I’m really wanting to find a good sapphic book that feels natural with characters who have good chemistry. I’m fine with any genre, but I love fantasy and dystopian novels. I haven’t read much in the past few years, tried getting into Fourth Wing but dnf after the first two chapters cause the writing made me cringe, and it kinda creeped me out that a fully grown woman was writing from the perspective of a horny ass 20 yr old (imo 20 yr olds are still teenagers 🤣). The protagonist just sounded like she was still 16 and I couldn’t get into it whatsoever. I’ve looked at Priory of the Orange Tree but I’m a bit hesitant that the hype overshadows the actual quality of the contents. I really want to start reading more though so any recommendations would be much appreciated!
by Ok-Bird-1705
10 Comments
The Safekeep – Yael Van Der Wouden – one of the best books I read this year. Booker nominee.
i really actually enjoyed priory, as well as the prequel (there’s another one that came out this year that i haven’t read yet).
this is how you lose the time war is amazing fantastic, very poetic and conceptual.
i’ve had gideon the ninth recommended to me so many times, and it’s likely next on my TBR. the cover looks like YA but i’ve had people tell me it’s really not indicative of the quality of the book itself. the friends that like is are *not* YA fans
Drop “sapphic” from your search terms
Try something written by Sarah Waters. Maybe Tipping the Velvet.
Bury Our Bokes in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab – though be warned, they’re all toxic af, but it’s a good read.
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (2021)
An epic fantasy inspired by Indian mythology and history, featuring a sapphic romance. Part 1 of a trilogy, I believe.
The Isle of the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri (2025)
Sapphic romantasy and historical fantasy with two complex and intriguing characters. This one is set in an inverted island of Britain.
I haven’t read either of these books yet, but they’re on my list. If you do read either of them, feel free to report back and let us know how you’re enjoying them.
Edit to say if the romance is the most important component (like, you want it to be a big focus of the book), start with The Isle of the Silver Sea.
Our Wives Under The Sea and Private Rites, both by Julia Armfield. Both very sapphic, both sit in the realm of like magical realism/light sff. Both feature sapphic women in their 30s dealing with sff/magical realist environmental disasters and things. Our Wives Under The Sea: the main character is a marine biologist who has come back Wrong from a deep sea submarine dive. Her wife is desperate to help her but the main character is unable to communicate what happened to her. The story switches between the two POVs as the main character flashes back to what happened to her underwater and the wife tries to care for the woman she loves in the ways she knows how. Private Rites: a novel inspired by King Lear. In a post-environmental apocalypse England, three estranged (all sapphic) sisters must decide what to do with their father’s estate after he dies.
A personal recommendation for Our Wives: I work in a bookstore, and I started reading the book in the last hour of my shift and then read it on the bus home as well. When I got home, I started to make myself dinner, and I had to stop making food so I could sit down and finish the book first because it was so good.
Cecilia by K Ming Chang. A young woman working as a cleaner encounters her old high school crush on the bus one day. Now adults, they start to chat when they run into each other, but it brings back past feelings and memories for the narrator.
Playboy by Constance Debre. This book has mixed reviews. This is a fictionalized autobiography of the author, who decided to divorce her husband and leave him and their teenage son when she realized she was a lesbian. Playboy is a chronicle of her first few lesbian relationships and/or affairs after. I was pretty neutral about it but some people really liked it.
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. After the death of her wife, X, the unnamed narrator decides to do research into X’s past, which had remained shadowy and mutable the entire time they were together. The novel takes place in an alternate universe USA where the country is divided along civil war(ish) lines into two distinct areas with different governments and laws etc. The narrator begins to uncover the secret past her wife had, participating in southern rebellions and living an activist life before changing her identity and becoming a famous artist in the north in New York.
In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. A fictionalized/creative autobiography of the author’s abusive relationship and how she got out. It is written as a horror novel, in a very creative and experimental way, with different chapters written in different styles or using different prompts or themes.
As a start, see my [LBGTQ+ Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/18fnpyh/lbgtq_fiction/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (one post). All genres.
Pain & Perfume by Anna Dorn has characters ranging from their 30s to their 50s. It’s kind of unhinged though, in the vein of Otessa Moshfegh, inspired by lesbian pulp novels.
I loved Priory of the Orange Tree this year.
An Education in Malice by ST Gibson is dark academia sapphic joy – a retelling of Carmella.
Rubyfruit jungle by Rita Mae Brown.