Diving into the kaleidoscope of queer stories, amplifying LGBTQ+ authors one narrative at a time.
While many people – both straight and gay – tend to assume that bisexual people ‘have an easier ride’ through being queer and in life in general, the opposite could not be more true. When a celebrity comes out as bisexual, they are immediately plastered across newspapers as being ‘gay’, almost as though using a buzzword generalization is more important than reporting on the true facts. What a shocker, I know.
This bi-erasure is something we should all strive to combat, and one way to do that is to read books with bisexual main characters.
While a bisexual person can certainly date or be attracted to a person of the opposite gender rather than being restricted to one gender in particular, that doesn’t mean that they suffer any less from the coming out process or anything related to it for that matter.
The opposite-gender partners or family members of bisexual people often question their integrity or leave them altogether after learning of their identity, assuming that they are somehow made unfaithful or an illegitimate partner by the fact.
And there’s a lot more to it than just that, too. The very identity of bisexual people often comes under pressure from both sides, with both straight people and queer people insisting that a person can either be ‘straight or gay’, and that being ‘in the middle’ is not valid.
On the contrary – bisexuality is not ‘the middle’ in any way that gives meaning to the implication that it should be pushed one way or another, but instead a different identity altogether.
When one notices and begins to understand this, it can be easily seen that discussing and writing about bisexuality presents a unique angle to queer rights that is not often explored but regardless deserves just as much attention.
It is very important that we don’t step over or leave behind certain groups or identities when advocating for rights of any kind, and we must be especially careful that our determination in ensuring that those rights be respected does not do harm to those who do not fit the ‘most common’ or more easily definable categories.
The aim of the LGBTQ community’s presence is to increase acceptance and allow individuals to govern themselves and their labels as they see fit, after all, do not define those labels for others and try to push them about.
So, with that said, and with a healthy appetite for learning about bisexual legends and the problems unique to bisexuality in hand, let us set out and flick through the pages of ten of the best books with bisexual main characters.
My first love was silence.
I built myself from scratch
and no one listened.
This was the best time of my life.
I used to carry the clothes
to the laundry room
and pray for all the fog
in the world to surround me.
I’d let my thoughts
catch rides with passing airplanes.
All that womanhood caught in the roof
of my mouth was like honey.
I knew it would never go bad
so I never said a word about it.
My First Love by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
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The Audible app also has features like adjustable narration speed, a sleep timer, and the ability to create bookmarks, making it easy to customize your listening experience. Additionally, Audible offers a membership program that gives members access to a certain number of audiobooks per month, making it a cost-effective option for avid listeners.
A great resource for people who want to maximize their time and make the most out of their daily activities. Try a free 30-day trial from Audible today, and you'll get access to a selection of Audible Originals and audiobooks, along with a credit to purchase any title in their premium selection, regardless of price (including many of the books on this list!)
For ebook lovers, we also recommend Scribd, basically the Netflix for Books and the best and most convenient subscription for online reading. While they have a catalog comprising over half a million books including from many bestselling authors, for some of the books on this list, you'll still have to purchase individually - either as a paperback or eBook to load on your Kindle - due to publishing house restrictions.
In this article we will cover...
- Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales
- Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler
- Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
- Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
- They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
- Bi-Normal by M.G. Higgins
- Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
- Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters
- Verona Comics by Jennifer Dugan
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales
Darcy is up to her neck in relationships and the chaos they bring – both when it comes to romance and when it comes to people’s relationships with themselves.
She is bisexual, her best friend is lesbian, her sister is transitioning, and she spends a good fraction of her time at school running a somewhat questionable relationship advice ring that tends to get her just a little too involved in other peoples’ business and troubles.
Things aren’t set to get easier, either. What little security Darcy has is soon flushed away when high school hottie Alexander Broughnam discovers her opening the locker she uses for giving advice.
At first, she thinks that everything will go straight to hell and that she will be socially doomed, but then Alexander offers her an ultimatum. He doesn’t tell anyone about what he saw and what he now knows, and in exchange for this, she helps him get his ex back together with him.
It’s not very often that the ‘love triangle’ stereotype for young adult novels branches out so that all three characters are equally interested in one another, but this niche is something that Perfect on Paper hits to a tee.
The chemistry between Darcy, her best friend Brooke, and Alexander is electric, and their interpersonal conflicts and relationships are surprisingly realistic. This book is worth a read and is a perfect kick-off to this list of books with bisexual main characters!
Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler
More than content with her group of close friends and her bright future, Lara feels pretty sure about herself and the things she wants. Or the boy that she wants, more specifically. Or… is she?
He’s certainly the prime catch – excellent at sports, excellent at making people like him, and a dream model appearance-wise, but somehow she can’t stop herself from having second thoughts. The doubts won’t leave the back of her head – doubts that have a name. Jasmine.
