15 New Queer Books Out in August 2025

Three Parties by Ziyad Saadi (August 26)

Queer Palestinian refugee Firas Dareer has planned his 23rd birthday party meticulously, setting it up to be his opportunity to come out to his friends and family. But despite his best efforts, things are already falling apart, with several scandals amongst the guests threatening to overshadow his day—and that’s not to mention the love triangle he’s currently in. This novel takes place over the course of a single day, a la Mrs. Dalloway.

Extinction Capital of the World: Stories by Mariah Rigg (August 5)

This collection of short stories traces generations of characters living in Hawai’i, including a bittersweet summer romance between two teen girls who are the only ones their age on a tiny island and a story of a professional kayaker for falls for his Soviet competitor. I would recommend reading this slowly, spacing out the stories. They’re well written, thoughtful, and often melancholic. Learn more about “the extinction capital of the world” while immersing yourself in this memorable collection.

The Build-a-Boyfriend Project by Mason Deaver (August 5)

The author of I Wish You All the Best, among many others, is back with a new trans adult romance. Eli is stuck in an assistant job at an online magazine when he wants to be a writer. After he goes on a disastrous first date with Peter, his boss suggests Eli teach Peter how to be a boyfriend in a series of fake dates so he can write about it. Eli has a plan to make this into a much more interesting article, but as he fake dates Peter, he begins to fall for him.

The Secret Crush Book Club by Karmen Lee (August 26)

A Black sapphic bookish romance? Yes please! The author of The 7-10 Split and The Relationship Mechanic is back with the third book in the Peach Blossom series. Zoey came to Peach Blossom to start a job as a librarian and do research on her book—she wasn’t expecting to meet Dani, a single mother in her book club. Dani has been wholly focused on raising her son, but as the connection between her and Zoey deepens, she’ll have to decide if she’s ready to start a new chapter in her life.

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch (August 26)

This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May (August 26)

One pattern I’ve seen in queer lit this year is gothics, and I’m here for it. I especially can’t resist a sapphic gothic like this one. Thora is a widow looking to start a new life studying botany at a prestigious university. There, she is intrigued by a woman tending to the garden beneath her window at night. She learns that Olea has an ailment that keeps her confined to the garden, and as their relationship intensifies, Thora becomes obsessed with finding a cure. Tanya Pell, author of Her Wicked Roots, calls this a “queer fairy tale of toxic romance that echoes with longing.”

Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin (August 5)

This historical horror novel is giving Midsommar/Night Film vibes. Ellen is a closeted lesbian living in New York who spends her time working on film restoration. But her life is changed forever when she’s presented with a print of an exploitation film originally thought to be destroyed during the Holocaust. In the face of the occult imagery and queer practices Ellen witnesses on the tape, Ellen is forced to confront her own sexuality. What’s more, the more time she spends watching the film, the more she becomes convinced that it’s all real. —Emily Martin

A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper (August 12)

First off, that cover is perfectly creepy. This horror novel follows Carmen and Blanca, who are getting bored of their kinky sex life, until they discover a play called The King in Yellow. Reading it will drive you mad, but sample just a few pages and you’ll experience euphoria. As they play on the razor’s edge between pleasure and the void, Carmen starts to yearn to escape into the world of the play. Queer Lovecraftian erotica horror? Why not!

The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ran, translated by Gene Png (August 12)

This Korean bestseller is now available in English! When police officer Su-Yeon learns that four elderly people have died from jumping out a sixth story window at a hospital, she takes the case personally: Grandma Eun-Shim lives on that floor, and Su-Yeon is determined to stop her from facing the same fate. The rest of the police force dismisses the deaths as suicides, but as Su-Yeon investigates, she meets Violette, who claims to be a vampire hunter looking for her ex-girlfriend, Lily. When the next body is found drained of blood, Su-Yeon begins to believe Violette. It’s a vampire murder mystery!

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (August 12)

Chuck Tingle is making a name for himself not just in the erotica/romance world (see I’m Gay For My Living Billionaire Jet Plane), but also the horror genre. He’s following up Camp Damascus and Bury Your Gays with Lucky Day, which is set in the aftermath of the Low-Probability Event: a day where eight million people died in seemingly unrelated freak accidents. Vera, a bisexual statistics and probability professor, is teaming up with Special Agent Layne to investigate an inexplicably lucky casino which might explain that event—and could be the key to prevent it from happening again.

The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood and Boyfriends by Jamie D’Amato (August 26)

More vampires! Brennan is having trouble adjusting to university, partly because of his mental health struggles, and partly because he just got turned into a vampire. When he’s caught drinking from a blood bag by the cute librarian, Cole, he thinks it’s over for him. But Cole surprises him by keeping his secret, and sparks fly between them. When a series of “animal attacks” spread across campus, though, Brennan has to confront the local vampire clan and decide what kind of person he wants to be now that he has fangs. This promises to be Heartstopper meets Buffy!

Roar of the Lambs by Jamison Shea (August 26)

I loved Jamison Shea’s sapphic YA horror book I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me so much that I knew I’d have to read anything they wrote next. Roar of the Lambs is a bi4bi apocalyptic YA thriller with a genderqueer main character. Winnie is a teen psychic who lies to clients at the oddities shop to give them reassuring readings—they pay better that way. When she finds a box made of bone in the ashes of her childhood home, it shows her a vision of an apocalyptic future—one where she and two rich kids, Apollo and Cyrus Rathbun, are at the center. Together, she and Apollo investigate what Apollo’s cousin Cyrus is up to, and how they can prevent the box’s prophecy from coming true.

This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux (August 19)

Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs (August 19)

This isn’t just another biography about James Baldwin, acclaimed writer and civil rights activist. In Baldwin: A Love Story, Nicholas Boggs set out to explore James Baldwin’s life and works through his intimate relationships: his mentor, the painter Beauford Delaney; Lucien Happersberger, a Swiss painter who was Baldwin’s lover and muse; and his collaborators, actor Engin Cezzar and the French artist Yoran Cazac. “From the very beginning,” Boggs writes that he knew this book was “a love story.” —Emily Martin

Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color by Denne Michele Norris with Electric Literature (August 12)

Just what it says on the tin! This anthology of essays by trans and gender non-conforming writers of color explores “stories of joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery” from a nonbinary molecular biologist, a star of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and even the inimitable author Akwaeke Emezi. With this and So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro De Robertis, 2025 is a good year for trans nonfiction.