lesbian authors are paving the way when it comes to gender and boundaries, writing dark, toxic love stories and unsavory female leads.
As you look at lesbian novels and published art by lesbian authors, you see the darkest types of gothic fiction, as well as the brightest dedications to love and kindness.
You are reading: Lesbian books to read
Whatever genre you love, from historical fiction to sea monster tales, and love crossing time and space, there’s something here for you.
essential lesbian novels
some of these lesbian novels are dark and twisted; others are celebrations of queer love in the face of patriarchy. some are translated from other languages; others are forging new paths for hackneyed genres.
What unites them all is their sheer quality. These are essential lesbian novels written by some of today’s best writers.
our wives under the sea by julia armfield
julia armfield caused quite a stir with her first collection of short stories, salt slow. when she followed it up with an amazing work of modern gothic fiction in our wives under the sea, it quickly became clear just how special her writing really is.
our women under the sea is a gothic tale told from two perspectives; and one that explores the concepts of loss and grief from a frighteningly original angle.
leah, miri’s wife, embarked on an expedition to the bottom of the sea in a small submarine. What should have been weeks turned into months, and when Leah finally came back, it was different.
Leah’s chapters mix the Lovecraftian with the Kafkaesque as we slowly sink in with her and see what lies beneath it all.
Miri’s chapters follow her as she tries to live with the returned and broken Leah, but doesn’t take care of her. a new leah who barely speaks and behaves in strange and frightening ways.
miri is grieving the loss of her wife, confronted with the fact that all that has returned is not leah.
This is a lesbian novel that forces the reader to confront the idea of grief and how it might present itself. is a story of love, loss, loneliness and isolation. a truly original gothic novel.
watch our full video review of our wives under the sea
according to sappho by selby wynn schwartz
after sappho is the novelization of a web of interconnected lives: early 20th century queer women who propelled feminism and queer experiences into the spotlight.
This is one of the kindest, most hopeful and inspiring lesbian novels you will ever read and enjoy.
We started in italy before tracing multiple threads through france, england, ireland and even the united states. the women here were all real: artists, writers, actresses, philosophers, and travelers.
some you may be familiar with; others you won’t. they were all inspired by sappho and in turn inspired each other to move, take action, shake the world and turn the status quo on its head.
These are women who did not conform to gender roles and expectations, who loved other women, who spoke to and inspired the women and queer people around them.
the novel is narrated disorderly, in small vignettes that go through these lives over and over again; we move through time and across borders to paint a picture of change, growth and love. beautiful, cool and perfect.
milk fed by melissa broder
melissa broder leads the charge for unsavory leads and difficult characters, especially among female writers.
Historically, men are allowed to be nasty. nobody flinches when the male characters behave in an unpleasant way; And yet, Melissa Broder arouses a lot of bad feelings in certain readers by simply making her women complex, broken, selfish, aloof, and difficult.
After the success of piscis, she brought us milk feed, one of the most daring and original lesbian novels of recent years.
The protagonist of Milk Fed is Rachel, a young Jewish woman from New Jersey who lives in Los Angeles and works at a talent agency while spending her nights doing monologues.
Rachel has a lot of issues with her mom that have instilled in her a crippling lifelong obsession with counting calories and managing weight.
Soon, Rachel meets Miriam: an overweight Orthodox Jewish woman who loves food and loves her family. She’s everything Rachel isn’t, and she soon becomes Rachel’s unhealthy obsession.
rachel lusts after miriam, is inspired by her attitude towards life and builds fantasies of sexual desire around her.
fed with milk is one of the most daring and exciting lesbian novels of recent years.
Watch our full milk feeding video review
paradise rot by jenny hval
translated from norwegian by marjam idriss
Written by internationally acclaimed Norwegian musician Jenny Hval, Paradise Rot is a short, visceral and sensual novel about desire, temptation and the human body.
textured, noisy, rough and raw, paradise rot obsesses over the beautiful and gross aspects of the female form: what it’s made of, what it creates, how it thrives and how it decomposes.
