We’re switching up the way we do our most anticipated LGBTQ books lists here at Autostraddle. Instead of doing them roughly quarterly or seasonally like we’ve done in the past, we’re going to do them monthly! That’s right: Every month on the first, you can expect a brand new preview of all the queer books set to come out in the coming weeks. The multi-month guides were becoming too big to handle, and that’s a great “problem” to have! It simply means there are so many queer books coming outevery single month. In addition to a change of schedule, we’re also introducing a new section of these lists where we pick a handful of our TOP most anticipated titles for that month, followed then by the rest of the month’s schedule. So, without further ado, here are our top picks for most anticipated queer books for February 2025!
Autostraddle’s Top Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books for February 2025
A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States, by multiple authors (February 1, Nonfiction)
Edited by Carolyn Wolf-Gould, Dallas Denny, Jamison Green, and Kyan Lynch and featuring over 40 authors, this is the most comprehensive history of trans healthcare ever written. It comes out today, and we feel like it’s an especially important text to highlight during this time of widespread and coordinated efforts to not just prevent access to life-saving healthcare but to also paint these procedures and medicine as harmful and violent. As this book proves, trans medicine and gender-affirming care are not new. “The book argues that in many cultures, transgender people were celebrated and revered, until those cultures came into contact with Western influence,” writes the 19th. Indeed, gender nonconformity has always existed.
Reading the Waves, by Lidia Yuknavitch (February 3, Memoir)
The author of Kristen Stewart’s favorite book The Chronology of Water is back with a memoir that examines the power of literature to reframe traumatic and difficult memories. It’s about art and storytelling’s abilities to transform, and listen, I would read pretty much anything Lidia Yuknavitch writes —and you should, too.
Mutual Interest, by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (February 4, Historical Fiction)
Set at the turn of the 20th century, this novel promises a different kind of queer love story and a sprawling tale of capitalism. Clandestine lesbian Vivian works her way into NYC’s upper crust and sets her sights on Oscar, an up-and-coming businessman with a successful soap business. She clocks Oscar as gay and proposes a marriage of convenience, and the two also get in bed with a man named Squire to build out Oscar’s business into a massive personal toiletries empire, Oscar and Squire becoming not only business partners but also lovers. Three scheming power gays! This definitely sounds like a fun one.
Alligator Tears, by Edgar Gomez (February 11, Memoir)
Edgar Gomez’s High-Risk Homosexual is one of my favorite queer memoirs from recent years, and I’m thrilled they’re back with another memoir promising more gay Florida shit. The memoir-in-essays reflects on the false promises of the American dream, queer love, working-class struggles, and fake teeth. I’ve been obsessed ever since I heard the title tbh.
All the Parts We Exile, by Roza Nozari (February 25, Memoir)
Roza Nozari pens this memoir about her life as a queer Muslim and Iranian woman and youngest of three daughters. The memoir braids Nozari’s mother’s story with her own and is complex in its explorations of queer identity, exploring queer Iranian histories and the transformative experience of queer spaces.
And now enjoy the rest of our most anticipated LGBTQ book picks for February 2025. As always, if we missed something, give it a shoutout in the comments!
February 4
Drag Queen Story Hour, by Tessa Quinones & Luke Shaefer, illustrated by Heather Sawyer (Children’s)
This illustrated children’s novel harnesses the magic and playfulness of drag queen story hours, beautiful displays of community and connection that have come under attack in recent years and have led to unconstitutional attempts to ban them.
The Lamb, by Lucy Rose (Horror)
I mean, this cover alone! This literary horror novel is about Margot and Mama, who live in a cottage and take in “strays,” people who have strayed too far from the road. Mama treats them to warmth and wine and then eats them. That’s right! A queer cannibalism novel! Coming out the same month Yellowjackets returns! Kismet!
Under the Same Stars, by Libba Bray (Historical Fiction)
A sprawling historical mystery, Under the Same Stars has three interconnected settings: 1940s Germany, 1980s West Germany, and 2020 New York City. In the 1980s timeline, American teen transplant Jenny falls for punk-rock Lena. The book blends romance, mystery, and historical fiction.
Fearless and Free, by Josephine Baker (Memoir)
You read that correctly! Josephine Baker’s life in her own words. Thrillingly, Baker’s memoir —originally published in France in 1949 —is being published in English for the first time ever. Learn all about one of history’s most famous bisexuals in her intimate telling of her own life.
