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Recently The New York Times put out a list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, and it’s generated a lot of discussion — including why this list is coming out in 2024. Regardless, it’s a combination of more than 500 authors’ and literary experts’ opinions on the best books of the century so far, which is an interesting idea. They then followed it up with the Readers Pick list, which is the top 100 books according to everyday NYT readers.
Of course, one question that immediately came to my mind upon seeing this list was, “How many of these books are queer? What are the best queer books of the century?” So, I’ve compiled the LGBTQIA+ books on both lists here. This is imperfect, because it’s just based on me scrolling through the lists and picking out the ones I know have queer and/or trans main characters (or a focus on queer and/or trans people, if it’s nonfiction). It’s very likely I missed something, so please let me know in the comments if you spot any oversights!
There are 14 LGBTQIA+ books in total that I spotted, so I’ve highlighted all three on both lists as well as a couple from each individual list. If you’re curious, I posted on the Book Riot Instagram what my ballot would have been, along with other Book Riot staff (including two who actually cast their ballots!) Here are the queer books I would have voted for: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom, Everfair by Nisi Shawl, Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle by Ken Monkman & Gisele Gordon, In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, and The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg. What would your picks be?
Queer Books On Both Lists
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (#16 NYT, #20 Readers Pick)
This Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel was published in 2000 and follows two Jewish cousins during the 1940s who worked in the comics industry during its Golden Age. One of the cousins, Sammy, is gay, and we follow him as he struggles to come to terms with his sexuality during a time when it was dangerous to be suspected of homosexuality. Andrew Sean Greer, the author of Less, says, “Chabon opened the doors not just for comic book nerds, but for every kind of nerd, including this gay one. Chabon’s book made me the writer I am, and I’m still dazzled by it: the century’s first masterpiece.”
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (#59 NYT, #18 Readers Pick)
As a representation of being intersex, this is a controversial book. It was published in 2002, and in many ways it was groundbreaking, but Eugenides is not intersex and did not consult with any intersex people while writing, relying solely on research. You can read Chris M. Arnone’s review, Intersex Reading Middlesex, for one perspective from an intersex reader.
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (#44 NYT, #63 Readers Pick)
It’s hard to overstate the accolades of this 2015 sci-fi series. All three books in the trilogy won the Hugo Award, making Jemisin the first author to win a Hugo Award three years in a row or for all three books in a trilogy. The series has many queer characters; Syfy names it one of the queerest SFF novels of the last decade. The New York Times says, “From its heartbreaking opening (a mother’s murdered child) to its shattering conclusion, Jemisin shows the power of what good fantasy fiction can do.”
Queer Books on the Original NYT List:
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (#32)
This 2004 novel won the Man Booker Prize. It’s told in three parts — 1983, 1986, and 1987 — as Nick Guest navigates being gay in 1980s Britain. Nick moves into a wealthy classmate’s home and soon aligns himself with this display of privilege and power, despite their politics directly contributing to the AIDS epidemic. The New York Times says, “Lust, money, literature, power: Rarely has a novel made it all seem so gorgeous, and so annihilating.”
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (#87)
This 2021 novel is one of the newest titles on the list. It follows an unconventional family: Ames, who was living as a trans woman named Amy while dating Reese and has since detransitioned; Reese, a trans woman who is Amy/Ames’s ex; and Katrina, a cis woman who is Ames’s current lover. When Katrina gets pregnant, they decide to raise the baby together. Michelle Tea says, “It got me hot, cracked me up, punched my heart with grief and understanding. I’m in awe of her abilities, and will re-read this book periodically just to remember how it’s done.”
Queer Books on the Readers Pick List:
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (#48)
This 2019 novel is told in the form of a letter from Little Dog, a young gay Vietnamese American, to his mother — who is illiterate. Vuong is a poet, so this is a beautifully written work. Book Riot writer Anne Mai Yee Jansen says, “The letters are lyrical and poignant, tracing connections across generations. It’s largely about the narrator’s queer sexuality and general outsiderness as a young Vietnamese American in a largely white community. It’s about love and loss, grief and family, colonialism and race. And it’s pretty much everything you might dream of in an epistolary novel by a poet.”
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (#90)
Published in 2020, this memoir experiments and breaks with the form of the genre: each chapter is told in a different style, including as a fairy tale, as a Choose Your Own Adventure story, as pulp fiction, and more. This combines Machado’s own experience of being in an abusive relationship with another woman with commentary and research about abusive queer relationships are depicted (or not depicted) in media.
The Rest of the Queer Books On the List:
Which queer books do you think are the best of the century so far? Let’s chat in the comments!
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