Best 7 Dystopian Novels About The LGBT Community | Do Check Out 2nd One If You Support BLM

7 Surprisingly Great LGBT Novels in Dystopian Genre

Earlier, I’ve mentioned how extensive dystopian literature is, as it can comprise a series of sub-genres or sub-themes within its main plot.

Within its primary dystopia storyline comes subsidiary or clustered topics, which could either be romance, science fiction, futuristic, or feminism, among others. It can also be the other way around, or it can be a combination of everything in between.

You also have books dedicated or appropriate for teens, young adults, adults, and general readers.

Today, I’m going to list down some of my favourite LGBT dystopian novels that I bet you’ll also love to read. By saying so, here are some of them.

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The Color Purple

One of the most successful and remarkably outstanding LGBT dystopian novels is Alice Walker’s 1982 book “The Color Purple,” which became a blockbuster hit with its film adaptation.

This Pulitzer recipient is an epistolary novel, which contains many sub-themes within its main storyline. It’s a cultural-historical-fictional-feminist-LGBT-adult-dystopian novel that touches on the horrifying life story of African-American women.

It crucially chronicles the journey of a fourteen-year-old girl named Celie, who got deprived of education and a good life. She became a victim of her father’s physical and sexual abuse.

The story details her extremely dreadful and complicated life living under the same roof with her abusive father, from becoming a mother of her father’s child to taking care of her violent husband’s sick long-time mistress Shug in their home. Eventually, Cecile and Shug got along well and became fond of each other.

Upon knowing that Cecile’s husband doesn’t beat her when she’s around, Shug decided to remain in the couple’s home even after she fully recovered to keep Cecile safe.

As the story progresses, Shug got married, and despite that fact, she initiates a sexual relationship with Cecile when they meet again.

Due to the thought-provoking plot and immense violence involved in the narrative, the book became controversial.

Genre – LGBT Dystopian Literature

Pages –304

Goodreads rating – 4.21/5

My rating – 9.95/10

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Also See: Top 8 Creepy Horror Books in Dystopian Genre

Giovanni’s Room

James Baldwin’s classic entry is another new addition to my list of dystopian novels. Published in 1956, “Giovanni’s Room” explores the world of an American man, who is living in Paris.

The book follows his journey and romance in “The City of Lights” as he shares his sentiments and disappointments with his relationships with other men, particularly the Italian bartender Giovanni, whom he met in a gay pub.

It began with him narrating the story to the readers where his girlfriend left him in Paris as she went to Spain to think about his marriage proposal. She returned to America, and he remained in Paris. From there, he met Giovanni and had a relationship with him, leading to the latter getting executed through the guillotine.

Along with his narration are his chronicles of “Giovanni’s Room.” The story lays out a gripping and heart-breaking plot.

Genre – LGBT Dystopian Literature

Pages –159

Goodreads rating – 4.24/5

My rating – is 9.85/10

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Middlesex

Another “Pulitzer Prize” LGBT dystopian novel is “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides. Since its publication date in 2002, the book has reportedly sold over four million copies.

Eugenides decided to make this award-winning novel after he got dissatisfied and frustrated with the discussions about the emotions and anatomy involved in “intersex” in “Herculine Barbin.”

At the same time, it tackles a family saga and a coming-of-age story that accounts for the main character’s journey and the effect of permanently altering the sequence of the genes, also known as “genetic mutation,” of three Greek family generations.

Genre – LGBT Dystopian Literature

Pages –529

Goodreads rating – 4.01/5

My rating – is 9.75/10

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The Hours

Joining the list of “Pulitzer Prize” winners is “The Hours” by Michael Cunningham, which also became an Oscar-winning film and ruled the box-office hit, starred by three well-respected, celebrated, and Academy award-winning actresses.

Cunningham circles his story around three questionably LGBT women from different generations impacted by the classic novel entitled “Mrs Dalloway.’

It starts with the author Virginia Woolf in 1923, who is struggling with mental illness and is also known to have relationships with women writing her book “Mrs Dalloway” in Richmond. The second woman in the story comes in the year 1949, a World War II veteran’s wife named Mrs Laura Brown from LA, who finds herself attracted to women. She’s reading “Mrs Dalloway” and planning for her husband’s birthday.

The third woman comes in 1999 in New York, Clarissa Vaughan, who is a lesbian and planning a party to celebrate her ex-lover-turned-good friend and poet Richard for winning a major literary award and is dying from an illness related to AIDS.