Why on Earth: An Alien Invasion Anthology, edited by Rosiee Thor and Vania Stoyanova (Sci-Fi)
Queer characters —including humans and aliens! —populate some of the stories featured in this multi-author collection of literally out of this world fiction.
The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture From the Margins to the Mainstream, by Jon Savage (Nonfiction)
Perhaps someone should purchase this history of pop music from 1955 through 1979 that specifically looks at the queer influences and roots of the genre for Jojo Siwa.
The Trial Period, by Auburn Morrow (YA Romance)
A contemporary YA sapphic romance, The Trial Period promises some of the most beloved tropes of the genre, including fake-dating, slow-burn, and enemies-to-lovers romance. So if those are your jam, this probably will be, too!
Queer Lasting: Ecologies of Care for a Dying World, by Sarah Ensor (Non-Fiction)
I’ve never smashed the preorder button faster than I did for this book. As climate increasingly becomes the only thing I can think about, I’ve been obsessed with studying queer ecology, so this book couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for me personally!!! Author Sarah Ensor “turns to two periods of queer extinction for models of care, continuance, and collective action predicated on futurelessness: the 1890s, in which existing forms of erotic affiliation were extinguished through the binary of homo/heterosexuality, and the 1980s, in which the spread of the AIDS epidemic threatened the total loss of gay lives and of specific erotic ways of life.”
Cleavage: Men, Women and the Space Between Us, by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Nonfiction)
The author of the first bestselling book by a trans author pens this book that combines memoir, history, criticism, and cultural analysis. She looks at the difference between coming out as trans in 2000 and present day and has a smart and humorous approach to her examinations of gender.
This Ends in Embers, by Kamilah Cole (YA Fantasy)
Queer romantasy readers, this one is for you! But it’s also a sequel (and conclusion to a duology), so first make sure to check out So Let Them Burn.
A World Worth Saving, by Kyle Lukoff (YA Fantasy)
Jewish mythology is woven into this trans YA fantasy book set during Covid lockdown. Main character A and his friend Yarrow are dragged by their parents to weekly meetings with a transphobic group called Save Our Sons and Daughters that turns out to be run by literal demons.
Shoot the Moon, by Ava Barry (Mystery)
Protagonist Rainey spends her high school days breaking into houses Bling Ring-style with her friends, using LA’s wildfires as cover for their little acts of rebellious larceny. One day, one of those friends goes missing. Flash-forward nine years to Rainey working as a private investigator in her adult life, recently tasked with a missing persons case that ends up, naturally, connecting back to her friend Alice’s cold case.
Feb 6
Fragments of Wasted Devotion, by Mia Arias Tsang (Memoir)
Mia Arias Tsang’s debut is a genre-fluid collection of flash essays and vignettes. Mia has written for Autostraddle before, and we’re always thrilled to hype books from past contributors!
Thank You For Calling the Lesbian Line, by Elizabeth Lovatt (Nonfiction)
Elizabeth Lovatt uncovers and presents the history hidden in the pages of the Lesbian Line logbook, a log of calls from 1993 to 1998 to a telephone line for lesbians seeking connection and someone to talk with (or rant to). She reimagines the voices of the volunteers at the line and unspools the stories of these callers.
Feb 11
Loca, by Alejandro Heredia (February 11, Literary Fiction)
I’ve already heard some great things about this one from friends with galleys. Set in 1999 New York, the novel follows best friends Sal, a science nerd and book worm who hates his job, and Charo, a young mother working at a supermarket. Sal finds queer love at a gay club, and suddenly the two find themselves immersed in a whole new world and questioning the lives they’ve been prescribed to live.
But Not Too Bold, by Hache Pueyo (Horror)
We love horror novelas around here, and this one is a sapphic monster romance novella with gothic fantasy touches. Sign me the hell up!
Where Shadows Bloom, by Catherine Bakewell (YA Fantasy)
We’ve got another sapphic romantasy here, this one about a girl named Ofelia and her lady knight Lope.
It’s All Or Nothing, Vale, by Andrea Beatrix Arango (YA)
A novel in verse for young readers, It’s All Or Nothing, Vale is about young fencing prodigy Valentina Camacho struggling to recover from an accident. Vico Ortiz is narrating the audiobook!
Mountain Upside Down, by Sara Ryan (YA)
This middle grade book is about a 13-year-old girl named Alex who lives with her retired librarian grandmother and who has recently asked her best friend PJ if they could be more than friends. But it’s baby’s first long distance relationship, as PJ is set to move out of town. Meanwhile, Alex’s town is being threatened by a referendum on library funding. A book that teaches young people about young queer love and the importance of funding libraries? Y’all better buy this for all the kids in your life.
