18 Top queer books like Memorial by Bryan Washington

Cover of Memorial by Bryan Washington

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…

"How often do you get to learn that lesson? That sometimes you just lose?"

-Bryan Washington, Memorial

"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

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

-Bryan Washington, Memorial

If you liked the queer plot in Memorial by Bryan Washington , here is a list of 18 books like this:

Cover of In Memoriam by Alice Winn

1. In Memoriam

By: Alice Winn

4.53

Format: 382 pages, Hardcover

A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during a time of war. It'… read more

Similar categories in Alice Winn's In Memoriam book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • adult
  • queer
"It’s intimate."

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Call me Sidney,"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Where’s the rest of it?"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Do you believe in magic?"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

Cover of Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

2. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • gay
  • 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

3. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • gay
  • 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

4. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • queer
Cover of The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

5. The Rachel Incident

By: Caroline O'Donoghue

4.09

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately tr… read more

Similar categories in Caroline O'Donoghue's The Rachel Incident book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I was twenty and I needed two things: to be in love and to be taken seriously."

-Caroline O'Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

"He was a doctor and I was supposed to take what he said seriously; but he was a dentist and my dad so I didn’t."

-Caroline O'Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

"It's not that we weren't capable of warmth as a family. But we were regularly seduced by the concept of being wronged."

-Caroline O'Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

"I thought of my parents as heads on Easter Island, and it took moving two miles away to realise they had been people all along."

-Caroline O'Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

Cover of Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

6. Lie With Me

By: Philippe Besson

4.26

Format: 149 pages, Hardcover

The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson about an affair between two teenage … read more

Similar categories in Philippe Besson's Lie With Me book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • gay
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"Desire does not go out like a match, it extinguishes slowly as it burns into ash."

-Philippe Besson, Lie With Me

"I also know how much of yourself you have to leave behind in order to look like everyone else."

-Philippe Besson, Lie With Me

"You get used to everything, even the defection of those you thought you were bound to forever."

-Philippe Besson, Lie With Me

"In the end, love was only possible because he saw me not as who I was, but as the person I would become."

-Philippe Besson, Lie With Me

Cover of Open Throat by Henry Hoke

7. Open Throat

By: Henry Hoke

4.01

Format: 176 pages, Hardcover

A lonely, lovable, queer mountain lion narrates this star-making fever dream of a novel. A quee… read more

Similar categories in Henry Hoke's Open Throat book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

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

8. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

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

9. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of Filthy Animals by Brandon  Taylor

10. Filthy Animals

By: Brandon Taylor

3.64

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A group portrait of young adults enmeshed in desire and violence, a hotly charged, deeply satisfyin… read more

Similar categories in Brandon Taylor's Filthy Animals book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • gay
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados

11. Happy Hour

By: Marlowe Granados

3.50

Format: 280 pages, Paperback

With the verve and bite of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and the whip-smart, wisecracking sensibil… read more

Similar categories in Marlowe Granados's Happy Hour book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Being unattached is exhausting."

-Marlowe Granados, Happy Hour

"being a muse is not for the weak"

-Marlowe Granados, Happy Hour

"Money was limited, but my taste was not."

-Marlowe Granados, Happy Hour

"isn't a vacation when you forget what day it is?"

-Marlowe Granados, Happy Hour

Cover of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

12. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • 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 The Late Americans by Brandon  Taylor

13. The Late Americans

By: Brandon Taylor

3.38

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A deeply involving new novel of young men and women at a crossroads In the shared and private sp… read more

Similar categories in Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • gay
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of Bellies by Nicola Dinan

14. Bellies

By: Nicola Dinan

4.07

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

I wore a dress on the night I first met Ming.It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out wit… read more

Similar categories in Nicola Dinan's Bellies book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

15. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • 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

16. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • 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 Luster by Raven Leilani

17. Luster

By: Raven Leilani

3.52

Format: 227 pages, Hardcover

Edie is just trying to survive. She’s messing up in her dead-end admin job in her all-white office,… read more

Similar categories in Raven Leilani's Luster book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Based on his liberal use of the semicolon, I just assumed this date would go well."

-Raven Leilani, Luster

"I think of how keenly I've been wrong. I think of all the gods I have made out of feeble men."

-Raven Leilani, Luster

"The first time we have sex, we are both fully clothed, at our desks during working hours, bathed in blue computer light."

-Raven Leilani, Luster

"I am inclined to pray, but on principle, I don't. God is not for women. He is for the fruit. He makes you want and he makes you wicked, and while you sleep, he plants a seed in your womb that will be…"

-Raven Leilani, Luster

Cover of Real Life by Brandon  Taylor

18. 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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • 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 Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

19. Detransition, Baby

By: Torrey Peters

3.94

Format: 337 pages, Hardcover

A whipsmart debut about three women—transgender and cisgender—whose lives collide after an unexpect… read more

Similar categories in Torrey Peters's Detransition, Baby book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
"The moment elongates like pulled taffy."

-Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby

"All pain merits care, but not dogmatically egalitarian relativism."

-Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby

"The days I don't love you... I have to work hard to make those days happen."

-Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby

"She's the type to turn hardship into hardness, like a shield for people she loves."

-Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby

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 Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • gay
  • 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 Less (Arthur Less, #1) by Andrew Sean Greer

21. Less (Arthur Less, #1)

By: Andrew Sean Greer

3.63

Format: 273 pages, Kindle Edition

PROBLEM: You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail:… read more

Similar categories in Andrew Sean Greer's Less (Arthur Less, #1) book and Bryan Washington's Memorial

  • romance
  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • queer
"Maybe I’m a bad writer."

-Andrew Sean Greer, Less (Arthur Less, #1)

"Fuck love and just get fat."

-Andrew Sean Greer, Less (Arthur Less, #1)

"You should kiss me like it’s goodbye."

-Andrew Sean Greer, Less (Arthur Less, #1)

"Just for the record: happiness is not bullshit."

-Andrew Sean Greer, Less (Arthur Less, #1)

21 best-selling fiction books like Memorial by Bryan Washington

Transform Your Habits

In Memoriam

Alice Winn

4.53

Transform Your Habits

Swimming in the Dark

Tomasz Jedrowski

4.26

Transform Your Habits

Young Mungo

Douglas Stuart

4.38

Transform Your Habits

Martyr!

Kaveh Akbar

4.24

View all the books

21 must-read fiction books like The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

Transform Your Habits

Henry Henry

Allen Bratton

3.65

Transform Your Habits

The New Life

Tom Crewe

3.77

Transform Your Habits

All Fours

Miranda July

3.81

Transform Your Habits

Family Meal

Bryan Washington

3.56

View all the books

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