YA books that make room for queerness

We’re deep in the middle of List Season, which means that practically every day, there’s another “best books of 2009″ list coming out. I like lists as much as the next person, and I don’t deny they’re very helpful for gift-giving ideas, but perusing all these lists made me realize that I was missing something. I wanted to see a list of books that include room for queerness.

I should clarify that I’m talking specifically about young adult fiction, because that’s the majority of what I’ve read in 2009. And I don’t believe that a book must include an LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) character to include queerness.

Let me explain. In some books, it seems like everybody is white. Minorities don’t even exist. Similarly, in some books, it seems like everybody is straight, and gay people don’t exist. Sometimes, books can even be aggressively heterosexual by underscoring heterosexist norms in behavior and appearances. (For example, only boys ask girls out on dates, or girls always enjoy shopping and wearing makeup.)

You’re probably not surprised to learn that I’m not a big fan of these kinds of books, YA or not. The kinds of books that surprise and excite me are those that think outside the box. Books that include a worldview that is open to differences. Books that not only acknowledge that queer folks exist by having characters who might be queer, but by engaging their straight characters in actions that resist heteronormative boundaries or limitations.

Here are five excellent YA novels I read this year that make room for queerness:

Struts and Frets by Jon Skovron

This is a story about a boy in a rock band, and his first real girlfriend. It has that Lloyd Dobler kind of feel, and I absolutely loved it. There are several supporting queer characters in Struts and Frets, and even if some of them only have a few lines, those lines are imbued with real personality — and a broader context.

There are clear indications that a gay community exists, and that’s something that rarely happens in YA books. Usually it seems like the gay character in a novel is the only gay person in the world. But in Struts and Frets, we get the sense that the world of these teens doesn’t end at the edge of the page; there is a bigger world out there, and that world includes queer people.

Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

This is the third novel in a series about Wisconsin teen D.J. Schwenk, a girl who grows up on a farm with three brothers and plenty of sports. In the first novel, Dairy Queen, D.J. takes on the goal of becoming the first girl to play football at her high school. She also discovers that her best friend, Amber, is a lesbian. The sequels, The Off Season and now Front and Center, continue to tell D.J.’s story.

This book makes room for queerness not only through the character of Amber, but through D.J. herself. She’s not your typical girlie girl. She likes sports, and she’s good at them. There are so few books about teen girl athletes, and this series is just wonderful.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

This book could be categorized as mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and romance all rolled into one. It’s a puzzle of a book, and the main character, Micah, is a puzzle of a person. She admits from the get-go that she’s a liar, and you spend the rest of the book trying to figure out where her truth lies.

I can at least confidently say that Micah is unique. She’s African American and athletic, and she says she can pass as a boy. She’s passionate. She’s blunt. Is she queer? To me, she is. And that’s all I’m gonna say about it.

Fire by Kristin Cashore

This fantasy novel is about a young woman named Fire, who is the last of the human monsters in her land. A monster is an indescribably beautiful creature, and human monsters can read others’ thoughts and even control them. The queerness in this book is in the world itself; there aren’t any overtly queer characters. (Although there is one scene that made me flip back immediately, thinking, “Did that just happen?” Yes.)

In the course of the book, it becomes clear that the structure of family is a fluid one, and love moves in many directions. And beneath the action of the plot is a social commentary on caring for others, the rights of women, and probably a zillion other things I missed because I was too busy turning the pages. One of my favorite books of 2009.

Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

I blogged about this ghost story earlier this year, and six months later, I still remember it. This book does well what a lot of books do poorly: include a supporting gay character who spends very little time on the page, and yet is clearly identified as gay, without any stereotypes.

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So, that’s my brief list of 2009 YA books that make room for queerness. I deliberately omitted books that are about LGBT people or deal with queer themes directly. This is partly because I think that those kinds of books deserve their own kind of list (and the Rainbow Project will deliver one in early 2010), but also because I’m interested in how queerness can be inserted (subversively, maybe) in mainstream (as in, “straight”) novels.

Have you read any books this year that strike you as particularly queer? Or if you’ve read any of these books, what did you think of them?

Related posts:

1. Queerness
2. Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes in YA Fiction, Part 4: Secondary characters and gay jokes
3. Interview with Tamora Pierce

Tagged as: YA fiction