LGBTQ - General Fiction

This list has been created by a Library Assistant at Wake County Public Libraries (WCPL) and encompasses *most* of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus other identitites such as, intersex, asexual, aromantic, demisexual, demiromantic, nonbinary, genderqueer, and more) titles categorized under "Fiction" in the WCPL collection as of March 17, 2025.

Showing 1 - 20 of 28  There are a total of 333 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The three lives of Cate Kay"
Star rating for The three lives of Cate Kay
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she's one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn't really exist. She's never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now. As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes...
Book cover for "Blue sisters"
Star rating for Blue sisters
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family, from the acclaimed author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein. The three Blue sisters are exceptional - and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a...
Book cover for "Martyr!"
Star rating for Martyr!
Author:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum."-- Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother's plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father's life in America was circumscribed by his work...
Book cover for "Natural beauty"
Star rating for Natural beauty
Average Rating:
2.8 stars
Description:
"In this sly, surprising, and razor-sharp debut novel, a virtuoso pianist gives up her future as a musician to work at a high-end wellness store in New York City where the pursuit of beauty comes at a staggering cost. Our narrator is the youngest student at the Conservatory. She produces a sound from the piano no one else does, employing a special technique she learned from her parents-also stunningly talented musicians-who fled China in the wake...
Book cover for "Chain-gang all-stars"
Star rating for Chain-gang all-stars
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"The explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black, about two top women gladiators fighting for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising...
Book cover for "The librarian of burned books"
Star rating for The librarian of burned books
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
For fans of The Rose Code and The Paris Library, The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.
Book cover for "We are water"
Star rating for We are water
Author:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Anna Oh, a middle-age wife, mother and artist, divorces her husband after 27 years of marriage to marry Vivica, the Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her professional success.
Book cover for "You made a fool of death with your beauty"
Star rating for You made a fool of death with your beauty
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
"It's been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she's almost a new person now-an artist with her own studio, and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it's time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn't ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical...
Book cover for "The night watch"
Star rating for The night watch
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
A tale set in World War II London finds a rescue worker struggling for composure after a bombing, a young woman longing for her soldier lover, and a convict who watches a battle through the bars of his window.
Book cover for "The paying guests"
Star rating for The paying guests
Average Rating:
3.4 stars
Description:
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.
Book cover for "Call me by your name"
Star rating for Call me by your name
Series:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
The sudden and powerful attraction between a teenage boy and a summer guest at his parents' house on the Italian Riviera has a profound and lasting influence that will mark them both for a lifetime.
Book cover for "Lawn boy"
Star rating for Lawn boy
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"Mike Muñoz is a young Mexican American not too many years out of high school--and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew. Though he tries time and again to get his foot on the first rung of that ladder to success, he can't seem to get a break. But then things start to change for Mike, and after a raucous, jarring, and challenging trip, he finds he can finally see the future and his place in it."--

13. Cackle

Book cover for "Cackle"
Star rating for Cackle
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"A darkly funny, frightening novel about a young woman learning how to take what she wants, from a witch who might be too good to be true. All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. She's stunned by how perfect and picturesque the town is. The people are all friendly...
Book cover for "A little life"
Star rating for A little life
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE
A...
Book cover for "The color purple"
Star rating for The color purple
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
The lives of two sisters--Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a Southern woman married to a man she hates--are revealed in a series of letters exchanged over thirty years. "Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence"--Back cover.
Book cover for "On earth we're briefly gorgeous"
Star rating for On earth we're briefly gorgeous
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"[A] portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born--a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam--and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable...
Book cover for "The life and death of Sophie Stark"
Star rating for The life and death of Sophie Stark
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
An unapologetic filmmaker uses the stories of those around her to create movies that bring her both critical acclaim and ire from the people whose secrets she has exposed.
Book cover for "The absolutist"
Star rating for The absolutist
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
It is September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a
train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the
sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great
War.
But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's
visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage
to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of
what to him...
Book cover for "Southernmost"
Star rating for Southernmost
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"When an evangelical preacher in Tennessee offers shelter to two gay men after a catastrophic flood, he's met with resistance by his wife and congregation, and eventually loses custody of his son. He decides to kidnap his son and flee to Key West, where he suspects his estranged gay brother is living"--
Book cover for "The sweetness of water"
Star rating for The sweetness of water
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
"In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. The Walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers to work their farm, hoping through an unexpected friendship to stanch their grief. Prentiss and Landry, meanwhile, plan to save money for the journey north and a chance to reunite with their mother,...