Our protagonist is a young Norwegian named jo who has just moved to a new country to attend university. she moves into a converted brewery and lives with a local woman.
This shared space has no real borders; flimsy plywood walls create half-formed rooms and the secret is non-existent.
These women become obsessed with each other, give in to temptation, become jealous and sexually aroused in the company of others.
This novel is alive, engaging the senses and demanding your attention, even as it behaves in an endearingly rude and rude manner. a truly addictive lesbian novel.
li kotomi solo dance
translated from the japanese by arthur reiji morris
Few lesbian novels are as successful as solo dancing. Written by Taiwan-born, Japan-based author Li Kotomi, the solo dance follows a similar lead. cho norie grew up in taiwan and went to tokyo to get a master’s degree, learn the language and get a job.
However, norie is horribly depressed, traumatized, and obsessed with death. she reads the works of novelists who took their own lives and struggles to hide her sexuality for fear of being harassed.
As a child, Norie lost a friend. in college, she suffered abuse. Now, as an adult working for a company in Tokyo, she struggles with everyday life as a lesbian immigrant in Japan.
If you are a queer person who has ever experienced (or feared) abuse, you will relate a lot to norie and her experiences. you will find in her a companion, and perhaps even a catharsis through how she fights, grows and lives.
Solo Dance is not an easy book to read, but it is extremely rewarding. illuminates, especially for cishet readers, the eggshells that lgbtq+ people walk on every day. it also leans towards hope in the third act, but you have to go through a lot to get there.
finally, queer readers who have dealt with depression and anxiety will find in norie a friend and companion. solo dance is one of the best lesbian novels you have ever read. thank you li kotomi.
night shift by kiare ladner
On the night shift, author Kiare Ladner paints a stark picture of London in the late 1990s.
This is one of the dirtiest and most twisted lesbian novels you’re likely to read; Fiercely literary and often somber, The Night Shift will twist you as you become increasingly obsessed with its characters and their lives.
Our protagonist is Meggie, a young woman who presumes to be heterosexual until she falls into an obsessive and unhealthy friendship with the sexy Belgian Sabine.
meggie works night shifts and spends most of her days with her boyfriend, graham, but sabine constantly shows meggie a different side of london, work and life.
and meggie is happy to join her as she questions and explores her sexuality.
sabine represents possibility, mystery, new experiences and a new way for meggie to spend her days. she is intoxicating and illuminating. She is everything Meggie didn’t know she wanted to be, she could be and still could be.
night shift is one of the hardest, rawest and most punk lesbian novels of today.
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frannie langton’s confessions by sara collins
The Confessions of Frannie Langton is one of the most daring and beautiful lesbian novels.
sara collins debut novel is an homage to goth classics while also representing a brilliant and exciting new direction for the goth genre as it places a black lesbian front and center.
This is a work of genre fiction that gives readers everything they could want: a tantalizing mystery, an epic story of freedom and love, a thrilling historical setting, a tribute to the brontës, and a tragic love story. lesbian starring goth. the first black female protagonist in fiction.
The titular Frannie Langton was born on a plantation in Jamaica, where she learns to read and write. she from there she moves to london and works in the house of a rich couple.
however, after falling in love with mrs. Benham, they put her on trial for her murder.
but she did? this is her story; These are Frannie Langton’s confessions.
this is how the time war is lost by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone
a beautifully lyrical abstract sapphic love story unfolding through unique letters sent through time and space.
Two rival agents named Red and Blue come from opposing sides of warring factions from a war in time and fall in love throughout this novel.
this is how you waste your time war is very poetic and might not be for you if you prefer structured plot and world building, but this unstructured approach lends itself well to emphasizing the fractured longing and tenderness between these two agents.