Her time spent with Jasmine is long in the past now – locked away amongst other memories of a distant summer – but, although she believes that she’ll never see Jasmine again, Lara cannot let them go. They haunt her false confidence and make her think that there’s perhaps someone else she should be chasing after.
All of her uncertainty and preconceptions are shattered and shaken up into chaos; however, when Jasmine unexpectedly turns up at Lara’s school and becomes a student there.
Now the things that Lara has been hiding from herself and everyone around her are a little bit closer to the surface than she’s comfortable with, and there doesn’t seem to be any possible way that she can run from the situation she’s gotten herself into.
Things are going to heat up and soon. She’s just not sure exactly how soon or with who, or what consequences having to choose between the two will have. Love can be hard sometimes, and Lara knows it.
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
Becky Albertalli is nothing short of a legend in the YA queer fiction scene – inspiring a whole new niche and subgenre with her impressive catalog of written works, which includes the hyper-famous ‘Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda’ and the movie ‘Love, Simon that came after it.
The third book written by Albertalli that is set in the ‘Simonverse’, the same world in which Simon and his related cast of characters live, Leah on the Offbeat follows one of the first book’s titular protagonist’s best friends, Leah, through her journey with sexuality and learning about herself.
Leah loves drumming and loves the members of her friend group like siblings, but she’s yet to fully round out her experiences with loving both boys and girls. She hasn’t even come out to Simon yet – whose coming out story is almost too good to be true and was the talk of the school for a long, long time after it happened.
She will have to pull the plug sooner or later, however, before she moves on to college and leaves her single mother alone, but she doesn’t want to hurt the life and the people she cares about in the process.
Albertalli’s writing is on point, as always in Lean on the Offbeat, and this story perfectly complements the style of the rest of her writing and the Simonverse in general. It’s sweet, it’s gripping, and it’s addictive to read. Worth giving a go if you love her work!
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
Humaira ‘Hani’ Khan has been popular at school for as long as she can remember – everybody has always liked her, and she has never given them a reason to see her as out of the ordinary. Never, at least until now. She’s out of the closet as bisexual, but the reaction was nothing as she expected.
Instead of being happy or outwardly homophobic, the other teens at her school are shaking their heads and claiming that she can’t possibly be bisexual. After all, she’s only ever dated guys – how could she possibly know?
Setting off on a personal quest to prove to herself and the people around her that she does indeed understand herself and her feelings, Hani makes the fatal mistake of falsely claiming that she is actually in a relationship with another girl. Not just with any girl, however, but with Ishita Dey – who the rest of her friends cannot stand and who has nothing in common with Hani.
At first, Hani is sure that she is doomed, but she’s taken aback when Ishita agrees to be part of her scam. In return for Hani teaching her how to be popular and have people like her, of course.
But, like most ‘fake dating’ arcs in romance novels, things don’t exactly work out as planned, and the pair start feeling closer than even the ‘characters’ of their relationship story do. Is it a lie, or do they feel something after all?
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
While this book’s name may seem like a sarcastic play on readers’ expectations of tropes and literary vessels, its humorous tone does nothing to belittle the quite serious and introspective story that the actual story tells. The setting is wonderful, the characters are striking, and the concept is out of this world.
They Both Die at the End takes place in an alternate world where a mega-corporation called ‘Death-Cast’ makes a practice of calling people upon the day that they are to die – regardless of causes – and gives them time to say necessary goodbyes, tie up loose ends, and leave the world in peace. They don’t know how and when they will die, only that it will be within the next 24 hours.
The story of They Both Die at the End focuses upon two teen boys named Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio – neither of whom knew the other before this fateful day, but both of which are bonded by the knowledge that today is their last day on earth.
Although they are still young and thought they had a long life ahead of themselves, now they are stuck catching up with everything they believe they will miss and saying goodbyes that they thought they would never have to say.
Where the anonymity of public life once kept them apart, their looming deaths bring them together and force them to walk through acceptance and appreciation hand in hand as the inevitable slowly comes ever closer.
Bi-Normal by M.G. Higgins
Setting out as somewhat of a knight in shining armor when it comes to exploring the quite unappreciated niche of bisexual romance in the literature world, Bi-Normal is both bold and grounded, feeling very much as though it is told from the perspective of a real person in a real, tangible world.
Brett Miller has everything set for himself – both at school and home. He’s known as one of the kings of Elkhead High and can’t help but enjoy basking in the benefits of the title. He gets the first pick at everything – food, events, who to date, and who to hang out with. Everyone vies for a piece of his attention, and everyone wants to be on his good side.
But, as it turns out, all of this doesn’t account for the one thing Brett doesn’t have in his corner – his sexuality. He is developing a crush on the new arrival Zach and there’s nothing he can do, no matter how much he would like to deny the fact. He will have to learn to accept it – and in record time, too, before the chance of a lifetime slips away.
