Christianity | Queer Books for Teens

Evil?

By Timothy Carter

Stuart’s confused why, when caught rubbing one out in the shower, his whole town turns against him, since they don’t have a problem with him being gay. It’s the demon Fon Pyre that lets him know a fallen angel has caused this madness, the two team up to send him away.

Publisher’s Description

Book of Stuart, Chapter 1:10. 10 And, yea verily, Stuart did commit the Sin of Onan in the shower. And this was witnessed by his own brother who did cry out unto their mother. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. 11 And the townspeople rose up against him and all Onaners, calling upon one another to tear the youthful sinners limb from unclean limb. And there was much pants wetting. 12 And lo, Stuart did join forces with the demon, Fon Pyre, and together they did set forth to discover the cause of the town’s trouble. 13 And, hark! A pair of fallen angels would plant seeds of hatred unto the townspeople. And on the seventh day, Stuart did vow to rip the fallen angels a new one and layeth upon them an epic smacketh-down.

Genre: Fantasy

Representation:
Gender:
Cis boys: Stuart

Sexual Orientation:
Gay/Queer: Stuart

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Stuart

Race/Ethnicity:White: Stuart

Religion
Christianity

The Evolution of Ethan Poe

By Robin Reardon

Against his will, Ethan Poe is thrust into a debate about whether intelligent design should be taught in schools. At the same time, he begins a relationship with a boy and experiments with a goth identity. In addition, his parents divorce and his brother’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic.

Publisher’s Description:

In the space of a few months, sixteen-year-old Ethan Poe’s life has become a complicated mix of facts, theories, and hypotheses. Things he knows beyond doubt: his parents are divorcing, his older brother Kyle is exhibiting alarming behavior, and his best friend is turning into a spiritual fanatic. Then there are the shifting uncertainties, including his feelings toward his father and his desire to both blend in and stand out in his rural Maine hometown. Most pressing of all, there’s his attraction to Max Modine, a boy he wants to know much better than he does.

Despite Ethan’s initial reluctance, he gets pulled into a heated and sometimes violent conflict about whether to introduce Intelligent Design into science classrooms. Family and friends are turning against each other, school is a battleground, and Ethan will have to take a stand. Because some facts are irrefutable and some bonds unbreakable, even when they can’t be seen.

And once Ethan finds the courage to become who he was meant to be, the outcome could be absolutely extraordinary…

Genre: Contemporary

Representation:
Gender:
Cis boys: Ethan

Sexual Orientation:
Gay/Queer: Ethan

Romantic Orientation:
Not explicitly addressed.

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Ethan

A Question of Manhood

By Robin Reardon

Paul had always looked up to his older brother Chris, the family golden boy serving in the Vietnam War, but when Chris tells him he’s gay, his perspective changes. And when Chris dies weeks later, Paul doesn’t know what to do. Still mourning, he meets JJ, who not only has an amazing talent with dogs, but is also gay, and Paul reevaluates what he thinks about manhood.

Publisher’s Description:

November 1972. The Vietnam War is rumored to be drawing to a close, and for sixteen-year-old Paul Landon, the end can’t come soon enough. The end will mean his older brother Chris, the family’s golden child, returning home from the Army for good. But while home on leave, Chris entrusts Paul with a secret: He’s gay. And when Chris is killed in action, Paul is beset by grief and guilt, haunted by knowledge he can’t share.

That summer, Paul is forced to work at his family’s pet supply store. Worse, he must train a new employee, JJ O’Neil, a gay college freshman. But though Paul initially dislikes JJ for being everything he’s not—self-confident, capable, ambitious—he finds himself learning from him. Not just about how to handle the anxious, aggressive dogs JJ so effortlessly calms and trains, but how to stand up for himself—even when it means standing against his father, his friends, and his own fears. Through JJ, Paul finally begins to glimpse who his brother really was—and a way toward becoming the man he wants to be…

Genre: Historical

Representation:
Gender:
Cis boys: Chris, JJ

Sexual Orientation:
Gay/Queer: Chris, JJ

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Chris, JJ

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Chris, JJ

Religion
Christian: Chris

Trigger Warnings: sex work, death of a sibling, war

I Heard the Pastor’s Daughter Is Gay

By Luana Reach Torres

Katie’s main goal is to graduate high school with honors, but when she meets Jay Miller, her goals change. As the pastor’s daughter, she has to set an example, but what she really wants is to find love.

