Show Your S(h)elf is a series at Diversify Your Shelves that was created to amplify marginalized voices in the book community and to give authors, readers, and creators, who promote diversity, a space to show themselves and their shelves. There is nothing we love more than sharing our favorite books – and seeing others share theirs!
The 31st of March is International Transgender Day of Visibility, dedicated to both celebrating trans people and raising awareness when it comes to discrimination they still face on a daily basis all over the world. For this important day we paired up with the wonderful and powerful voice in the trans community and author of two YA novels (one coming this May and we are HYPED!), Emery Lee!
Emery prepared a list of recommendations full of amazing books e loves by incredible trans authors and answered some questions we sent eir way! So, without further ado, here are some trans book recs by Emery Lee!
The Witch King by H. E. Edgmon
To save a fae kingdom, a trans witch must face his traumatic past and the royal fiancé he left behind. This debut YA fantasy will leave you spellbound.
Wyatt would give anything to forget where he came from—but a kingdom demands its king.
In Asalin, fae rule and witches like Wyatt Croft…don’t. Wyatt’s betrothal to his best friend, fae prince Emyr North, was supposed to change that. But when Wyatt lost control of his magic one devastating night, he fled to the human world.
Now a coldly distant Emyr has hunted him down. Despite transgender Wyatt’s newfound identity and troubling past, Emyr has no intention of dissolving their engagement. In fact, he claims they must marry now or risk losing the throne. Jaded, Wyatt strikes a deal with the enemy, hoping to escape Asalin forever. But as he gets to know Emyr, Wyatt realizes the boy he once loved may still exist. And as the witches face worsening conditions, he must decide once and for all what’s more important—his people or his freedom.
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.
Ander and Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa
When Ander takes a gap year to paint murals in San Antonio, they are “fired” from the family taqueria, much to their annoyance. That is, until they meet Santi, the captivating Mexican waiter who replaced them, and—after finding their way back into a few shifts with him—the two fall for each other fiercely and wonderfully. Yet even surrounded by family, community, and the electricity of new love, a dark shadow looms. When ICE agents raid the taqueria and Santi becomes a target, every happiness they’ve fought for is put in peril.
COMING 2023
Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore
In this young adult novel by award-winning author Anna-Marie McLemore, two non-binary teens are pulled into a magical world under a lake – but can they keep their worlds above water intact?
Everyone who lives near the lake knows the stories about the world underneath it, an ethereal landscape rumored to be half-air, half-water. But Bastián Silvano and Lore Garcia are the only ones who’ve been there. Bastián grew up both above the lake and in the otherworldly space beneath it. Lore’s only seen the world under the lake once, but that one encounter changed their life and their fate.
Then the lines between air and water begin to blur. The world under the lake drifts above the surface. If Bastián and Lore don’t want it bringing their secrets to the surface with it, they have to stop it, and to do that, they have to work together. There’s just one problem: Bastián and Lore haven’t spoken in seven years, and working together means trusting each other with the very things they’re trying to hide.
Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
Prepare to die. His kingdom is near.
Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.
But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all.
Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.
A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. Perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Annihilation.
All Signs Point to Yes by G. Haron Davis, Cam Montgomery, and Adrianne White
A YA anthology of love stories for each of the star signs that will showcase multicultural characters and celebrate the myriad facets of love, from meet-cutes to the lesser-explored love expressed by aromantic people, featuring 13 bestselling and award-winning multicultural authors.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.
To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
Seventeen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers drawing attention for her killer eyeliner, not for being the new kid at a mostly white, very rich, Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she’s gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way. After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend, she could use the fresh start.
At Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: make her mom proud, keep her brother out of trouble, and most importantly, don’t fall in love. Granted, she’s never been great at any of those things, but that’s a problem for Future Yami.
The thing is, it’s hard to fake being straight when Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, is so annoyingly perfect. And smart. And talented. And cute. Either way, Yami isn’t going to make the same mistake again. If word got back to her mom, she could face a lot worse than rejection. So she’ll have to start asking, WWSGD: What would a straight girl do?
Told in a captivating voice that is by turns hilarious, vulnerable, and searingly honest, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School explores the joys and heartaches of living your full truth out loud.