Bi-Normal isn’t as well-known as it should be amongst literary circles, and thus reading this book and giving it the attention it deserves is certainly a rewarding experience – something like a well-kept secret. Brett’s story is uniquely told, which carries the book to levels that others cannot dream of reaching.
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
Being away from her home in L. A hasn’t been easy on Suzette. She has missed her parents, brother, and crush so much that it hurts, and she isn’t even halfway through the year yet. She has so many things tying her to the place and responsibilities there, but boarding school keeps tearing her away to New England, where nothing about her seems to fit.
Now that she’s back for a while, things aren’t as simple as she remembers them to be. Her other brother from another father has recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, meaning that he will need some loving attention from the people around him for a while, and her biological brother’s girlfriend is invoking feelings in Suzette that she didn’t know she could feel. Confusion. Uncertainty.
All sensations add up to a weight that hangs in her stomach as she tries to skirt around the betrayal of her thoughts. She can’t cheat herself, her crush, and her brother simultaneously. That’s too many hearts to hurt, but she can’t help herself.
What starts as a fairly normal family and coming-of-age slash self-discovery story soon evolves into something much deeper and more engaging as we dive into every possible layer of Suzette’s life and explore her feelings through and through. Decisions like this are hard in even the best situations, but it seems fate is looking to put her up against a rock.
Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters
Now it’s time for a bit of a spooky twist to get your back tingling and set your spine a-tickling! Written by ‘The River Has Teeth’ author Erica Waters, Ghost Wood Song is the story of Shady Grove – a fiddle-playing young woman with a dead father and an unexpected legacy.
Things are getting pretty otherworldly, and she’s the only one who can stay on top and aware. She inherited the ability to summon ghosts from their graves, along with her father’s fiddle,
But not all Shady’s problems come from beyond the grave. Her mother has remarried, her home life is on the rocks, and her best friends, Sarah and Orlando, aren’t exactly of the same mind as Shady when it comes to the kind of music they want to play in the band they share.
This isn’t helped by the fact that she’s all but explicitly together with Sarah – who is the most against her taste in blues music – and also that she is having second thoughts thanks to a hot boy in one of their rival bands, glimpsed while they had a playoff.
Not only that, but her brother has been accused of murder, and it’s on her to clear his name. She knows in her heart that she’s innocent, but it will be difficult to prove, and people aren’t exactly working with her to make it happen. It’s time for her to ask the only ones she can – those already dead and buried.
Verona Comics by Jennifer Dugan
Jennifer Dugan is well known in the YA queer fiction scene for her other works, ‘Hot Dog Girl’ and ‘Some Girls Do’, the latter of which was covered in another article on this site, but that fact does not take away from Verona Comics’ merit whatsoever.
Dugan’s romantic, touching writing style is the perfect fit for the book’s story and makes it into a memorable reading experience for just about everyone, no matter whether you’re here for the romance, the adventure, the self-discovery, or the drama. And that’s without mentioning this book’s respectful and superbly handled discussion of topics important to mental health.
Rather predictably, the story of Verona Comics centers on a store with the same name – run by Jubilee’s mother. Jubilee is a talented artist and loves what she and her mother do, even though it often means that she’s quite isolated from the world.
She isn’t alone in her passion for comics, however. One night at a comic convention, she incidentally meets a boy named Ridley – the son of the owner of one of the country’s biggest comic production chains.
He loves the art and writing worlds, but that is not enough for him to impress his entrepreneurial parents or keep them satisfied with him. The story that comes after their coincidental meeting is a multi-faceted one of falling in and out of touch, in and out of happiness, and in and out of confusion and indecision.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Some people value their lives by the measure of the impressions they leave on the people around them, and others are content to exist on their terms and do not place worth on the opinions of others.
Addie LaRue isn’t quite sure which of those two kinds of people she is, but it isn’t like she has much of choice anymore after the double-edged deal she made. The cards are on the table, and the die has been set. She will live forever, but no one will ever remember her. No legacy, no friends, no family – nothing.
Over the next three hundred years, Addie comes to regret her decision time and time again, but nothing stops her drive to enjoy life and its adventure. She embraces the world, and it embraces her back – albeit blindly. Careening across history books like an immortal Forrest Gump, she leaves her mark all on the world, even though no living person can read it or know what it means.
No sooner has she found true acceptance of her condition and resolved to never love anyone again, however, than she meets a man in a bookstore who takes her heart by storm and – most shockingly of all – remembers her name.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is colorful, different, and intensely engaging, giving the story it tells a strong taste of the ‘vampire’ eternal life trope while remaining light and dazzling rather than delving into the dark and night.