Publisher’s Description

Katie North breezes through high school as an undercover nerd helped by the fact that her best friend is the most popular girl in school. Katie has no clue that she’s smokin’ hot and the object of a few varsity athletes’ drool. She’s a pastor’s daughter–Miss Goodie Two Shoes–and up until now, her number one priority has been graduating with the highest honors. But, everything changes when Katie falls in love for the first time – with a girl. Her world is blown wide open, and everything changes. Will Katie find her true self at the cost of her father’s love?

Genre: Contemporary

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Katie, Jay

Sexual Orientation:
Lesbian/Queer:Katie, Jay

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic:Katie, Jay

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Katie, Jay

Religion
Christianity

Trigger warnings: homophobia

Quicksilver

By R.J. Anderson

Tori had it all in her hometown, but she had to abandon everything, including her name, when her alien powers were discovered. Scientists, alien agents, and her own past life are chasing her.

Note: includes an insult equating being asexual and alien but overall positive asexual representation.

Check out this book and more on our best of list for books with asexual characters.

Publisher’s Description:

Back home Tori was the girl who had everything a sixteen-year-old could want—popularity, money, beauty. Everything. Including a secret. That secret made her very valuable.
Now she’s left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the only person who truly understood her. She can’t lose the secret. But if she wants to have anything resembling a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unique…talents.

Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears in Tori’s life and delivers bad news: she hasn’t escaped. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-detective now in the employ of a genetics lab.
She has only one shot at ditching her past for good and living like the normal human she wishes she could be. Tori must use every ounce of her considerable hacking and engineering skills—and even then, she might need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.

Genre: Contemporary, Science Fiction

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Tori/Nikki, Alison
Cis boys: Milo, Sebastian Faraday

Sexuality:
Asexual: Tori
Heterosexual: Sebastian Faraday, Milo, Alison

Romantic Orientation:
Not mentioned in the book. The text suggests Tori is demiromantic or WTF-romantic.

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Tori, Sebastian Faraday, Alison
Korean: Milo

Religion:
Christianity: Milo

Disability:
Alison has an undiagnosed mental illness. (Actually, her synaesthesia makes her susceptible to alien technology.)

Additional Notes:
Though this is an companion novel that can be read as a stand-alone, it deals with the fall-out of Ultraviolet and contains major spoilers for that book. It has one instance of equating asexuality to being an alien as an insult, but is overall a positive depiction of asexuality.

The Waiting Tree

By Lindsay Moynihan

Simon and his boyfriend Stephen were caught together, meaning Stephen is shipped off to a gay conversion camp, and Simon is left alone with his abusive family. The only one he has left is his brother Jude, and the two of them are withering away.

Publisher’s Description:

Eighteen-year-old Simon Peters wants to stand up for the truth about who he is. His love for Stephen is unwavering, but does he have the courage to defend it when his entire church community, including his eldest brother Paul, have ostracized him? Will Stephen’s feelings change now that he’s been banished to the Waverly Christian Center to learn how to be “normal” again? Trapped in a cashier’s job he hates, struggling to maintain peace with his brothers after their parents have died, and determined to look after his mute twin and his friend Tina, Simon puts everyone else’s needs before his own. It takes a courageous act on the part of Jude, his devoted twin, to change both of their lives forever. Jude, who is wiser than anyone ever knew. Jude, who understands that the meaning of the fig tree blooming in their scrappy backyard can finally set them free.

Genre: Contemporary

Representation:
Gender:
Cis boys: Simon, Stephen

Sexual Orientation:
Gay/Queer: Simon, Stephen

Romantic Orientation:
Not explicitly mentioned.

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Simon, Stephen

Disability:
Simon’s brother Jude is labeled “mute” and seen is someone who needs taking care of. Later in the book Jude fulfills the classic “disability inspiration” trope.

Trigger Warnings:
Gay “conversion”, homophobia/homomisa, ableism, inspiration porn.

Giraffe People

By Jill Malone

Cole is the daughter of a military preacher growing up in 1991. When she falls for her female best friend, it opens up all new dangers to her, and excitement as well.

Publisher’s Description

Cole Peter thought life couldn’t get any worse. Trapped between God and the Army, the teenage daughter of the chaplain school dean at Fort Monmouth discovers a whole new peril opening up before her when she falls in love with her best friend. Her best girlfriend. Jill Malone delivers a fresh and subtle take on the coming-out story.

Genre: Historical

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Cole

Sexual Orientation:
Bisexual: Cole

Romantic Orientation:
Biromantic: Cole

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Cole

Religion
Christianity

Hat Trick (Hat Trick #1)

By Jeff Adams

Simon has dealt with his crush on fellow hockey player Alex for months and is surprised when Alex admits the same. The two navigate a relationship while still struggling to come out, and if the secret gets loose, they could lose their family and their team.

