To celebrate Pride Month we asked Aussie bloggers from the LGBTQIA+ community to submit some guest posts for our blog! Sarah, a passionate advocate for LGBTQIA+ diversity was kind enough to write the following (amazing) post. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did!
Sarah
One thing I’ve become a lot more aware
about by being a part of the online bookish community is the diversity in
certain books. Being a white cis woman living in Australia, I recognise my
privilege and can see that I’m represented in a lot of what I read, but being a
part of the online community has widened my perspective and has allowed me to
discover more diverse books and novels that represent other parts of my
identity, such as my sexual orientation and my experiences with mental illness.
When I read my first novel with a queer protagonist, The Flywheel, it
changed my life. Suddenly, I realised that my feelings were valid and didn’t
have to be kept secret, and that allowed me to not feel as alone anymore.
Realising that there was more novels
out there than the ones that just contained straight, cis, white, able-bodied,
neurotypical protagonists was a world-changing experience for me. It was one
that altered the way I saw books that I previously loved, and changed what
books I bought, and why I bought them. I wanted to read more books that
conveyed how beautiful and vibrant and diverse the world really is, not just
offering a slice of a white, heteronormative, neurotypical society that we’re
given too much of on a regular basis. But also, I wanted to read books that
were representative of my identity. There’s nothing quite like seeing yourself
reflected back at you through the pages of a book. It makes you feel seen.
Heard. Like who you are and what you stand for matters. That you matter.
And so my quest for reading more
novels with queer protagonists began — if they were bi, that was even more
exciting. One book I discovered that I connected with in so many ways, and
contained a character that I saw so much of myself in, was Our Own Private Universe. While it was only released earlier this year, I hadn’t found
anything that I saw so much of who I am as a person in before reading it, or
after. The struggles of the two main characters were struggles that I have, or
I’m continuing, to struggle with, and their relationship experiences were
unbelievably similar to mine. It was astounding that a book, or an author, was
writing about everything I was going through in such a raw and heartfelt way.
Because of that, Our Own Private Universe has got to be one of the best
books I’ve ever read.
Another one of my favourite books with
a bisexual protagonist is Queens of Geek. Queens of Geek is a
gorgeous novel about fandoms and friendship and embracing your identity, and
perhaps one of the aspects I loved so much about it was that it wasn’t about
sexuality. It’s easy to write novels about someone struggling with their
sexuality, but that’s not what we want to read all the time. Yes, it’s
important to read those stories too, and the stories where one’s sexuality is
the centre focus, but it’s also important to simply have diverse
characters in the narrative and not have what makes them diverse as their
defining quality. Queens of Geek is diverse and adorable and filled with
gorgeous characters that leap right off the pages. If only Charlie could leap
right into my arms.
One of the best novels I’ve read all
year is undeniably Radio Silence, which is a novel that also contains a
bisexual protagonist. And there are other queer characters too! This was
another book where the protagonist’s sexuality wasn’t the main focus, and
unlike many of the other books I’ve read with queer protagonists, this isn’t a
book with much romance in it at all. It was refreshing to read about a bisexual
girl in this light because surprise! We do have lives beyond our bisexual
tendencies! She and another main character, Aled Last, were such adorable
queer munchkins and there’s nothing I wanted more than to just hug them.
Ah, I could write about my favourite
queer characters for days, but I have to restrain myself! Highly commended goes
to Far From You — a mystery / crime novel with a bisexual protagonist
and an intense narrative, which I recommend for everyone who loves something a
bit darker! And Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is
simply delightful. Then there are a multitude of novels with bisexual main
characters that I haven’t got around to reading yet, so I’ll put a list of
those ones below!
What are your favourite books
containing queer characters? Have you read any novels with bisexual
protagonists? Have you read any of the novels I’ve mentioned? What’s one book
you see yourself represented in? I’d love to know!
YA Novels with Bisexual Main
Characters That I Need to Read:
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