18 must-read queer books like Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Cover of Real Life by Brandon  Taylor

Real Life

By: Brandon Taylor

3.80

Format: 329 pages, Hardcover

A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, f…

"Miller: "You are so determined to be unknowable." Wallace: "We are always unknowable."

-Brandon Taylor, Real Life

"Miller: "You are so determined to be unknowable." Wallace: "We are always unknowable."

-Brandon Taylor, Real Life

"Memory sifts. Memory lifts. Memory makes due with what it is given. Memory is not about facts. Memory is an inconsistent measurement of the pain in one’s life."

-Brandon Taylor, Real Life

"Memory sifts. Memory lifts. Memory makes due with what it is given. Memory is not about facts. Memory is an inconsistent measurement of the pain in one’s life."

-Brandon Taylor, Real Life

If you liked the queer plot in Real Life by Brandon Taylor , here is a list of 18 books like this:

Cover of The Idiot by Elif Batuman

1. The Idiot

By: Elif Batuman

3.66

Format: 423 pages, Hardcover

A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself… read more

Similar categories in Elif Batuman's The Idiot book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"For a while now, I have been conscious of a tension in my relationship with you,"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"Lighting a match felt exciting and a little bit dangerous, and when the flame came into contact with the paper, it made a sound like the needle coming down on a record player—like the music was about…"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"For the first time in my life, I couldn't think of anything I particularly wanted to study or to do. I still had the old idea of being a writer, but that was being, not doing. It didn't say what you …"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"Suddenly it occurred to me that maybe the point of writing wasn't just to record something past but also to prolong the present, like in One Thousand and One Nights, to stretch out the time until the…"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

Cover of What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell

2. What Belongs to You

By: Garth Greenwell

4.29

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher enters a public bathroom beneath Sofia's Na… read more

Similar categories in Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • queer
Cover of Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

3. Giovanni’s Room

By: James Baldwin

4.33

Format: 224 pages, Paperback

Set in the contemporary Paris of American  expatraites, liasons, and violence, a young man finds  h… read more

Similar categories in James Baldwin's Giovanni’s Room book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • novels
  • queer
"Nobody can stay in the Garden of Eden."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"...for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"I loved her as much as ever and I still did not know how much that was."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

Cover of Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

4. Our Wives Under the Sea

By: Julia Armfield

3.78

Format: 240 pages, Paperback

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep-sea mission that ende… read more

Similar categories in Julia Armfield's Our Wives Under the Sea book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"El océano profundo es una casa embrujada: un lugar donde se mueven en la oscuridad cosas que no deberían existir."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"She refused almost every aspect of my help, the way women will when they've been bred to accept little more than the baset civility."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"I don't know why I expected you to read my mind,' I say, when I call back to leave her a message, 'I was just doing what I always do, assuming the world revolves around me."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"The space around us is a claw half grasped, holding tight without quite crushing, and I wish, in the idle way I always wish these days, that I felt more confident in my ability to breathe."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

Cover of Penance by Eliza  Clark

5. Penance

By: Eliza Clark

3.90

Format: 336 pages, ebook

Do you know what happened already? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did you li… read more

Similar categories in Eliza Clark's Penance book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Do you know what happened to her already? Did you catch it in the papers? Are you local? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did some website the trawls local news for the worst details…"

-Eliza Clark, Penance

Cover of Henry Henry by Allen Bratton

6. Henry Henry

By: Allen Bratton

3.65

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Henry Henry is a queer reimagining of Shakespeare's Henriad, transposing the legend of Henry V's wa… read more

Similar categories in Allen Bratton's Henry Henry book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"Make life, make life, make life. What sort of life? We can prune and water and weed ourselves, but we can't stop the rot once it gets in."

-Allen Bratton, Henry Henry

Cover of The New Life by Tom  Crewe

7. The New Life

By: Tom Crewe

3.77

Format: 392 pages, Hardcover

Two Victorian marriages, two dangerous love affairs, one extraordinary partnership . . .London, 189… read more

Similar categories in Tom Crewe's The New Life book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • adult
  • queer
"Science requires a rational audience."

-Tom Crewe, The New Life

"True development does not respect comfort."