The Princess Protection Program #2: After Ever After, by Alex London (YA Fantasy)
Another LGBTQ offering for young readers, this book is about a princess who escapes her fairy tale to enter the real world.
Feb 18
Queering the Asian Diaspora: East and Southeast Asian Sexuality, Identity and Cultural Politics, by Hongwei Bao (Nonfiction)
Bringing a necessary queer lens to its work on anti-Asian racism, Asian diaspora, and Asian art, Hongwei Bao takes an anti-nationalist, feminist, decolonial approach to challenging the dominant narratives about Asian identity and culture.
Hungerstone, by Kat Dunn (Horror)
Here’s another one that grabbed my attention with its stunning cover. It’s an explicitly queer and feminist retelling of Carmilla. Between this and the recent release of a new edition of Carmilla that features edits and notes by Carmen Maria Machado, vampire literature dykes are so up.
The Girl You Know, by Ellie Gonzalez Rose (YA Thriller)
This dark academia thriller is about a young girl trying to solve her own twin sister’s murder. At the same time as she unravels disturbing secrets at the elite boarding school her sister attended, she starts falling for her roommate Claudia.
The Antlered King (The Raven’s Trade #2), by Marianne Gordon (Fantasy)
This is a follow-up to The Gilded Crown, concluding the dark fantasy duology about Hellevir, a girl who can raise the dead.
Cursebound (Faebound #2), by Saara El-Arifi (Romantasy)
Queer fantasy readers gobbled up Saara El-Arifi’s novel Faebound, about elven sisters and set in a queer-normative fantasy world. This is the second novel in the planned trilogy.
Limitless: Poetry of an Aromantic & Asexual Journey, by Patrick Bex (Poetry)
These poems track the speaker’s journey of coming into asexual and aromantic identity and community.
Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen and Girlbosses Against Liberation, by Sophie Lewis (Nonfiction)
In this text, Sophie Lewis “offers an unflinching tour of enemy feminisms, from 19th century imperial feminists and police officers to 20th century KKK feminists and pornophobes to today’s anti-abortion and TERF feminists.”
WASH, by Ebony Stewart (Poetry)
Poems of queer Black girlhood and womanhood pepper the pages of this collection, which is Ebony Stewart’s third.
February 25
Beyond Bananas and Condoms: The LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Sex Education You Never Got In School, by Dee Whitnell (Nonfiction)
LGBTQIA-inclusive sex education should not be a radical thing, and YET! As this country guts the already very bad and exclusionary sex education in schools that barely exists as is, a book like this is of the utmost importance.
On Her Terms, by Amy Spalding (Romance)
We exclusively revealed the cover and an excerpt for this book this past summer, and now it’s here! Get a taste.
The Other March Sisters, by Linda Epstein, Ally Malinenko & Liz Parker (Historical Fiction)
Meg, Beth, and Amy get their time to shine in this Little Women-inspired historical novel. It’s categorized as LGBTQ fiction, and based on the descriptions of each of the sisters in the official summary, it sounds like Beth is the fruity one.
Bea Mullins Takes a Shot, by Emily Deibert (Middle Grade)
This middle grade novel is about a seventh grade girl who joins her school’s all-girls hockey team, which ends up threatened by budget cuts. It looks cute!
Wicked Pursuit, by Katee Robert (Dark Adult Romance)
This queer, sexy, strange, fucked up (complimentary) take on Little Red Riding Hood is a novella packaged with another novella in one special release!
Cover Story, by Celia Laskey (Romance)
The author of queer novel-in-stories Under the Rainbow is back, this time with an adult romance about an anxious publicist tasked with keeping a gay starlet in the closet who she falls in love with. Drama!
Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection, by Jaime Hernandez (Graphic Novel)
A book born of Jaime Hernandez’s popular Love and Rockets comics, Life Drawing pulls together two generations of his beloved characters in one sprawling story of infidelity, sisterhood, love, interpersonal drama, humor, and more.
Big Name Fan, by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare (Romance)
Actresses Bexley Simon and Sam Farmer played detectives on TV five years ago, and despite hunger from their fans who shipped not only the characters but the real women behind them, their chemistry on screen and off went unfulfilled. Now it’s time for a reunion special that brings Bex and Sam back together as hosts of a rewatch podcast. Big Name Fan is a sapphic romance all about fan culture.
