If you love a found family/chosen family trope, this list is for you! It's mostly made up of BIPOC and queer stories to help you diversify your reading.
Sections
7
Romance
Sci Fi
Fiction
Fantasy
Memoir
Dystopian
Romance
a sapphic rom-com!
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
queer YA romance! Ghosts! Day of the Dead!
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Child witches! Magic! Romance! A cozy mansion!
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Sci Fi
My favorite sci-fi novel! Octavia Butler is the BEST.
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
A smart and surprising novel following friends at a British boarding school
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The YEARNING in this! The tension!
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Fiction
devastating (but great) queer lit fic about a multiracial friend group post-college.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A cozy and quirky story about not fitting in
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: Reese's Book Club: A Novel
witchcraft! field hockey!
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
A sometimes dark but deeply human story about cults, family, and friendship.
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
An entertaining thriller about the toxic masculinity of the gaming industry.
We Are Watching Eliza Bright by A.E. Osworth
A charming, funny story about a grumpy old man in Sweden
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Similar to A Man Called Ove! If you like one, you'll like the other.
All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle
An anti-colonialist heist novel!
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
A smart, feel-good, feminist novel set in a small village in India.
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
A dark academia murder mystery!
The Likeness by Tana French
A smart novel about the complexities of trans identity and parenthood.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Lit fic/coming of age about friendship and video games
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
An intimate story about a young queer woman in the modeling industry
Body Grammar by Jules Ohman
A light and funny murder mystery about an older Chinese-American busybody.
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Fantasy
non-binary historical fantasy set in 14th century China
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
A wholesome and witty fantasy with magical creatures
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Dark academia/historical fantasy about colonialism and privilege
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang
Memoir
A lovely, funny, and insightful memoir following a young woman and the lessons she learns about romance and friendship
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir by Dolly Alderton
Is anyone cooler than Patti Smith?
Just Kids by Patti Smith
A story of nature and faith and finding yourself
Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand by Jeff Chu
Dystopian
A dystopian zombie satire following a pandemic. This one is so smart.
Severance by Ling Ma
dystopian novel set in the US after a mysterious illness wipes out a big chunk of the population
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
A fun and funny zombie novel where the leads are all animals.
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
An intense, violent, mildly dystopian novel about our criminal justice system.
Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Historical Fiction
queer story of old hollywood! a fun gossipy beach read.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel
Historical fiction about a group of best friends in 1970s Uruguay, where it's illegal to be a lesbian.
Cantoras by Caro De Robertis
A beautiful story of friendship set during the AIDs epidemic. Pulitzer Prize finalist!
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Witty and charming historical fiction set during 1930s Russia