See Also: How to Publish A Children&039s Book in 2022 (6 Simple Steps)
Co-writing this is how you lose the time war also means that the two agents have very different voices and personalities, which makes their love all the more endearing.
last night at malinda lo’s telegraph club
Winning multiple awards, this beloved and moving lesbian novel is set in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1954, during the Red Alert, when openly exploring queerness is not an option.
the protagonist, lily, secretly gathers photos of women with masculine qualities and is attracted to the “unfeminine”. She wears her clothes and interests, and gradually recognizes her lesbianism with her budding connection to Kathleen Miller, a white classmate.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club seamlessly incorporates cultural landmarks and places with Chinese-American historical significance along with a beautiful and moving sapphic love story.
Inclusion of Mandarin and Cantonese languages in the text with footnote translations was also a nice touch.
the adventures of china iron by gabriela cabezón camera
translated from Spanish by fiona mackintosh and iona macintyre
In the great library of lesbian novels, there has never been such a glorious and unbridled celebration of queer love.
the adventures of iron loza is an Argentine novel that laughs at patriarchy and heteronormativity. it’s a wild and wonderful ride from start to finish.
The titular porcelain is still young, but it has seen many tragedies. she was married and then dumped by a singer. she gave birth at the age of fourteen and delivered the children to her. now, her story begins again.
At the beginning of the novel, China meets Liz, a Scottish woman exploring the Argentine plains. the two quickly fall deeply in love and embark on a wild ride together.
the adventures of china iron celebrates lesbian love, sex and intimacy. she ignores the touch of men and shows the reader how beautiful and alive queer love is.
Few lesbian novels were written to be enjoyed so much without guilt. what a work of art.
read our full written review of the adventures of china iron
alice walker’s purple color
Currently the only work featuring a lesbian relationship written by a Pulitzer-winning woman, this epistolary novel is a true classic spanning twenty years of the life of the protagonist Celie.
is an important and beautifully written novel that can be hard to read at times because of the subject matter, while explicitly a purple lesbian novel it also addresses race, class, gender, sexual assault, domestic abuse, religion and the south at the beginning of the 20th century.
told through a series of letters to ‘god’ (and later to her sister nettie in africa), celie is fourteen at the start of the novel and is being physically and sexually abused by her father; he is desperately trying to protect her from her. sister of a similar fate.
We later learn of the events of celie’s abusive forced marriage to “sir” and also her developing relationship with shug, the mister’s mistress, who shows her love and intimacy for the first time.
It is a very human book that will definitely stay with you.
sarah waters blacksmith
One of the most popular sarah waters novels for good reason, the twists and turns in this book just won’t let up and just when you think you have an idea of what’s going on, the rug is pulled out from under you.
if you have seen the maiden of park chan’wook movie, which is based on fingersmith, and you think you will be prepared for the events of this novel, don’t be fooled, the movie deviates a lot from the book at the end of first part.
This is an addictive read and never feels slow despite being a larger novel. Protagonist Sue Trinder is raised by a group of con artists in Victorian London and becomes involved in a scheme to steal a fortune from a wealthy single woman named Maud Lilly.
However, things are never as simple as they seem.
if you like historical fiction or just want a lesbian novel with endless backstabbing, revenge and unexpected twists, fingersmith is the one for you.
one last casey mcquiston stop
from the author of the successful red, white & royal blue, we have another light-hearted and witty romance novel that successfully captures the effervescent energy of meeting someone for the first time and knowing they’re you.
Unfortunately, when August meets Jane on the subway, it’s not an easy romance as Jane is displaced in time from the 1970s and August has to help her.
the interesting concept of one last stop offers a lot of insight into historical queer culture in the united states during the 70’s and keeps you hooked as you get more and more involved in a happy ending for these cute lovers.
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tipping the velvet by sarah waters
A list of lesbian books wouldn’t be complete without another offering from sarah waters, much loved as fingersmith, tipping the velvet is another historical novel set in the late victorian period.
The setting of this novel is delightful, treating us to an imaginary underworld of lesbian cabaret as we follow Nancy from the sleepy seaside town of Whistable to London as she chases her lover Kitty.
This book has a real sense of place, and it’s hard not to be fully present in the world Sarah is creating, even if you’re not fully interested in the characters who can be off-putting at times.
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