You know what’s even more exciting than “Cat Sebastian’s next book”? Cat Sebastian’s first contemporary. I love her historicals and breathe in every one as they release, but there’s something exciting about an author who is excellent at writing the past translating that to the present. Star Shipped is about two guys who definitely don’t like each other, thanks to having extremely opposite personalities and having to work closely together for the past several years. But there’s apparently a road trip! And knowing Cat, there are going to be so many Feelings I won’t be able to handle it. —Jessica Pryde

If Sky Daddy was 2025’s unhinged take on Moby-Dick, Hell’s Heart is 2026’s. Given that Moby-Dick is my favorite book of all time, I am always eager to read anything that claims it as an influence. This spacefaring version follows the narrator I in pursuit of spermaceti, a hallucinogen produced by Leviathans swimming in Jupiter’s currents. With women cast in the roles of Ishmael, Ahab, and Queequeg, this book promises a story even more queer than the original, and that’s saying something. —Isabelle Popp

(Father Material by Alexis Hall is also on the Book Riot Most Anticipated list!)

I once read a horror story by L. D. Lewis that frightened me so much that I put the book down for a full year before picking it up again. This is a violent, dark sapphic extension of The Little Mermaid tale that will for sure keep you reading up past your bedtime. We know how Arielle got her fairytale ending, but Yemi, her granddaughter, is living a much different life. Yemi’s father, the king, was assassinated, and her mother is dying. A coup forces Yemi into exile, and the only place she can think of turning to is to Ursla, the sea-witch. Yemi wants vengeance and so, too, does Ursla. Will Yemi be tempted by her own rage and Ursla’s power? —Patricia Elzie-Tuttle

I reach for Steven Rowley’s books when I need something that will mend my heart. His characters tend to stay on my mind after I’ve finished reading their stories. I’m excited to get to know the ones in Take Me With You. It follows Jesse, a college professor who seeks to not just investigate but understand his husband Norman’s disappearance. As far as Jesse remembers, Norman stepped into a beam of light and was gone. Even if that really happened and it was not a product of his stress-addled spiral, why did he leave Jesse behind? —Andy Minshew

The graveyard gays are back! It’s been almost six years since Aiden Thomas first introduced us to Yadriel and Julian (and my fave, Maritza, a real one). This fall, we’re headed back to the graveyard in Espíritu, which follows Julian as he navigates life post sacrificial ritual. Things are mostly pretty sweet—except for the part where he sees shadows in his eyes, glowing eyes in the dark, and these ominous dark spots on people that no one can explain. There’s also a mysterious new nonbinary bruje in the mix, one who Julian is drawn to but Yadriel is looking at with some side eye for their cutthroat approach to brujeria. Let’s gooooo. —Vanessa Diaz

Chloe Michelle Howarth’s Sunburn got a lot of buzz, so fans have been counting down to the U.S. release of the follow-up. It’s being pitched as a “new take on sapphic obsession, for fans of All Our Wives Under the Sea,” which instantly put it on my TBR. It follows a set of siblings who have just moved to the town of Ballycrea in 1965. A wealthy, childless couple in their forties takes them under their wing, but one of the sisters soon becomes obsessed with the wife, Betty. And the siblings are hiding secrets about their past.

In this dark academia YA fantasy, Anabelle Gage is trapped inside a rotting body. Her plan is to gain admittance to the Paragon Academy, which offers a new chassis to all students. When she fails, she resorts to stealing a healthy body—and is caught. To avoid execution, she takes the only other offer available to her: becoming a mercenary for the Paragon Academy. She will have to team up with an assassin and bombmaker to survive.

This sapphic fantasy by a trans author has gotten starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal!

Sapphic gothic novels are having a moment, and I am here for it. I can’t resist the combination of sapphic longing and a creeping sense of doom. At Briarley School for Girls in 1928, something sinister is spreading, rotting meat and curdling milk. Then the body count begins to climb. Emily is convinced her captivating classmate Violet’s death was not natural, and she intends to prove it. She teams up with rival Evelyn to try to contact Violet from beyond the veil. Through the medium of Evelyn, Violet warns that the danger has only begun. This promises “teenage repression, queer desire, and the everyday horror of coming of age.”

Dan Moran has made it: his autofictional trans novel was published, and he’s teaching writing while he works on his new psychological thriller. But when he receives a mislabelled envelope with a photo of his dead brother inside, he decides to play detective, returning to his estranged family’s home to investigate. Instead of the information he sought about his brother, though, he finds uncomfortable truths about the gap between how we view ourselves and how others view us. This promises to be “an existential noir, an absurd comedy, a complex character study, and a heartbreaking inquiry into the paradox of identity, memory, and the very enterprise of writing fiction.”

Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer, is back with a middle grade graphic novel! Saachi is starting seventh grade, and suddenly, everyone seems to be talking about getting a boyfriend or girlfriend. Saachi wants to hold onto her interest in creating fantasy worlds, but she feels like she’s been left behind. To make things worse, Saachi’s body is changing, but she doesn’t feel like a girl—or a boy. In a world of “pink-and-blue binaries,” Saachi is looking for a way to opt out and forge her own path.

Sasha is a 19-year-old musician whose album of love songs has gone viral. Everyone is gossiping about who her muse is, the one who broke her heart—and Sasha knows that they don’t want to hear that she’s asexual and aromantic, and that she used her favorite love stories from fiction as inspiration. When photos leak of her with her estranged best friend, Kai, Sasha is roped into a PR relationship with him for six months. The time together helps Sasha and Kai to mend their friendship, but Sasha resents having to fake a romance in a world that prioritizes romantic love over platonic love.

This trans romantasy is a mash-up of Sailor Moon, Sex and the City, and House of Leaves—what more could you want? It’s the classic story: “She was a trans girl who was also an intergalactic moth-goddess. He was a trans guy who piloted a giant robotic tiger.” They had a tumultuous enemies-to-lovers romance before their universes diverged. Now, he’s back, and Acrasia will stop at nothing to keep him in her life—even if it means endangering both their worlds.

This year, we’re getting the follow-up to the anthology Being Ace, Being Aro! These 12 YA short stories in a range of genres celebrate aromantic love, including: “A high school matchmaker learns a lesson about love. A rebellious spaceship pilot defies his culture’s compulsory coupling. A boy magically transforms banned romance novels into living dragons. A teen immune to romance, and the zombie virus, fights to survive the apocalypse.”

From the author of On a Sunbeam and Spinning, this is a graphic biography of Charity and Sylvia, a lesbian couple living in 19th-century New England. It follows the two of them through 44 years of life together, carving out a space for themselves in small-town Vermont. Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home, says, “In Charity and Sylvia, the preternaturally gifted Tillie Walden surpasses herself.”

Need I say more? In 2026, we’re likely to see the end of both the Heartstopper graphic novels and the adaptation—the movie’s release date hasn’t been announced yet, but it will likely be in 2026. This final volume follows Charlie’s campaign for Head Boy and Nick’s preparation for college. Everyone knows Nick and Charlie will be together forever… but how will they navigate their relationship once Nick graduates?