Queer Stories from 2022

2022 was a hard year for queer books and voices in libraries and schools: from attacks on Drag Queen Story Hours to the call for banning books with even a mention of homosexuality and the trans experience. To honor the voices and stories that need to be told, I wanted to highlight three queer novels released in 2022 that I read and enjoyed. This is by no means an exhaustive list nor a best-of; however, they are novels that captivated me, told a good story, and that I recommended at least 10 times after reading.

Husband Material (London Calling Book 2) by Alexis Hall (he/him)

This novel is the second in the London Calling series, the first one being Boyfriend Material, and was released Aug 02, 2022. Reading the first one is a must in order to fully enjoy this sequel and understand the dynamics between the two main characters: Luc and Oliver.

The story is structured similar to Four Weddings and a Funeral - a British romcom released in 1994 starring Hugh Grant - and even without having seen the movie, I thoroughly enjoyed the plotline. If you have seen the movie, please do not think of this as a simple gay re-imagining! The content has more depth than a romcom and makes sure to re-think the struggle in a way unique to a non-heterosexual relationship. This novel explores the “meaning” of the queer community, how two people can have two vastly differing opinions of said community, and that all versions of being queer are valid. Truly a wonderful, heart-felt romance for the winter months that still forces a tad bit of self-reflection for people in the community.

Alexis Hall is a genderqueer romance novelist who has written novels for both adults and young adults. His other works include Glitterland and Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston (she/her)

This novel was released May 03, 2022 and is a standalone, meaning there are no other novels to read in order to enjoy this bad girl. It is a teen/young adult novel that features characters in the last month of their senior year of high school.

Shara Wheeler is not the main character of this story, but she is the character featured on the cover of the book holding a pink letter. In my opinion, that was a little confusing but it explains itself by the end. Chloe Green is the main character who starts receiving the aforementioned pink letters after Shara, the girl she has been battling for valedictorian all through high school, disappears one month before graduation. What was the point of all her hard work if her opponent isn’t there to rub the win in their face?

Honestly, this is such a good-natured novel and once again, McQuiston delivers on creating a positive group of queer characters without losing any of the struggle of navigating self-discovery in religious, heterosexual, and white Alabama. She also creates two young women who are finding out that they can be so much more than “nice”.

Casey McQuiston is an author of romantic comedy, also known for her novels Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop.

Readme.txt: a memoir by Chelsea Manning (she/her)

This autobiography was released Oct 18, 2022 and tells two different types of stories at once.

I would like to preface this review with this: regardless of what your opinion is on Manning’s whistleblowing and how it was preformed, this is a very important and interesting story about being trans within and without the American military and intelligence community. In addition, learning how she came to release the information the way she did is essential to creating your opinion on the activism itself.

If you do not know what I am talking about in the prior paragraph, here is a quick rundown of main events: Chelsea Manning is a trans woman who served 3 years in the U.S. Army during the Iraq War. During what was supposed to be a short visit home in 2010, one year before the end of the War, she uploaded over 750,000 classified and/or sensitive documents to WikiLeaks. For this act of whistleblowing and activism, she spent 7 years in federal prison. Throughout all of this, Manning was deciding how to come-out as a woman.

As someone who was just starting high school in 2010, before reading this I was mostly in the dark about what actually happened with Manning. Quite honestly, I did not even know the person responsible for releasing Afghan War logs was a part of the military or trans. So, this novel gave me more of a history lesson than I was bargaining for — but I enjoyed every bit of it.

- By Kim Livingston (they/she), Information Technology Department