Book Recommendations - Dove

TW: Suicide, drugs, alcohol, sexual assault

So some random book recommendations because why not?

We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson-- The main character is a gay boy who has been kidnapped by aliens who are giving him a year to decide whether or not to save the world by pressing a button. He's returned to his home and then taken every night. It's heavily implied this isn't actually happening. His ex boyfriend committed suicide. He's hooking up with a jock guy who bullies him in public. Then a new boy comes and is bi. Trigger warning for a lot of talk about suicide, some sexual assault. There's a lot of philosophical ramblings. The main character has a family member with alzheimers and his brother's girlfriend is pregnant. I'm not sure about racial representation-- reasonably sure it's pretty white. It's pretty good if you like philosophy.

Our Own Private Universe  by Robin Talley -- This book I read recently for the first time and it is really good. The main character is bisexual and that's made clear even though the love interest is a girl and there's no specific instance of male attraction. There's some Hispanic background characters but I think the main characters are white. There's some sex scenes between the main two girls. Actually, quite a few. It explicitly brings up safe sex. There's some homophobia, but no hate crimes.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Book 2: The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan -- The first book in this series is good as well. There's a Muslim main character who is also a Valkyrie and is betrothed. She's happy with her betrothal and it's not seen as a weird thing. There is a genderfluid character. There's some implied transphobia and the main character, Magnus Chase, makes a few mistakes, and he's suitably shamed. The character is a badass and it's implied that the character is going to be part of the main cast for the rest of the series. This character is only introduced in book 2, though. The main character is homeless.

All the Rage by Courtney Summers-- Major major trigger warning for sexual assault and rape. All the main characters and white and cishet. It's a novel about a rape survivor. Not a lot to say.

Shade Me by Jennifer Brown-- Trigger warning for descriptions of gore, gun violence, stalking, and prostitution. The main character, Niki Kill, has synethesia. All main characters are white and cishet. Her synesthia helps her solve the murder mystery because another character (spoilers) also has it. It hurts her academically at times. I couldn't say if it's good representation because I don't have synesthesia-- not sure how to spell that, but it's a really good thriller and suspenseful.

If I Were Your Girl by Meredith Russo-- Trigger warning for suicide, hate crimes, rape, and being publicly outed in addition to general transphobia/homophobia. The maincharacter is a transgirl. She's white and straight, passes easily, and is extremely attraction without trying, but it's written by a trans author.

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Gavin -- Trigger warning for hate crimes and lots of homophobic/transphobic slurs and suicide. The main character, Riley, is genderfluid. Their friend/love interest sexuality is never explicitly stated, only as 'having standards' and the maincharacter 'being them.' Their other friend is Latino and fat. Riley + the friend/love interest are both white. This is my favorite book in this vein, like, ever. It really helps out and rereading it makes me feel like I'm not alone. And that there are girls out there who will date people like me as well. <3 so good.