Gay Books Suitable for Young Gay People

Baby Be-Bop

Dirk MacDonald, a sixteen-year-old boy living in Los Angeles, comes to terms with being gay after he receives surreal storytelling visitations from his dead father and great-grandmother.

Dirk’s life was almost perfect. He lived with this grandmother, Fifi, in a beautiful gingerbread cottage in Hollywood. He had the beach, and his surfboard, and Fifi’s red-and-white 1955 Pontiac convertible.

But Dirk wasn’t happy. Inside, he was harboring a deep, dark secret. And he was afraid that if he admitted it to anyone — even Fifi — he would never be accepted again.

Then one night, Dirk’s magic lamp came to life. Suddenly, all the stories from Dirk’s past came flowing out of it. On that night, his life changed forever. At last, Dirk learned who he really was, and that any love that is love is right.

Boy Meets Boy

In an alternate reality where (almost) everyone’s sexuality is out in the open and (almost) no one cares, Paul meets artistic, thoughtful — perfect — Noah.

For a while, Paul is pretty confused, especially when his ex-boyfriend Kyle walks back into the picture. Paul is lucky enough to have loyal friends who are both gay and straight, along with Infinite Darlene, to help him through his confusion. However, when he needs her most, his best friend Joni enters a controlling relationship and refuses to talk to him. When Paul makes a huge dating faux pas (kissing the ex-boyfriend) and rumors begin to fly, Paul needs his friends now more than ever to help him salvage the best relationship of his life.

Geography Club

A group of gay and lesbian teenagers finds mutual support when they form the "Geography Club" at their high school.

Russel Middlebrook is convinced he’s the only gay kid at Goodkind High School. Then his online gay-chat buddy turns out to be none other than Kevin, the popular but closeted star of the school’s baseball team. Soon Russel meets other gay students too. There’s his best friend, Min, who reveals that she’s bisexual, and her soccer-playing girlfriend, Terese. And there’s Terese's politically active friend, Ike.

But how can kids this diverse get together without drawing attention to themselves?

"We just choose a club that’s so boring, nobody in their right mind would ever in a million years join it. We could call it Geography Club!"

Inventing Elliot

Written for the ‘young adult’ market, Inventing Elliot deals with something everyone goes through; finding a place for themselves in society.

For Elliot Sutton, the job is particularly tough. His father’s a wreck in the aftermath of a brutal mugging, his mother's run ragged and desperate for cash, and he’s small for his age. His lack of confidence and security marks him out as a victim and a magnet for bullies and thugs.

When his father’s government compensation pays for a fresh start for the family, Elliot reinvents himself; a fresh image, a cool haircut, a place in his new school’s swimming team. His aim — to stand out just enough to fit in, to pass unnoticed by the agencies that secretly police his new environment. But his plan misfires, and he soon finds himself co-opted into the ranks of The Guardians, the school's unofficial elite. Now he’s the one who must punish the misfits, the freaks and the victims. Prey has become predator.

Gardner is excellent on character and relationship. Elliot’s alliance with a younger boy who reminds him of his earlier self is tenderly drawn, as is his tentative relationship with the bright but virginal Louise, and there’s a powerful portrait of a vulnerable English teacher who tries to get behind Elliot’s increasingly inflexible mask.

But the plotting is not quite so strong. The novel takes too long to build up to Elliot’s central moral conundrum, and its eventual outcome is anti-climactic, with important elements of the storyline left unresolved. Its influences (primarily Orwell’s 1984) are a little too visible in places and we never really learn much about the human motivation behind the sinister Guardians’ philosophy of control.

Nevertheless, this debut novel offers a powerful insight into the masks and armour we assume in an effort to defend ourselves from danger, and the moral sacrifices we make in order to maintain an illusion of security.

Clare O’Brien

Pebble in a Pool

Popular students Paul Carter and Adrian Vanderlaar enter their senior year full of the confidence and reckless bravado of boys sure of their place in the pecking order of high school. But Adrian drinks too much one night, and in a gruesome accident he is paralyzed and his girlfriend, Lauren, is killed.

The outpouring of grief in their school starkly contrasts with a decidedly more muted reaction to the gay-bashing murder of another fellow student, which the school administration uses as a cautionary lesson for the student body. Speaking out in defense of the murdered boy puts Paul on the outs with his classmates and ultimately causes Paul’s abusive fundamentalist father to kick him out of the family home.

Paul’s confusion as he tries to make his way in the creative world with the help of a local artist and Adrian’s struggle upon returning to school play out artfully against the backdrop of the boys’ senior year, Adrian’s upcoming trial for manslaughter, and Paul’s growing awareness of his sexuality.

Rainbow Boys

Jason Carrillo is a jock with a steady girlfriend, but he can’t stop dreaming about sex ... with other guys.

Kyle Meeks doesn't look gay, but he is. And he hopes he never has to tell anyone — especially his parents.

Nelson Glassman is "out" to the entire world, but he can’t tell the boy he loves that he wants to be more than just friends.

Three teenage boys, coming of age and out of the closet. In a revealing debut novel that percolates with passion and wit, Alex Sanchez follows these very different high-school seniors as their struggles with sexuality and intolerance draw them into a triangle of love, betrayal, and ultimately, friendship.

Rainbow High

Sequel to Rainbow Boys

Follows three gay high school seniors as they struggle with issues of coming out, safe sex, homophobia, being in love, and college choices

Jason, Kyle, and Nelson have each come a long way since running into each other at a gay youth meeting at the start of senior year.

Now, as their high school days draw to a close and these three friends move toward one of life's most defining crossroads, each will be compelled to choose his own direction — and prepare for the consequences.

Nelson Glassman may have been exposed to the HIV virus and is terrified of testing positive ... but what if being positive is the only way to keep the guy he's in love with?

Kyle Meeks finally has the guy of his dreams and is ready do anything to stay by his side ... but will "anything" include sabotaging his own future?

Jason Carrillo knows he has to face his future and is prepared to face it out and gay ... but is he prepared to let go of the dream that has sustained him all his life?

A captivating and straightforward depiction of living, loving, and losing that goes straight to the heart of what it means to be young and gay.

The Blue Lawn

David and Theo are fifteen and sixteen and from very different backgrounds; when they become close friends they must find a way of dealing with the strong physical attraction they feel for each other

The Winner of the 1995 AIM Senior Fiction Award for its sensitive exploration of the relationship between two adolescent boys

When Love Comes to Town

Meet Neil Byrne — try-scorer on the rugby field, prizewinning student, one of the in-crowd at the disco, regular guy, gay. Presenting one face to the world and burying his true feelings in fantasy, Neil manages to keep his secret. But when fantasy isn’t enough and he becomes caught up in the bizarre subculture of Dublin’s gay nightlife, the pretence must end. It is the time for truth. The consequences are both hilarious and painful. Told with honesty, humour and originality, When Love Comes To Town brings a new type of hero to modern Irish fiction.

Copyright © The O’Brien Press Ltd