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What’s better than a YA book set in space? The answer is “very little.” But what can take a YA space book into the next galaxy is a YA space book with queer characters throughout. Space exploration is itself queer–it requires adventure, resilience, and willingness to go to the places so few other people are willing to go, all in the hopes of finding something.
One of the blockbuster adult books hitting shelves this summer was Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere. It’s an excellent crossover read, following two women in the 1980s who fall in love with one another amid the space shuttle program. I read it in a couple of big gulps poolside and it reminded me how much I love space fiction and how much I love space fiction when the leads aren’t the kind of characters society so often posits as space-ready.
Let’s go out of this world and explore the known(ish) unknown this week, with these LGBTQ+ YA books set in space. Something worth addressing here: it’s still a much whiter arena of YA fiction than it should be, which you’ll see reflected. Even as queer people are marginalized and continue to experience discrimination and hatred for their identities, those who are white have fewer barriers in life and storytelling than their queer peers of color. I suspect, though, as we have seen in all arena of LGBTQ+ YA, we’ll see more queer teens of color blasting off in the coming years.
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A Complicated Love Story Set in Space by Shaun David Hutchinson
All Noa did was close his eyes. He was on Earth. It was normal. But when he opened his eyes again, he was aboard the Qriosity in space, alongside two other teens who had the same experience of having no idea how they got there.
Now, Noa, DJ, and Jenny are learning how to navigate literally living in space together, as well as figuring out how to contend with little things like aliens and murder.
But those won’t be the only challenges. For Noa, the biggest is finding that he has some big feelings for DJ. Love is extremely complicated on Earth, let alone in space.
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The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer (series)
Ambrose does not remember the launch for the Coordinated Endeavor. But he’s there in space now. Even though absolutely nothing is making sense aboard the mission, including things like evidence there have been strangers on board and it is his mother’s voice in the ship’s operating system, he’s going to successfully rescue his sister. Even if it means getting along with the brooding shipmate board who Ambrose can’t seem to crack.
It becomes clear pretty quickly, though, that Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together in order to save themselves and complete the mission. Even though it seems they’re at odds, the reality is the two have some romantic feelings blossoming between them.
The Disasters by M.K. England
Nax doesn’t make good choices, even if he is a great pilot. That history of poor decisions? It gets him kicked out of his elite space academy in a day. But before he even gets out of the school, though, it is attacked by space terrorists. Only Nax and three other troublemakers survive the attack, becoming both the only witnesses and the only potential criminals.
So now the four of them are on the run. They’re engaging in hijinks left and right to save their name and spread the truth — but will it work, or are they forever doomed to be to blame?
This one is arompfull of heists gone wrong and underdogs becoming potential heroes.
Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie
Aisha Un-Haad loves her family, and when her brother gets a plague, she knows she’ll need to do whatever she can in order to help him get better. She’s volunteering to become a Scela, one of the mechanically enhanced soldiers who helps the governing body of the Fleet. It’s the collection of spaceships Aisha and others call home.
Becoming a Scela won’t be easy, though. But if she can survive and rise in the ranks, she can help her brother.
Key Tanaka wakes up as a Scela with no recollection of how she got there. She comes from privilege and cannot fathom why she’d give that up for such a role as this one. But if she’s successful in Scela training, maybe she can find out why and recover the dark hole of memories that led to how she got where she is right now.
Aisha and Key are tossed into the same recruit unit and are fighting to make the top ranks. Despite their different backgrounds, they’re forced to work together–and forced to confront some feelings coming up between them. All of this is made much harder than usual thanks to a rebellion brewing between a government wanting conformity and people seeking freedom from the Fleet.
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
Told in two timelines, Walden’s gorgeous graphic novel follows both a crew traveling through space to rebuild various structures to preserve the past and two girls who met in boarding school and fell in love before experiencing the worst tragedy imaginable.
The storylines converge, of course, telling an out-of-this-world story of history, romance, and the future.
A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow
Zaira Citlali is the reborn god Indigo and is supposed to die. Why? Because Indigo’ssongmanaged to create the universe AND encourage people to connect with one another in order to banish Ozvios, who is the godofdestruction. Zaira has failed to really step into her power as Indigo reborn, and now the Ilori Emperor is set to sacrifice her in Ozvios’s honor.
The only way out is for Zaira to find Wesley, the prophet meant to destroy Ozvios and his supporting empire.
Wesley doesn’t want to be the chosen one. He’s working asasmuggler, helping transport people across the universe for cash. Now he’s takingacelebrity toaplace called Earth. So when he and Zaira cross paths…he’s not exactly thrilled to be pulled intoamassive intergalactic war. The thing is, now he is, and he, Zaira, and the celebrity are going to fight and work to make their way to Earth to unleash the biggest powers.
Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders (series)
Tina isn’t an ordinary teenager. She knows this, too. Tina is an intergalactic marvel, hidden cone of a famous alien hero. She’s here in order to give the universes and their planets the chance to start anew and defeat evil. That’s thanks to her interplanetary rescue beacon.
But when the beacon activates, things don’t go the way Tina hopes. She actually is more like an average teenager than The Chosen One, and things are extremely dangerous. People are relying on her to know the answers and know how to defeat evil . . . but she just doesn’t. Her side is losing the war.
The good news? Tina’s got an amazing crew. She’s got her best friend. She’s got determination and drive. Now, she just needs to conjure up trust in herself to get the job done.
The Weight of Stars by K. Ancrum
If you want a slow-burn romance featuring space travel, longing, grief, and adventure, you’ll want to pick this one up. The Weight of Stars is a queer romance between a girl from a trailer park and a girl whose mother is an astronaut who volunteered to travel one-way to the edge of the solar system.
Looking for more great LGBTQ+ YA books? We’ve gotcha covered with 13 gloriously queer witch YA, some of this year’s new queer YA books, and some delicious queer foodie romances.
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