12 must-read queer books like People Collide by Isle McElroy

Cover of People Collide by Isle McElroy

People Collide

By: Isle McElroy

3.55

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

From the acclaimed author of The Atmospherians —“a Fight Club for the Millennial Generation” (Mat J…

If you liked the queer plot in People Collide by Isle McElroy , here is a list of 12 books like this:

Cover of All Fours by Miranda July

1. All Fours

By: Miranda July

3.81

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

The New York Times–bestselling author of The First Bad Man returns with an irreverently sexy, tende… read more

Similar categories in Miranda July's All Fours book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"But maybe the road split between: a life spent longing vs. a life that was continually surprising"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"Maybe we shouldn't do that," Jordi said. "Flatten ourselves like that. Erratic doesn't have to mean crazy or irresponsible. Shouldn't we be normalizing change?"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"I guess any calling, no mater what it is, is a kind of unresolved ache," I said, giving in to knowing more than him. "It's a problem that you can't fix, but there is some relief in knowing you will c…"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"For me lying created just the right amount of problems and what you saw was just one of my four or five faces- each real, each with different needs. The only dangerous lie was one that asked me to co…"

-Miranda July, All Fours

Cover of Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

2. Beautyland

By: Marie-Helene Bertino

4.15

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel ab… read more

Similar categories in Marie-Helene Bertino's Beautyland book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • science fiction
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of Family Meal by Bryan Washington

3. 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 Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of Day by Michael Cunningham

4. Day

By: Michael Cunningham

3.57

Format: 273 pages, Hardcover

As the world changes around them, a family weathers the storms of growing up, growing older, fallin… read more

Similar categories in Michael Cunningham's Day book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"Here, then, is the answer. A degree of cruelty is necessary because Garth, like most men, can only deposit his needs at her feet, can only declare his love—that romantic hallucination, which would be…"

-Michael Cunningham, Day

Cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

5. 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 Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
Cover of Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

6. Come and Get It

By: Kiley Reid

3.38

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

A fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a profe… read more

Similar categories in Kiley Reid's Come and Get It book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"Kennedy hadn't considered it before, that to write something beautiful you just do it regular, and then you pull out a red pen."

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

"Washing her sheets was another thing she'd failed to do. She washed her clothes—every weekend—but when it came to the bedsheets, she'd get stressed out or she'd forget. And then there was too much ti…"

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

"Okay, sometimes—just being honest— Millie can be . . . a little ghetto." On the word little, Tyler held two fingers an inch apart. "Nooo. Don't say that. Ah love Millie." "But I'm not saying it like …"

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

Cover of Death Valley by Melissa Broder

7. Death Valley

By: Melissa Broder

3.49

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has… read more

Similar categories in Melissa Broder's Death Valley book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"My body is the real problem here. If I could be bodiless - or at least, senseless - I’d be better off."

-Melissa Broder, Death Valley

"This is the problem with human relationships: you come to a person with one feeling and they’re having another."

-Melissa Broder, Death Valley

"I am going to die out here. I might. I could. Die. All this time I should have been practising for dying. What was I doing instead? Reading reviews for sweatpants."

-Melissa Broder, Death Valley

"Stop placing so much value on the known, I tell myself. Fake like this is the hero’s journey. It’s good to get lost. Good for the soul. But how lost is the good amount of lost? If I die here, is that…"

-Melissa Broder, Death Valley

Cover of Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter

8. Terrace Story

By: Hilary Leichter

3.58

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

From the author of the acclaimed novel Temporary, an intimate exploration of time, a fable about lo… read more

Similar categories in Hilary Leichter's Terrace Story book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • science fiction
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"Of course, I know the details. I just reject your premise," the woman said. "What premise?" "The premise that there is no love when a person is alone."

-Hilary Leichter, Terrace Story

Cover of Open Throat by Henry Hoke

9. 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 Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • queer
Cover of People Collide by Isle McElroy

10. People Collide

By: Isle McElroy

3.55

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

From the acclaimed author of The Atmospherians —“a Fight Club for the Millennial Generation” (Mat J… read more

Similar categories in Isle McElroy's People Collide book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

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

11. 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 Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
Cover of The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez

12. The Vulnerables

By: Sigrid Nunez

3.61

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

The New York Times –bestselling, National Book Award–winning author of The Friend and What Are You … read more

Similar categories in Sigrid Nunez's The Vulnerables book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeli…"

-Sigrid Nunez, The Vulnerables

Cover of Do You Remember Being Born? by Sean   Michaels

13. Do You Remember Being Born?

By: Sean Michaels

3.83

Format: 335 pages, Hardcover

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 PARAGRAPHE HUGH MACLENNAN AWARD FOR FICTION Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner… read more

Similar categories in Sean Michaels's Do You Remember Being Born? book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • science fiction
  • audiobook
"I opened my eyes: soft light, morning, cool. The shimmer of a dream as it departed. I have always enjoyed waking up to different weather, as if the world's been up to something in the night."

