Coming out can be a hard task for many LGBTQ+ youths and adults. There are highs and lows to the few words shared with people we care about. These five queer fall reads will explore the historical experiences of those in the LGBTQ+ community as well as gripping fiction, metafiction, and thrills.
1. My Government Means to Kill Me – Rasheed Newson
The year is 1985, and Earl Singleton III, who prefers the name Trey, fled his wealthy family in Indianapolis for the grittier life in Manhattan.
This read is written as a fictional memoir, with bits and pieces of historical figures and footnotes for any history buff to appreciate. It’s an audacious ride through the sordid sanctuary of AIDS, sex, activism, and liberation in this New York era.
2. Real Bad Things – Kelly J. Ford
This southern noir is about a woman who, twenty-five years before, confessed to a murder. Her abusive stepfather had it coming. However, authorities never found the body, so no conviction was made.
However, now the human remains are found, and Jane returns to Arkansas, her small town, to atone for her crime and have other secrets spill over.
3. Luda – Grant Morrison
Ready for a paradigm shift? This dense metafiction is full of thrills with this rhapsody about a drag queen with a flair for mystical encounters with an innocent young individual, who they decide to mentor in the dark arts of seduction.
4. A Minor Chorus – Billy-Ray Belcourt
A metafiction read about a queer Cree grad student in despair who flees the academy to pursue writing a novel, “the beginning of a series of minor but purposeful reinventions.” Different encounters share queer experiences that will shape your heart.
5. The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison – Hugh Ryan
Ready for a scary prison experience? Through the eyes of Angela Davis and Andrea Dworkin, you will see how LGBTQ, specifically transmasculine people, were treated in a prison in Greenwich Village, New York.
The years reflected in this book are 1929-1974. Near the end of Christopher street near Jefferson Market Garden stood a prison, a center house for women and trans individuals. They were considered dirty, dangerous, violent, and cruel, but let’s be real- the facility was all those things.
An abolitionist read that uncovers dark truths behind bars and walls.
I hope these historical, emotional, and thrills will inspire those who fear to come out and those who enjoy LGBTQ reads that inspire truth, reality, and liberation.
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