Publisher’s Description

Simon Roberts’ plan for his senior year is simple — help his high school hockey team win the state championship and earn a college scholarship so he can get away from his dysfunctional family, especially his belligerent father and obnoxious older brother.

When the Central High Falcons open their season with an away game, Simon is forced to deal with the problem he’s struggled with for months — his crush on teammate Alex Miller. After the game that night, Alex makes an unexpected announcement — he’s gay, and in love with Simon.

Simon’s elated but scared to openly acknowledge that he’s gay, especially with so much at stake in their senior year. Now that they’re out to each other they have to decide what to do next. Should they date? Should they keep things between them secret? What about the team? Can Simon and Alex hide that they’re more than friends from the guys they spend so much time with?

Then a simple kiss is witnessed and their secret is out. The team fractures, and Simon’s family explodes as news about the gay hockey players quickly spreads. The guys must figure out how to move forward with everyone watching. Being the center of attention was in no way part of Simon’s plan for the year.

Can Simon juggle school, commitments to the team, his new relationship, and an unexpected tragedy all before the end of the hockey season?

Genre: Contemporary

Representation:
Gender:
Cis boys: Simon, Alex

Sexual Orientation:
Gay/Queer: Simon, Alex

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Simon, Alex

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Simon, Alex

Religion
Christianity

Trigger warnings: assault (tagged as hate crime), abuse, death, family rejection

Playing by the Book

By Chris S. Shirley

Jake is the son of a prominent Alabama preacher and the editor of his high school’s newspaper. He’s excited to be spending the summer at a journalism program at Columbia University, but soon finds himself out of his depth. In Alabama, it was easy for him to hide his feelings for guys (even from himself), but in New York, he starts to fall for a Jewish classmate and must learn how to straddle two disparate worlds.

Publisher’s Description:

JAKE POWELL, THE TEENAGE SON OF A FUNDAMENTALIST PREACHER, ATTENDS A SUMMER JOURNALISM PROGRAM AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, WHERE HIS SOUTH ASIAN ROOMMATE QUICKLY BECOMES THE DORM MIXOLOGIST, AND THE SEXIEST GIRL IN CLASS–WITH A PARK AVENUE ATTITUDE AND THE DESIGNER BAGS TO MATCH–CAN’T DECIDE WHETHER SHE’S MOST INTO HIS SOUTHERN CHARM OR HIS VIRGINITY.

BUT JAKE IS CRUSHING ON THE HOT JEWISH GUY FROM BEVERLY HILLS IN THE ADJOINING DORM ROOM WHO JUST STARTED DATING THE MAYOR’S SON.

Genre: Contemporary

Representation:
Gender:
Cis boys: Jake, Sam

Sexual Orientation:
Gay/Queer: Jake, Same

Romantic Orientation:
Not explicitly addressed.

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Jake, Sam

Religion:
Christianity: Jake
Judaism: Sam

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces

By Isabel Quintero

Gabi’s life is super messy. She has to deal with her meth addicted dad, her strict religious aunt, her pregnant best friend, and her other best friend coming out as gay. She navigates her senior year, forges her identity, and works hard to come out on top.

Check out this book and more on our best of list for books with Latinx characters.

Publisher’s Description:

“Named to Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014

Named to School Library Journal Best Books of 2014

Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: college applications, Cindy’s pregnancy, Sebastian’s coming out, the cute boys, her father’s meth habit, and the food she craves. And best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

July 24

My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didn’t want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, MANY, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was twenty-five. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it’s important to wait until you’re married to give it up. So now, every time I go out with a guy, my mom says, “Ojos abiertos, piernas cerradas.” Eyes open, legs closed. That’s as far as the birds and the bees talk has gone. And I don’t mind it. I don’t necessarily agree with that whole wait until you’re married crap, though. I mean, this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I can’t tell my mom that because she will think I’m bad. Or worse: trying to be White.“

Genre: Contemporary

Representation:
Gender:
Cis boys: Sebastian

Sexual Orientation:
Sebastian is gay.

Romantic Orientation:
Sebastian is homoromantic.

Race/Ethnicity:
Latino: Sebastian

Additional Notes:
Sebastian is a secondary character, but we included this book because of its important contribution to Latinx representation in LGBTQIA+ YA lit.

Trigger Warnings:
Substance abuse
Death
Homophobia