Pride Flag Book Tag // Spreading YA Queer Book Love Based on the Color Stripes & Meanings of the Pride Flag!!

It’s PRIDE and I’m going to rainbow your day today!!

This tag was created by Common Spence over on YouTube, and that’s where I got the questions from. Please watch their video, they gave a bit of a history lesson and the books they mentioned are all A+!

Anyways, I’m SUPER excited to be doing this tag, because it’s kind of a salute to some of the community’s history and how the Pride flag was made, and I also get to talk about more queer books!!

Random note: It was super hard for me not to try and coordinate cover colors with the color that the question was talking about. Sometimes it happened unintentionally and it just made me angry that the other covers didn’t match!! It hurts my eyes!!!!

(Also, I added one more prompt to this tag, because I thought it important to include! If you do this tag and choose to use my added prompt, please note that it isn’t part of the original tag. Not because I want to make the creator look bad, but because I don’t want something being added without it clarified that it wasn’t part of the original!)

❤ 1. red (life) ❤

a book with a spirited protagonist totally proud of who they are. someone who gives you LIFE!

THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO

This book is truly amazing. It’s extremely well-written, tackles so many important issues, and most of all, is about a woman unafraid to be herself and take what she wants in a world that didn’t give her anything.

Evelyn Hugo is unapologetically bisexual. She’s had seven husbands (seven!!! how can I be as enchanting as her??) but only one woman had her heart in her whole life. Their relationship is BEAUTIFUL and Evelyn is completely proud of her bisexuality and her Cuban heritage, even if it was erased so she could live a privileged life.

WILD BEAUTY

Pretty much all the girls here are bisexual, Latina, and proud. IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL, not to mention that Anna-Marie McLemore’s books in general are just gorgeous and written stunningly.

(Is this proud-to-be-bi thing a trend in YA? I’m so here for it.)

It’s so normalized too? Estrella is literally like “oh, I like girls just like I like boys and it’s fine, I really don’t care” and it’s so empowering and inspiring to see that. PLUS there’s also a genderqueer character and they’re also unapologetically themselves as well!!

🧡 2. orange (healing) 🧡

a book that made you, as the reader, find a deeper meaning or catharsis in your own life

SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA

I know I know, you’ve all heard about this book by now. But this book literally started my questioning journey with the simple-but-not-so-simple question, “Why is straight the default?”

And then coming back and rereading it, after a year had passed and I had figured out that I wasn’t the default, was so cathartic. There were so many things Simon experienced or thought that I related a lot to, and it made me tear up.

PLUS!!! The movie adaptation of this book made me bawl and it means so much to me!!!

(Wouldn’t this have been nice with the red…)

💛 3. yellow (sunshine) 💛

a book that fills you with so much joy it could brighten even your darkest day

SIX OF CROWS

If I had to pick a favorite book ever, it would probably be this book. (PROBABLY. I said probably.) This book is… so high quality, and I literally could not stop smiling when I reread it last year.

These characters are THE WORLD to me, and their interactions are gold. I love them so so much. And their relationships? I LOVE THEM. Not only the romantic ones (those are amazing) but the platonic ones as well. I just. adore them. I adore them all.

(And the prompt is so true with this one. If I ever was feeling bad, all I have to do is look up some fanfic of this or read a couple of chapters and I’d feel better.)

HEARTSTOPPER

THIS MAKES ME SO GENUINELY HAPPY. These two boys are so soft and they are SO. CUTE. together and I just jldkfjslkjfdldsjljfd. I remember one night, at 12am, I was having a really bad day, and I decided to read something that made me happy. I chose this.

At 1am I went to bed, smiling and feeling all types of warm and fuzzy and comforted after reading this. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

💚 4. green (nature) 💚

a book that is set out of this world—a reality different to our own

This prompt was a little weird to me and I was kinda like ??? on what I would choose, but why not go with a book I read recently from my Pride TBR, and one that is EXTREMELY underhyped??

THE ABYSS SURROUNDS US

This book is set in a (VERY INTERESTING) sci-fi world where the United States is split into different sections, and many people live on the water or in floating cities. There are creatures called Reckoners who destroy pirate ships, and the main character, a Chinese girl named Cas, is a Reckoner trainer.

But then things happen and Cas winds up on a pirate ship. And oh my god, I ABSOLUTELY ADORED THIS STORY. The slowburn enemies-to-lovers f/f relationship KILLED me and I ship them so so much. Plus this book has the perfect morally grey characters and I love it.

💙 5. blue (peace) 💙

a book where one of the characters finds peace with a difficult truth

SUMMER BIRD BLUE

This was absolutely GORGEOUS and nothing less of what I expected from Akemi Dawn Bowman. I actually CRIED (and you know how rare that is), and I am so glad I was able to read this. It’s a truly, truly beautiful story and I can’t wait until this releases and you all will be able to read it.

Throughout the book, Rumi struggles to deal with her sister’s death*, her grief, and how her mother “abandoned her”. She also, on top of all of this, is trying to figuring out her sexuality.

(In the end, she says she most likely IDs as asexual and somewhere on the aromantic spectrum! The rep is very well done. She is also multiracial.)

ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE

This is another of my favorite queer books, and I think it fits well with this prompt. This book is about a boy named Ari(stotle), who struggles with his sexuality and what it means for him and his best friend, Dante. It focuses a lot on the characters and I ADORE IT.

Plus, this takes place in the 80s (or 90s? I don’t know?) where there’s a lot of homophobia. As Mexican boys, it’s hard for Ari and Dante, and it would be even harder if they were gay. This book tackles those things perfectly and beautifully.

Note: This author has harassed reviewers previously.

*This is not a spoiler! It’s in the blurb of the book.

💜 6. purple (spirit) 💜

a book that deals with LGBT+ themes and religion

AUTOBOYOGRAPHY

Tanner is a bisexual, half-Jewish boy who’s moved to a town in Utah, where pretty much everyone is Mormon, and pretty much everyone doesn’t like/support/”agree with” being anything but allocishet. Sebastian is gay, but he struggles to come to terms with that, especially because he’s Mormon and the son of a pastor.

I love this book, but I think it was also because I read it at the right time? It was after I had figured everything out sexuality-wise, but I wasn’t in a good mental health space. So watching Sebastian coming to terms with his sexuality 1) made me heartbroken, but also 2) made me so genuinely happy.

Also, a note that this book does not bash on the LDS church at all! It’s written in a respectful way while still being able to criticize the way it treats / views gay people.

🖤 ADDED. black/brown (inclusivity) 🖤

a book where one of the characters is a queer character of color / queer indigenous character

GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE

This book is AMAZING. I love it I adore it I stan it forever and ever.

This book is THE book of my Asian sapphic heart. First of all, the f/f relationship here is absolutely GORGEOUS and BEAUTIFUL and I just… love them together so so much. Second of all, being queer is so normalized here and I love it.

And third, THERE IS SO MUCH ASIAN CULTURE. I’m pretty sure the main character is Southeast Asian, because this is based off of the author’s experiences in Malaysia (which is in Southeast Asia). Which makes my Southeast Asian heart SING! because I’ve never seen a lot of that part of me repped. And it’s sapphic on top of that!!!!

Anyways. I’ll be posting a review on my blog closer to the release date but this is yet another book you’ll hear me screaming about!!

 

---

how’s your (pride) month going?? have you read any beautiful queer books? hopefully you’ve added all of these to your TBR (i mean i’ve mentioned them like 398523 times now) and did you notice i refrained from talking about girl made of stars for once in my life???