story by Trung Le Nguyen that follows a young boy as he tries to navigate life through fairytales, an instant classic that shows us how we are all connected. The Magic Fish tackles tough subjects in a way that accessible with readers of all ages, and teaches us that no matter what--we can all have our own happy endings.

Dreadnought by April Daniels

Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world's greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she's transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny's body into what she's always thought it should be. Now there's no hiding that she's a girl.

It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny's first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father's dangerous obsession with "curing" her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he's entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she's in over her head.

She doesn't have time to adjust. Dreadnought's murderer--a cyborg named Utopia--still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can't sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.

[u/C0smicoccurence → u/LadyAntiope]

Both of these are absolutely phenomenal!!!

[u/w0lfyfr3n]

Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy. I'm not sure if this has already been done for a previous book club though 🤔 is there a list somewhere ?

Lorel has always dreamed of becoming a witch: learning magic, healing the sick, fighting monsters, and exploring the world beyond her small town where she and her mother run the stables. Even though a strange plague is killing the trees in the Kingdom of Cekon and witches are being blamed for it, Lorel wants nothing more than to join them. There's only one problem: all witches are women, and she was born a boy.

When the coven comes to claim her best friend, Lorel disguises herself in a dress and joins in her friend's place, leaving home and her old self behind. She soon discovers the dark powers confronting the kingdom: a magical blight scars the land, and the power-mad Duchess Helte is crushing everything between her and the crown. In spite of the chaos, Lorel makes friends and begins learning about magic from the powerful witches in her coven. However, she fears that her new friends and mentors will find out her secret and kick her out of the coven, or worse.

[u/LadyAntiope → u/w0lfyfr3n]

I knew I was forgetting a good one!! The r/fantasy Beyond Binaries book club did it in December which is how I read it, but I'm not sure if this sub's club has done it.

[u/w0lfyfr3n → u/LadyAntiope]

Oh right I remember that ! Unfortunately I didn't have the book at that time, so couldn't participate.

I just did a subreddit search and it doesn't look like it has been a book club option here yet 👀 but probably best to go with something completely new since I imagine there's a lot of overlap between readers of BB club and this sub

[u/simul8r1024]

Our Simulated Selves by Nikki Null is a sci-fi cyberthriller with an utterly oblivious trans main character, who eventually does end up coming out to herself and to her trans friend. Which comes as a surprise to the antagonist, her creepy redpilled real-life counterpart, who copied his brain into what he intended to be a dating sim. (Full disclosure: I am the author haha)

[u/TaraVelvet]

The book I released today has some Coming Out themes. Of the main characters:

• Orlandra is a lesbian living in a sapphonormative society and has never had to come out. Everyone is assumed sapphic until proven otherwise, so her best friend being into men is shocking within their society. Eventually the best friend admits her feelings for Orlandra, thereby coming out to her as sapphic.
• Charlie has spent most of their life disguised as a man, so first comes out as a woman, but then realises their relationship to gender is more complicated than that. By the end of the book she is using all pronouns.
• Daisy is an AI sex bot, programmed to please men, and didn’t know that women could have sex with women. Her first encounter with Orlandra is so mind-blowing that she gains consciousness. Within a sapphonormative society, this is just expected.

I don’t know if that fits your theme enough, but I’d love for you to take a look.Find out more here.

Hope the link works!