Books like It's Not Like It's a Secret

This book is written in verse, so the whole thing is like one long poem. The audiobook is read by the author, which I think captures the intent of the book beautifully.

Xiomara, or X, is a young girl living in Harlem who feels suffocated by her overbearing religious mother and her brilliant twin brother’s academic accomplishments. X writes poetry for her school assignments, but she also uses it as a form of diary to express the feelings she can’t otherwise. She challenges religion, her mother’s opinions, and the friends she makes at school.

One thing I really liked was how she’d write one poem for her assignment, and then the following poem would be titled “what I actually turned in.” The book uses different styles of poetry to convey different feelings and to set different scenes, and it explores a wide range of topics—from religion to dating and sex… show more.

This book tells the story of Noah, a trans teenager with a big secret—he’s the author of a popular Tumblr blog, the Meet Cute Diary. The only problem is the stories are all fake.

Noah reimagines random interactions he has with strangers into relationship meet-cutes to keep the blog alive. But when online haters begin to poke holes in his stories, Noah does whatever it takes to keep his blog safe—including inventing a fake relationship with a new friend. Over the course of the story, Noah makes many mistakes, confronts his own flaws, and discovers what it really means to fall in love.

I was initially drawn to this book because of the fake-dating premise and the Tumblr online setting. As someone who grew up on the Tumblr platform, this aspect was really fun to read about, and maybe a bit too relatable. But what really stuck with me was… show more.

The book follows the story of Astrid, a closeted lesbian living in a small town.

Originally from New York City, she feels a disconnect between herself and the people around her, even her best friends. The only people she can be open with are the passengers of the planes that fly above her house. She imagines their lives and sends out her deepest thoughts to them.

The whimsical premise is what originally drew me to the story, but what I ended up loving about it was the complexities of Astrid’s relationships with her friends and family. Her parents, being active in New York in the arts scene, would likely be supportive of her identity, but she feels so disconnected from them that she doesn’t want to open up.

Both of Astrid’s friends are queer; despite this, Astrid feels incapable of telling them her deepest secret. Astrid also has a girlfriend… show more.

This book tells the story of Nandan, a high school junior just looking to have a perfect year.

His plans get thrown out the window when he and his friend Dave hook up at a party. Nandan has never been interested in guys before, but he’s willing to give this a try. The only problem is that’s easier said than done. Nandan has a lot to work through and process, and there are some parts of himself he’s not willing to acknowledge yet.

Unfortunately, Dave often gets caught in the crosshairs, and it can be uncomfortable to watch Nandan take it out on him. But there’s also something reassuring about a love interest/friend who’s patient and willing to wait for you to figure yourself out. Sometimes, we’re not the best version of ourselves, and we need people to stick by us.

While the romance is part of the story, it’s… show more.

Dugan is one of my absolute favorite authors of queer YA, and this romance between out-and-proud track star Morgan and closeted Ruby is a perfect illustration why, merging a fun high school setting and passionate main characters with the very relevant situation of managing your public level of queerness. It’s thoughtful and sweet, romantic and funny, and above all, real. 

I read Patience and Sarah when I was coming out, and even though by then an entire lesbian community was within easy reach, it still brought me the news that I wasn’t alone. Not that I didn't already know that in an abstract sort of way, but on a gut level it was news all the same.

The book spoke to my overcharged emotions at a time when I was still isolated. It’s the only book I remember ever hugging.

In this book, Alison Bechdel is obsessed with the triangular relationship between one’s parents, oneself, and literature, and, in my poetry, so am I.

Our parents are either puzzles we can solve or mysteries we cannot, but still we have to try. And in this book, again and again, Bechdel takes those insights and moments of beauty that literature offers, investigates her father’s life and death, and in this book (as well as the follow-up, Are You My Mother?), the meaning of her mother’s choices as well.

Now that I think of it, Fun Home is the story of how literature is always the child of what an author experiences in their life and what they read, the two brimming over into the impulse to make more words, understand more life. 

Breaking Character is a lesbian celebrity romance, but it’s also so much more than that. The main character, icy British actress Elizabeth, is in the closet for fear of risking her career. When she meets her younger colleague Summer, she starts letting someone close for the first time—and the result is a romance that is sizzling and sweet at the same time. 

If you like age-gap romances with a fake relationship and well-written characters, this is a great introduction to Lee Winter’s books.

A well-thought-out story about the importance of true values, such as friendship and family. It shows just how little youth nowadays care about non-material things and how much attention they pay to outer beauty and perfections. The story teaches you to look deeper and never judge anyone by their appearance. 

One of the biggest draws for me in this story is that both women are both around fifty years old. One, Ida, is a closeted lesbian, having hidden her sexuality for decades to protect her Hollywood career. The other, Faye, has never considered the possibility that she might not be 100% straight, until she and Ida ‘play gay’ for a movie and have to kiss. But it isn’t just the kiss that sets Faye’s mind whirling – it’s how fascinating she finds Ida as a person. The more time they spend together, the more confused Faye gets. It’s so well written, with alternate chapters from each woman’s point of view, but all in first person, which is cleverly done.