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Happy Pride Month everyone! We hope that you are staying safe and well as well as being able to celebrate yourselves and your identity through June! Here at Fuzzable, we love reading so for Pride Month, we wanted to put together a series of lists for you so that you can see yourself within the pages of a book! And, this list features books that have trans or non-binary characters in.
1) I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver (Non-Binary)
When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they’re thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents’ rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist and try to keep a low profile in a new school.
But Ben’s attempts to survive the last half of senior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan Allan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. As Ben and Nathan’s friendship grows, their feelings for each other begin to change, and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life.
“I Wish You All The Best” is truly a stunning coming of age novel about coming to terms with yourself and your identity as well as having themes of friendship and what the word family truly means. Ben is an incredible main character who has a horrific thing happen to them but keeps fighting and builds all these wonderful relationships with the people around them as well as learning how to heal in the process.
This book is truly a life changer especially for those who are wrestling with their own identities and accepting themselves. We promise that you will come out of this book a different person than when you went in especially if you are or think you may be non-binary of have people around you that are non-binary who you want to help but don’t know how to!
“I Wish You All The Best” is also an own voices novel as the author is non-binary!
2) Anger Is A Gift by Mark Oshiro (Trans and Non-Binary)
Six years ago, Moss Jefferies’ father was murdered by an Oakland police officer. Along with losing a parent, the media’s vilification of his father and lack of accountability has left Moss with near crippling panic attacks. Now, in his sophomore year of high school, Moss and his fellow classmates find themselves increasingly treated like criminals by their own school. New rules. Random locker searches. Constant intimidation and Oakland Police Department stationed in their halls. Despite their youth, the students decide to organize and push back against the administration.
When tensions hit a fever pitch and tragedy strikes, Moss must face a difficult choice: give in to fear and hate or realize that anger can actually be a gift.
“Anger Is A Gift” is a truly harrowing novel that has some really heavy discussions around police brutality in America as well as what it’s like being a black teenager in America so is definitely a book that is worth reading. As well as having and shining a light on these important conversations that are very poignant especially with what is going on in America at the moment, it also talks about the importance of friendship and family through horrific times.
Although our main character is cis, there is a whole cast of characters in this book including a trans character and a non-binary character who are very much at the forefront of the book as well as the whole cast being people of colour. There is also gay representation, bisexual rep, lesbian rep, asexual rep and a disabled character so there is hopefully somebody that everyone will be able to see themselves in.
Again, the author themselves is also non-binary so it’s another own voices novel for non-binary representation.
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
3) Girl Made Of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake (Non-Binary/Genderqueer)
Mara and Owen are about as close as twins can get. So when Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn’t know what to think. Can the brother she loves really be guilty of such a violent crime? Torn between the family she loves and her own sense of right and wrong, Mara is feeling lost, and it doesn’t help that things have been strained with her ex-girlfriend and best friend since childhood, Charlie.
As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie navigate this new terrain, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits in her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.
As I’m sure you can tell from the description, “Girl Made of Stars” does deal with the topic of rape and sexual assault so made sure you tread carefully if this is something that will trigger you! But, “Girl Made of Stars” is truly an incredible, harrowing novel not only about rape culture but about identity and finding yourself. It is a book that threads multiple plot lines within it’s under 300 pages but the novel never feels convoluted and everything is talked about in a sensitive manor.
One of the main plot lines is about our main character Mara and her ex girlfriend Charlie’s struggle with identity. Mara identifies as bisexual and is caught between her ex girlfriend and one of her friends who is a boy so it talks about being bisexual and no matter if you end up in a relationship with someone of the same sex or the opposite sex, you’re still bisexual. Whereas Charlie is struggling with whether she is a woman. Through the novel she talks about being genderqueer but by the end of the novel becomes comfortable with the term non-binary whilst still using she/her pronouns which is also important because people think that everyone who is non-binary uses they/them but some feel more comfortable using she/her or he/him.
This book is really emotional and hard to read but is also threaded with signs of hope and loving yourself for who you are!
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
4) I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman (Trans)
For Angel Rahimi, life is only about one thing: The Ark – a pop-rock trio of teenage boys who are currently taking the world by storm. Being part of The Ark’s fandom has given her everything – her friendships, her dreams, her place in the world. Jimmy Kaga-Ricci owes everything to The Ark too. He’s their frontman – and playing in a band is all he’s ever dreamed of doing. It’s just a shame that recently everything in his life seems to have turned into a bit of a nightmare.
Because that’s the problem with dreaming – eventually, inevitably, real life arrives with a wake-up call. And when Angel and Jimmy are unexpectedly thrust together, they will discover just how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be.
“I Was Born For This” is a heartwarming novel that focuses on the struggles of being in the public eye as well as exploring fandom and the things that go on within fandom and how people really rely on things their a fan of to help them keeping going during the day. The relationships explored throughout this novel between Angel and her internet best friend who she meets for the first time, the members of The Arc, the fandom and the band as well as the friendship between Jimmy and Angel are really interesting and feel very authentic and real. One thing Alice Oseman is known for is how perfectly she can write platonic soulmates and that again is proven in this novel with Angel and Jimmy.
Jimmy’s struggles with his anxiety are really hard to read at some points but that’s because they truly feel so real. You really feel for him and want to help him as well as his bandmate, Lister, who you will definitely fall for, you want to help him through the problems he is also facing. As well as his anxiety, we also see Jimmy and his struggles of being trans when being in the limelight. It’s a truly beautiful novel that should be on everyone’s radar!
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
5) Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (Trans)
Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle….
But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.
“Felix Ever After” is another novel that deals with some heavy topics such as transphobia and blackmail so be cautious of that going in. But, it is a novel that everyone should be reading it’s such an incredibly heart breaking but also heartwarming book about identity, true love and finding the love that you truly deserve.
Felix is an incredible character that you can tell the author really put themselves out there for and his story is so hard to read in some places but it also gives you hope and educates you on the issues that transgender people face daily when it comes to their identity and how they are treated by society. It’s raw and emotional yet beautiful, everything is handled with complete care and the love story is beautiful and this novel is definitely one that should be on your to read list!
“Felix Ever After” is another own voices novel as the author is trans!
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Check out another list of LGBTQIAP+ Books we did here!
