A history of LGBTQ coming-of-age fiction (in 15 books!)

Let's start by saying this: it’s basically impossible to condense the entire history of LGBTQ YA into 15 books. It’s like trying to squash all your stuff into a suitcase before going on holiday – no matter how much you skimp and scrunch, and even sit on top of your battered old wheely number to try and zip it up, you inevitably end up having to leave out some really good stuff.

The YA, coming-of-age genre has such an amazing history of exploring love stories and relationships of all kinds, and pioneering new voices and styles, that it’s totally unsurprising that it’s been a major trailblazer in bringing a whole range of LGBTQ books to the fore and changing the landscape of LGBTQ literature across all genres and ages.

1. Maurice by E. M. Forster

English novelist E.M. Forster wrote Maurice in 1913 but it was only published after his death in 1971. It tells the story of Maurice Hall, aged 14 at the start of the book, and his experiences of same-sex love throughout university and in his early adulthood. Forster avoided publishing it during his lifetime because of public attitudes towards gay relationships. A note was found on the manuscript which said “Publishable, but worth it?”.

2. Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote

Truman Capote’s first published novel follows a 13-year-old boy called Joel who, after his mother dies, goes to live with his father in Mississippi. There, he becomes best friends with a tomboy called Idabel, and he meets his stepmother’s cousin – a plantation-owner called Randolph, who is openly gay and cross-dresses. Joel eventually meets his father and gradually gains a sense of his own identity amidst the characters at Skully’s Landing. When it was published in 1948, Other Voices, Other Rooms hit the New York Times Bestseller List.

3. Olivia by Dorothy Strachey

Dorothy Strachey was the sister of novelist Lytton Strachey, and was part of the famous Bloomsbury Group. In 1949, she anonymously published Olivia, an artful and understated novella about an English girl who is sent away to a small finishing school outside Paris, where she observes the romantic relationship between her two headmistresses. Olivia was dedicated to the memory of her friend, Virginia Woolf.

4. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

When it was published in 1973, Rubyfruit Jungle was completely game-changing due to its open portrayal of gay relationships which aren’t totally angst-inducing. Confident heroine, Molly Bolt, is comfortable in her sexuality and works hard at school to win a scholarship to the University of Florida. However, once at university, her scholarship is cut when the college authorities discover her relationship with her room mate.

5. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson’s semi-autobiographical novel is about a young girl growing up in the Pennines, who is adopted by evangelists from the Pentecostal Church. As a teenager, she finds herself falling for another girl – so her mother’s friends from church subject her to a series of exorcisms… This absolutely brilliant, darkly comical read won the Whitbread First Novel Award back in 1985.

7. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Stephen Chbosky’s coming-of-age classic, The Perks of Being a Wallflower consistently appears on the American Library Association’s list of Top 10 Most-Challenged Books. It’s an epistolary novel (a book-in-letters), from the point of view of “wallflower” Charlie, whose friend Patrick is gay – a fact which is totally accepted by all the main characters without a second thought. A beautiful, thought-provoking, empowering read.

8. Luna by Julie Ann Peters

16-year-old Regan is the only one who knows about her brother Liam’s secret: he really identifies as a girl. By night, Liam transforms into Luna, and – after several years – Luna asks Regan to help her transition into a full-time female. Regan worries about her sister’s safety and her family’s reaction but ultimately agrees to help… In 2004, Luna was the first YA novel to feature a transgender character.

9. Sugar Rush by Julie Burchill

Bringing LGBTQ YA firmly to the UK, Sugar Rush (2004) follows the life of teenager Kim, after she is forced to leave her posh school in Brighton and join the notorious local comp, where she meets a fiery new friend, Sugar. It was adapted for TV in 2005, and became a successful Channel 4 series.

10. Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson’s heartfelt story, Kiss, was published in 2007. It’s about best friends Sylvie and Carl who have referred to each other as “girlfriend and boyfriend” since they were young kids, and how their friendship shifts when Carl gets a new friend, Paul, and later confides to Sylvie that he’s gay. Like Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, it was a crucially empathetic novel which dispelled “gay best friend” stereotypes.

11. Winger by Andrew Smith

Hot on the heels of Grasshopper Jungle, Andrew Smith’s genre-bending exploration of bisexuality (and the insect apocalypse, naturally), the sensational Winger was published in 2013. It has a stellar line-up of characters, including Joey, the captain of the rugby team who also happens to be gay – a subject which is still taboo at their prestigious boarding school in Oregon. It also has a bite-my-tongue-incredible twist.

12. The Half-Bad series by Sally Green

The Half Bad trilogy places an unexpected – but completely tangible – LGBTQ love story in a contemporary world of witches, brutal authorities and white-knuckle fantasy. It refreshingly allows the gripping story to take the front seat, whilst the characters’ love is a deep, intense undercurrent that infuses the trilogy with even more jeopardy and even higher stakes. Breathtaking.

13. Hold me Closer by David Levithan

In 2010, John Green and David Levithan’s co-written Will Grayson, Will Grayson came out, and once again changed the playing field for LGBTQ YA – friendship, football, depression and live music all played their part in this novel which had at its centre one gay boy and one straight boy with the same name. Hold Me Closer (2015) is the companion novel to Will Grayson, and follows the story of the larger-than-life, camp and witty Tiny Cooper. What’s more, it’s entirely written as the script to Tiny Cooper’s musical, ‘Hold Me Closer’, which appeared at the end of Will Grayson. It’s hilarious and heartwarming – and an entirely new form and style for YA literature.

14. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

This 2015 gem brings the coming-out story into the digital age, as the eponymous Simon is outed on his high school’s Tumblr messageboard. He also falls in love over email with ‘Blue’, whose identity is a mystery beyond the fact that he attends Simon’s school – cue a rollicking, heartfelt rollercoaster of a whodunit.

15. The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

And finally! The Accident Season brings a subtle but spine-tingling gay love story into its gorgeous swells of magical realism set amidst a group of teens in Ireland. Cara and her family are deep in the throes of their annual Accident Season when, every year, they become inexplicably accident-prone (in the worst Accident Seasons of years gone by, people have died…). All the while, two of the girls in the group are falling in love. This is a beautifully-told story with magical accents that makes the future of LGBTQ coming-of-age stories look very bright indeed.