-Sean Michaels, Do You Remember Being Born?

"A poem-shaped space, I thought. A poem-shaped space. I tried to hold a poem-shaped space in my mind. Sometimes the work of life is like preparing a bedroom for a guest: sweeping the floor, emptying t…"

-Sean Michaels, Do You Remember Being Born?

"Some of what makes us human is our smallness. The brevity of our lifespans, the shortness of our memories, the narrowness of each person's field of vision. My Marian-ness is in the slender sample of …"

-Sean Michaels, Do You Remember Being Born?

"Art is husbandry, I thought. It is an experiment in imaginary kinship. Bring together this mare and this stallion; this marriage and this moon; this sun and this daughter. Poems, paintings, pop songs…"

-Sean Michaels, Do You Remember Being Born?

Cover of Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse by Brontez Purnell

14. Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse

By: Brontez Purnell

4.16

Format: 144 pages, Paperback

"This book is brutal and brutally honest, but still perversely addictive because Brontez Purnell is… read more

Similar categories in Brontez Purnell's Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • queer
  • lgbt
Cover of Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

15. 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 Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • 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 Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

16. Land of Milk and Honey

By: C Pam Zhang

3.54

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

The award-winning author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold returns with a rapturous and revelatory… read more

Similar categories in C Pam Zhang's Land of Milk and Honey book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • science fiction
  • queer
" Real food is whatever cooks are proud to make. "

-C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

"We all die. We have only the choice, if we are privileged, of whether death comes with a whimper or a bang; of what worlds we taste before we go."

-C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

"My employer was attuned to patterns of human behavior in which he could not take part; because he failed to be swept up in their currents, he could, from his remove, map the tides."

-C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

"What sustains in the end are doomed romances, and nicotine, and crappy peanut butter, damn the additives and cholesterol because life is finite and not all nourishment can be measured."

-C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

Cover of The Book of Love by Kelly Link

17. The Book of Love

By: Kelly Link

3.50

Format: 628 pages, Hardcover

The Book of Love showcases Kelly Link at the height of her powers, channeling potent magic and attu… read more

Similar categories in Kelly Link's The Book of Love book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee

18. Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind

By: Molly McGhee

3.50

Format: 304 pages, None

Jonathan Abernathy is drowning in debt. If he can appear to be competent at his new job, he might h… read more

Similar categories in Molly McGhee's Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • science fiction
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

19. Idlewild

By: James Frankie Thomas

4.14

Format: 389 pages, Hardcover

James Frankie Thomas’s Idlewild is a darkly funny story of two adults looking back on their intense… read more

Similar categories in James Frankie Thomas's Idlewild book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"What we mean to say, but what Ms Spider is not equipped to understand, is that Iago is gay in the way that all the best fictional murderers are gay. Norman Bates, Tom Ripely, The titular Third Man, a…"

-James Frankie Thomas, Idlewild

Cover of Mood Swings by Frankie Barnet

20. Mood Swings

By: Frankie Barnet

3.73

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

In a pre-apocalyptic world not unlike our own, a young Instagram poet starts an affair with a Calif… read more

Similar categories in Frankie Barnet's Mood Swings book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler

21. Banal Nightmare

By: Halle Butler

3.64

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

A ferocious novel by one of the boldest voices in American fiction and the author of The New Me, th… read more

Similar categories in Halle Butler's Banal Nightmare book and Isle McElroy's People Collide

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook

20 best-selling fiction books like People Collide by Isle McElroy

Transform Your Habits

All Fours

Miranda July

3.81

Transform Your Habits

Beautyland

Marie-Helene Bertino

4.15

Transform Your Habits

Family Meal

Bryan Washington

3.56

Transform Your Habits

Day

Michael Cunningham

3.57

View all the books

21 must-read fiction books like Day by Michael Cunningham

Transform Your Habits

After Annie

Anna Quindlen

4.03

Transform Your Habits

The Wren, the Wren

Anne Enright

3.55

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

Leaving

Roxana Robinson

3.87

View all the books

Never miss a story from us, get weekly updates in your inbox.