2021 Books You Need to Know About

I have a problem, and that is:

There are SO MANY good books either out now or coming soon.

I ordered a few of these for myself and think everyone should know about them.

Here’s a list I compiled that just about covers all the bases.

I hope you find something that appeals to you.

Wolfish Tomes

What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: February 2, 2021

Brief summary: teen explores her family’s big, creepy house

Read if: you’re a fan of Mike Flanagan’s spooky mansions

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

Age group: Adult

Release date: June 1, 2021

Brief summary: village scapegoat bonds with the town beast

Read if: you like reading about brave women who romance brooding men

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Age group: Adult

Release date: June 8, 2021

Brief summary: an outcast and a disgraced prince team up to stop a genocide

Read if: you like slowburn, enemies-to-lovers, folklore-based fantasy with a political message

Contemporary Romances

Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur

Age group: Adult

Release date: May 25, 2021

Brief summary: a hopeless romantic tries to woo his longtime crush

Read if: you want cynics and saps to find true love

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

Age group: Adult

Release date: February 23, 2021

Brief summary: newly-minted doctor wakes up in Vegas married to a near stranger

Read if: you’re still wondering how adulthood is supposed to work

You Can Go Your Own Way by Eric Smith

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: November 2, 2021

Brief summary: two nerds find themselves snowed in at the arcade

Read if: you sometimes fantasize about being snowed in with a crush

Like a Love Song by Gabriela Martins

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: August 3, 2021

Brief summary: pop star and indie actor fake date and fall in love

Read if: you track the timeline of celebrity romances on Instagram

It’s Kind of a Cheesy Love Story by Lauren Morrill

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: March 9, 2021

Brief summary: pizza romance…and that’s all you’ll get out of me!

Read if: Mystic Pizza and Pizza My Heart left you hungry for more

Dark Academia

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: August 3, 2021

Brief summary: lesbians solve a mystery at magic school

Read if: you’ve been waiting for publishing to make dark academia sapphic

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: June 1, 2021

Brief summary: two would-be valedictorians are blackmailed by an anonymous creep

Read if: you’ve always wanted a Get Out / Gossip Girl mash-up

Historical Fantasy

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: September 7, 2021

Brief summary: teen boy pursues a supernatural killer at the World’s Fair

Read if: you thought the titular Devil in the White City might have been a dybbuk

Bacchanal by Veronica Henry

Age group: Adult

Release date: June 1, 2021

Brief summary: young woman travels with a creepy carnival searching for her sister and fights an ancient demon along the way

Read if: you’ve been creeped out by carnivals ever since Jordan Peele’s Us

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

Age group: Adult

Release date: November 2, 2021

Brief summary: gay bureaucrats do magic

Read if: you long for Sherlock Holmes meets V for Vendetta meets The House in the Cerulean Sea

Contemporary Bisexual Protagonists

Follow Your Arrow by Jessica Verdi

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: March 2, 2021

Brief summary: internet-famous teen deals with confusing feelings after a high-profile break-up

Read if: you’re here to smash biphobia

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: March 9, 2021

Brief summary: an advice columnist finds herself in a tricky love triangle

Read if: you thought it should have been called QUEER-ano de Bergerac

Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: May 11, 2021

Brief summary: Grease but bisexual? With a Demi Lovato reference in the TITLE??

Read if: you read that synopsis and thought, “Tell me more!”

Community is Magic

The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: August 3, 2021

Brief summary: survivors band together to rescue the friend who saved them

Read if: you want a story where the marginalized win the day with magic

This is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us edited by Katherine Locked and Nicole Melleby

Age Group: Middle Grade

Release date: October 19, 2021

Brief summary: an anthology with entries from all over the LGBTQIA+ spectrum

Read if: you see one or more of your favorite authors in the following list of contributors: Eric Bell, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Ashley Herring Blake, Lisa Bunker, Alex Gino, Justina Ireland, Shing Yin Khor, Katherine Locke, Mariama J. Lockington, Nicole Melleby, Marieke Nijkamp, Claribel A. Ortega, Mark Oshiro, Molly Knox Ostertag, Aisa Salazar, AJ Sass

Weird and Wild Magic

Magic Mutant Nightmare Girl by Erin Grammar

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: March 10, 2021

Brief summary: a magical girl fights a mutant in San Francisco

Read if: you’ve been looking for a grosser, gayer version of Colossal

In Deeper Waters by F. T. Lukens

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: April 20, 2021

Brief summary: a pirate kidnaps a prince and they FALL IN LOVE

Read if: you’re seeking compensation for having read The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

Read if: you’re into gay pirates!? Obviously!? As one SHOULD be!?!?

Sweet and Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley

Age group: Young Adult

Release date: March 9, 2021

Brief summary: slow-burn sapphic witches fall in love and do magic

Read if: These Witches Don’t Burn and The Dark Tide stoked your desire for sapphic, witchy content

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft

Age group: Young adult

Release date: March 2, 2021

Brief summary: fiery soldier falls for sickly hermit in his big magic house

Read if: you have TASTE

I have six of these books and would very much like the rest.

Happy 2021! Go out and purchase, preorder, or borrow!