-Tom Crewe, The New Life

"We British are used to being ruthless, of course, but only the men. The women aren't. We don't grab. We shouldn't . But we have to, to make some room for ourselves."

-Tom Crewe, The New Life

"...John wondered if she would ever be so unthinkingly imperious again; whether her childish powers of command would survive the dislocation from home, the knowledge of her smallness in the greater wo…"

-Tom Crewe, The New Life

Cover of Family Meal by Bryan Washington

8. Family Meal

By: Bryan Washington

3.56

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot, an irresistible, intimate novel abo… read more

Similar categories in Bryan Washington's Family Meal book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of The Guest by Emma Cline

9. The Guest

By: Emma Cline

3.29

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A young woman pretends to be someone she isn't in this stunning novel by the New York Times bestsel… read more

Similar categories in Emma Cline's The Guest book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Younger men had to make everything mean something, had to turn every choice and preference into a referendum on their personality."

-Emma Cline, The Guest

"He assumed her attention when he spoke. He had his insecurities, his anxieties. But underlying it all was the certainty that the world would be generous in its orientation toward him."

-Emma Cline, The Guest

"All the women in the show hated each other, hated each other so much, just so they could avoid hating their husbands. Only their little dogs, blinking from their laps, seemed real: they were the wome…"

-Emma Cline, The Guest

Cover of Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

10. Swimming in the Dark

By: Tomasz Jedrowski

4.26

Format: 191 pages, Hardcover

Set in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of communism, a tender and passionate story o… read more

Similar categories in Tomasz Jedrowski's Swimming in the Dark book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"Little sparks cause fires too."

-Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

"I avoided you, so that you couldn’t avoid me."

-Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

"Selfish. Growing into yourself is nothing but that."

-Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

"See it as a game– everyone knows the rules. And if you can’t change them, there’s no point in worrying."

-Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

Cover of Young Mungo by Douglas   Stuart

11. Young Mungo

By: Douglas Stuart

4.38

Format: 390 pages, Hardcover

Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo and James are born under different stars--Mungo a … read more

Similar categories in Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"It was a nothing that felt like an everything."

-Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

"He hadn’t known that the sky could hold so many hues – or he hadn’t paid it any mind before. Did anyone in Glasgow look up?"

-Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

"Mungo watched as his siblings gathered up their belongings. He saw them with an unusual clarity. It was already over for them. It would never be over for him. He just had no one to tell."

-Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

"They had crossed this line a day or two before. They had wandered from timid tenderness to affection wrapped in insults. It was a lovely place for two boys to be: honest, exciting, immature."

-Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

Cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

12. Martyr!

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • queer
Cover of Blackouts by Justin Torres

13. Blackouts

By: Justin Torres

3.77

Format: 306 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling author of We the Animals, Blackouts mines lost histories--personal and collect… read more

Similar categories in Justin Torres's Blackouts book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • queer
Cover of Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna

14. Evenings and Weekends

By: Oisín McKenna

3.96

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

For fans of Sally Rooney and Torrey Peters, a taut and profoundly moving debut that follows a cast … read more

Similar categories in Oisín McKenna's Evenings and Weekends book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

15. Big Swiss

By: Jen Beagin

3.68

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is … read more

Similar categories in Jen Beagin's Big Swiss book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"¿Habla más de un idioma?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"You bullied other bullies,"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"she’d always been less of a shit-talker and more of a shit-thinker"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"At least I know where the hell I am and what’s happening. Which way is north?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

Cover of All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

16. All This Could Be Different

By: Sarah Thankam Mathews

3.85

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

Graduating into the long maw of an American recession, Sneha is one of the fortunate ones. She's mo… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Thankam Mathews's All This Could Be Different book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • queer
"The world has ended a thousand times and my name called in each new book of it."

-Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

"The world we knew has always been half-terrible, made as it is by the powerful, for the powerful. We were crowning a different one. Its birth would not be easy; no birth was."

-Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

"This is my tragedy and my great good fortune, to be the recipient of this bond, to be kept alive under its crushing warmth and weight, to be given it so freely, so much more than I have ever deserved."

-Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

"I use the present tense, but I mean, that’s the way I remember it, and these are the things I learned about it, later, and the two combined have formed my truth of a place. We all have our truth of a…"

-Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

Cover of Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

17. Greta & Valdin

By: Rebecca K. Reilly

4.05

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

An irresistible and bighearted international bestseller that follows a brother and sister as they n… read more

Similar categories in Rebecca K. Reilly's Greta & Valdin book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"I wonder what plant I would be, if I were a plant. Maybe something with big leaves that droop sulkily if not provided with the exact right amount of water and light."

-Rebecca K. Reilly, Greta & Valdin

Cover of Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

18. Cleanness

By: Garth Greenwell

3.80

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

In the highly anticipated follow-up to his beloved debut, What Belongs to You, Garth Greenwell deep… read more

Similar categories in Garth Greenwell's Cleanness book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
"Anything I am you have use for is yours."

-Garth Greenwell, Cleanness

"Even annoyance was part of the pleasure we took in each other, we were that early in love."

-Garth Greenwell, Cleanness

"Finally he laid his head on my chest. Don’t be like that, he said again as I put my arms around him. Do you see? You don’t have to be like that, he said. You can be like this."

-Garth Greenwell, Cleanness

"I wanted to root into him, even as the wind said all rootedness was a sham, there were only passing arrangements, makeshift shelters and poor harbors, I love you, I thought suddenly in that rush that…"

-Garth Greenwell, Cleanness

Cover of Real Life by Brandon  Taylor

19. Real Life

By: Brandon Taylor

3.80

Format: 329 pages, Hardcover

A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, f… read more

Similar categories in Brandon Taylor's Real Life book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • race
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
"Miller: "You are so determined to be unknowable." Wallace: "We are always unknowable."

-Brandon Taylor, Real Life

"Memory sifts. Memory lifts. Memory makes due with what it is given. Memory is not about facts. Memory is an inconsistent measurement of the pain in one’s life."

-Brandon Taylor, Real Life

"The truly awful thing about beauty is that it reminds us of our limits. Beauty is a kind of unrelenting cruelty. It takes truth, hones it to a terrifying keenness, and uses it to slice us to the bone."

-Brandon Taylor, Real Life

"It's... mostly fine," Wallace admits, getting too close to the bone. He doesn't want to go back over the thing about how grief can feel diffuse and dense all at once, like a flock of birds in the sky…"

-Brandon Taylor, Real Life

Cover of Memorial by Bryan Washington

20. Memorial

By: Bryan Washington

3.57

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

A funny, sexy, profound dramedy about two young people at a crossroads in their relationship and th… read more

Similar categories in Bryan Washington's Memorial book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
"How often do you get to learn that lesson? That sometimes you just lose?"

-Bryan Washington, Memorial

"Efteråt är vi bara två killar i en bil som håller på med någon sorts omöjlig yoga."

-Bryan Washington, Memorial

"So, the next morning, despite everything, I’m at his door. My father’s door. And then I am knocking. Waiting. It’s hard to head home without succumbing to nostalgia, standing where so many versions o…"

-Bryan Washington, Memorial

Cover of Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

21. Housemates

By: Emma Copley Eisenberg

3.66

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in a fractured America in this sp… read more

Similar categories in Emma Copley Eisenberg's Housemates book and Brandon Taylor's Real Life

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"Teaching? When it’s good? A marvel. A fucking miracle. They live, and then they turn to you to tell you about it."

-Emma Copley Eisenberg, Housemates

21 must-read fiction books like Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Transform Your Habits

The Idiot

Elif Batuman

3.66

Transform Your Habits

What Belongs to You

Garth Greenwell

4.29

Transform Your Habits

Giovanni’s Room

James Baldwin

4.33

Transform Your Habits

Our Wives Under the Sea

Julia Armfield

3.78

View all the books

21 best-selling fiction books like Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

Transform Your Habits

Perfume & Pain

Anna Dorn

4.06

Transform Your Habits

All Fours

Miranda July

3.81

Transform Your Habits

Exhibit

R.O. Kwon

3.24

Transform Your Habits

Margo's Got Money Troubles

Rufi Thorpe

3.97

View all the books

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