Barnes & Noble quietly released its picks for the Best Books of 2026—so quietly that most of us missed it. I went through all 17 categories, from Fiction to Business Books to eBook Series, to highlight the queer books included. These are just the titles I recognized as having queer content. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have a complete mental rolodex of every queer book in existence, so I might have missed some. They range from gay literary fiction to trans horror to queer science writing. How many have you read?
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John of John by Douglas Stuart (Fiction)
Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart delivers John of John, one of the most highly anticipated novels of the year, about a young man who returns to his home in the Hebrides islands to reckon with the tension between his family’s expectations and his own desires. —Rebecca Schinsky
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The Disappearers by Marlon James (Fiction)
Marlon James is the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings. His newest novel follows eight gay men in 1980s in Kingston, Jamaica. They met while rehearsing for a play together. One night, they are the victims of a gay bashing, and one is killed. In the aftermath, some seek revenge and some try to disappear.
The reviews of this one are effusive, including from The New York Times, which says, “This masterpiece is the novel of the decade, if not the century.” —Danika Ellis
Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (Science Fiction & Fantasy)
En is the empire’s magically compelled weapon. Tamol is an incompetent foot soldier, too clever, beautiful, and magically adept for her own good. When the empire sends them to retrieve infamous traitors from exile, En and Tamol fall into an unlikely infatuation… Until En discovers Tamol is one of the traitors, too. Students with dreams of a better kingdom fought, lost, and were exiled for their beliefs. In the Far Peninsula, the traitors found something dangerous that the empire will do anything to get. Now it’s up to En and Tamol to save the kingdom, even if it means working against the people in charge. —R. Nassor
Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun (Horror)
The filmmaker of I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma has a genre-blending, 600-page horror novel out this year! It takes place across timelines—the 1980s, 2000s, and the present—as several point of view characters get pulled into a conspiracy about a pirate TV network called Public Access Afterworld. In the current timeline, Bethany is a trans content moderator who learns about Public Access Afterworld through a series of videos from a streamer that have her searching for answers. —Danika Ellis
Heartstopper Volume 6 by Alice Oseman (Young Adult, and eBook Series)
After ten years, July marked the end of Heartstopper, both on the page and on the screen—the Heartstopper Forever movie came out July 17th. This final volume follows Charlie’s campaign for Head Boy and Nick’s preparation for college. Everyone knows Nick and Charlie will be together forever… but how will they navigate their relationship once Nick graduates? I’m trying to be very chill about how obsessed I currently am about Heartstopper, but suffice it to say, this beautiful celebration of queer joy and community coming to an end is bittersweet. —Danika Ellis
The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham (Young Adult)
In this sapphic YA retelling of Sleeping Beauty, a young thief goes searching for her missing sister, who went searching for the legendary sleeping princess. The two of them stumble through a portal into the princess’s subconscious and meet her alter ego, Briar Rose, who takes them on a tour of the enchanting land, along with a magical demon. —Liberty Hardy
Scorpion Deep by CG Drews (Young Adult)
In this queer and asexual YA novel, all Jonathan wanted was to escape his island home after high school and go to college on the mainland with his friends. But when his application is rejected, Jonathan makes an offering to the eldritch sea-god Scorpion Deep, not really expecting it to work. Whoops. Now he’s awakened an ancient evil that is out for blood, and Jonathan begins to physically change as he tries to find a way to undo the damage before he pays with his life. —Liberty Hardy
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