Happy Pride! We’re celebrating all month long with guest blogs from some of our favorite Flux and NSE authors offering up their top LGBTQ+ reads! First up is Emily Skrutskie, author of The Abyss Surrounds Us and The Edge of the Abyss. Check out her faves; then be sure to enter our giveaway to win a bundle of books from all of our guest author bloggers!
6 Queer YA Books I Love!
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
I recently read this one and fell head over heels for it. It’s a vicious deconstruction of one of the cornerstones of YA fantasy—that thing where we take a bunch of children to a fantasy world and train them for WAR—and on top of that, it’s an artful bisexual coming of age story with a relentlessly sharp voice.
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
Intricate, lovely, and so, so thoughtful, this book delivers on its promise of feminist fantasy Snow White. While the main focus of the book is on the fraught relationship between stepmother and stepdaughter, the romance between the princess made of snow and the castle’s young female surgeon is not to be missed!
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
There’s no one I trust to break my heart with queer tragedy more than Adam Silvera. His work is delightfully, painfully human, and this book in particular shines with an intimate understanding of both the vibrancy and fragility of life.
Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee
I’m more of a Dostoyevsky girl myself, but I’m always a sucker for a good contemporary, especially one that intersects two of my keenest high school interests: Russian literature and filmmaking. Top that with a wonderful, well-thought-out asexual narrative, and you’ve got the total package.
Timekeeper by Tara Sim
Tara Sim’s work is the opposite of my own focuses in almost every way—historical, where I tend to focus on the future; fantastical, where I tend to focus on the scientific; centered on a young gay man’s journey, where I focus on young women’s. The fact that I love it so much despite those stark differences should speak to just how damn good it is.
Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
Audrey Coulthurst’s writing evokes the lush, classic YA fantasy of my teens. But with a lesbian princess falling in love with a bisexual princess, it’s like nothing that was ever available on the shelves when I was a kid, and I’m so glad teens today have it.
About Emily Skrutskie
Emily Skrutskie is six feet tall. She was born in Massachusetts, raised in Virginia, and forged in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado. She holds a BA in Performing and Media Arts from Cornell University, where she studied an outrageous and demanding combination of film, computer science, and game design. She lives and writes in Los Angeles. She is the author of three YA science fiction/fantasy novels: The Abyss Surrounds Us and The Edge of the Abyss (Flux), and Hullmetal Girls, coming July 17, 2018 from Delacorte Press. Find her online at @skrutskie on Twitter and Instagram, or on her website, skrutskie.com.
The Abyss Surrounds Us
Cassandra Leung’s been a sea monster trainer ever since 
she could walk, raising genetically engineered beast to defend ships crossing the NeoPacific … until pirates snatch her from the blood-stained decks.
The Edge of the Abyss
Eighteen-year-old Cas Leung struggles with her morality and her romantic relationship with fellow pirate Swift as she and the Minnow crew work to take down wild sea monsters, dubbed Hellbeasts, who are attacking ships and destroying the ocean ecosystem.
Stay tuned for more picks this month and happy pride, from Emily and all of us at Flux!