*quickly adds all the books we haven’t read yet to out TBR* We also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask Emery a couple of questions about eir writing and future projects!
1. Emery, thank you so much for joining us! Could you tell us and our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi, thanks for having me! I’m Emery Lee, author of YA romcoms Meet Cute Diary and Café Con Lychee. While I currently only have romcoms out, I actually write across genres and age demographics. I’m a big fan of anime, boba tea, and fluffy dogs.
2. What were the main differences between writing Meet Cute Diary and Café Con Lychee?
Well, the most obvious difference is that Café Con Lychee sold on proposal, meaning I hadn’t even finished the book completely before it was sold to my editor. With Meet Cute Diary, I really didn’t have a lot of expectation for the book to sell, so I wrote it purely out of self-exploration and for fun, but Café Con Lychee was all about trying to live up to the expectations my readers and my editor already had for me, while still doing something different and finding something new to say, so there was just a lot more pressure for that one.
3. Which character was your favourite to write about and which one would you say is most like you?
In Café Con Lychee, the character most like me is Theo. Actually, despite the book being dual POV, I still think of him as “the main character” simply because he’s the person that I used to navigate the world and really grow to understand the story because we have so much in common. I would say the character that was my favorite to write, though, was actually a tie between Theo’s best friend, Justin, and his older brother, Thomas.
4. What inspired you to start writing? Did you always want to become an author?
I started writing really young, and it was all about finding ways to keep the stories that I loved alive. I remember when my favorite show got canceled, I would rewatch all the episodes, but it just wasn’t enough because I couldn’t relive those feelings for the first time, so I ended up writing stories inspired by the world and the characters so I could experience that exploration again and again. That’s essentially where I first got my writing legs, and after a while, people kept telling me I was good at it, so I figured I might as well try to get published! So I’ve basically had my eyes set on getting a book out into the world since I was about thirteen or so.
5. What are some author dreams you still want to achieve?
Oh, so many! I think the further you get in the process, the more dreams you realize exist, and then the more you want LOL. I’d love for one of my books to get turned into a movie or series. I’d also love to hit a bestsellers list, win some awards, and of course, publish a lot more broadly. I’d absolutely love to get into graphic novels in the near future!
6. Do you have a favourite book or one you always recommend?
My opinions change a lot and very quickly, so it’s always hard to point to one “favorite” book, but I always recommend Iron Widow! It combines some of my favorite tropes and elements (Chinese mythos, enemies to lovers, lots of angst) with some of the best prose and world building I’ve seen in a long time. I think it’s one of those books that truly stretches the imagination for what a YA book *can* be, and I honestly can’t recommend it enough.
About the Author
Emery Lee is an author and artist whose love for chaotic and morally gray characters started at a young age. After graduating with a degree in creative writing, e’s gone on to author novels, short stories, and webcomics across a variety of genres and demographics, though YA fiction has always held a special place in eir heart. Drawing inspiration from Eastern media, pop punk music, and personal life experience, eir work seeks to explore the intersections of life and identity in fun, heartfelt, and inventive ways. In eir downtime, you’ll most likely find em marathoning anime or snuggling cute dogs.
About the Books
Meet Cute Diary
Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.
When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.
In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script.
Café Con Lychee
Sometimes bitter rivalries can brew something sweet
Theo Mori wants to escape. Leaving Vermont for college means getting away from working at his parents’ Asian American café and dealing with their archrivals’ hopeless son Gabi who’s lost the soccer team more games than Theo can count.
Gabi Moreno is miserably stuck in the closet. Forced to play soccer to hide his love for dance and iced out by Theo, the only openly gay guy at school, Gabi’s only reprieve is his parents’ Puerto Rican bakery and his plans to take over after graduation.
But the town’s new fusion café changes everything. Between the Mori’s struggling shop and the Moreno’s plan to sell their bakery in the face of the competition, both boys find their dreams in jeopardy. Then Theo has an idea—sell photo-worthy food covertly at school to offset their losses. When he sprains his wrist and Gabi gets roped in to help, they realize they need to work together to save their parents’ shops but will the new feelings rising between them be enough to send their future plans up in smoke?
Thank you so much for joining us at Diversify Your Shelves, Emery, we are beyond honored – and excited to read all the wonderful books you recommended!
Diversify Your Shelves 