All three women echo similar experiences, as the character in the novel, “Mrs Dalloway,” with Clarissa Vaughan as the contemporary version.

Genre – LGBT with Dystopian Elements Literature

Pages –230

Goodreads rating – 3.96/5

My rating – is 9.65/10

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Also See: 13 All-Time Best Dystopian Movies To Watch With Your Friends

Mrs Dalloway

Speaking of “Mrs Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf, I couldn’t help but add it to my list, as I read through it, I can find dystopia within the struggles and backdrops of the storyline of one of the most notable literary pieces in the world of literature.

It touches on both feminism and bisexuality, apart from the other sub-themes within the plot. Although Mrs Clarissa Dalloway doesn’t acknowledge her strong feelings and attractions to a fellow housewife and mother Sally Seton as bisexual, she feels for her like how men feel for her.

Genre – LGBT with Dystopian Elements Literature

Pages –194

Goodreads rating – 3.79/5

My rating – is 9.55/10

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Less

Great LGBT dystopian novels may mostly come with heavy-laden or heart-breaking storylines, so sometimes it’s quite exhausting, both for our hearts and minds.

Andrew Sean Greer offers you a fun, lighter, and humorous satirical-dystopian-LGBT-comedy book with “Less,” which tracks down the journey of a gay writer who is about to turn fifty years old named Arthur Less.

The author started the novel in a serious mood, but upon realising that the best way to write a story about ageing and being gay is to make it light and fun. The story follows the life of a failed novelist who is turning fifty soon. When one day, he receives a wedding invitation from his long-time boyfriend.

There’s no way that he will attend the wedding, as it can become extremely awkward and embarrassing. On the other hand, he has received a series of crazy invitations from around the world for literary works.

So, he travels and attends all the literary invitations to avoid the wedding, and through his journey, he will get into a whirlwind of hilarious adventures and trips.

Its beguiling and humorous way of Greer’s approach to heartbreak and aging, coupled with the ridiculously amusing escapades, made this novel a big winner of the “2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction,” among many others to mention.

Genre – LGBT Dystopian Literature

Pages –273

Goodreads rating – 3.69/5

My rating – is 9.45/10

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Also See: Best 7 Books Based On Overpopulation in Dystopian World

The Forever War

Joe Haldeman’s multi-awarded novel, “The Forever War,” is dystopia-military-science fiction-futuristic-LGBT rolled into one mind-blowing storyline.

Its provocative approach to a world where violence is rampant and homosexuality rules, as encouraged by the majority of the nations to curb or control overpopulation, makes it quite intriguing for the readers.

All of that happened when military soldiers return to civilian life after fighting against the alien race in an interstellar battle, thinking that the world would be a much safer place to dwell than the catastrophic galactic universe.

However, they end up in a more dangerous situation as the world has turned into a savage, devastating place where deadly weapons are freely available for everyone to buy, and unemployment is increasingly rising.

That’s why it’s not a surprise that it became an award-winning novel, receiving honours from “Nebula,” “Hugo,” and “Locus,” and why I also included it on my top 100 list of best dystopian books.

Genre – LGBT Dystopian Literature

Pages –278

Goodreads rating – 4.15/5

My rating – is 7.57/10

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Final Say

All of the novels I mentioned above offer each distinct gripping and thought-provoking storyline that will keep you thinking and imagining things as they happen with their riveting, intriguing, and spellbinding plots and twists.

Every literary piece in my list showcases various sub-themes within or partially in one LGBT story setting that backdrops a terrible place or dystopia.

However, with all the violence and depressing moments in “The Color Purple” and “Giovanni’s Room,” Andrew Sean Greer’s novel “Less” gives us a breather, a refreshing perspective, which makes everything less heavy and a bit fun.

While Jeffrey Eugenides is trying to correct things out with the anatomy of intersex and the emotions they truly felt in “Middlesex,” Clarrisa Dalloway is seemingly not ready yet to admit her bisexual relationship with her childhood friend Sally in an ever-changing society to she belongs.

“The Hours,” on the other hand, presents three queer women who are experiencing similar situations to Dalloway. Lastly, “The Forever War” unravels a world that encourages everyone to be in a homosexual relationship in the quest to lessen the population.

Conclusively, each of the novels gives us different spice and point of view that makes them worthy of your time.

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