To celebrate this Pride month, our librarians have selected their favourite teen novels with LGBTQIA+ main characters and that sensitively discuss the difficulties they encounter due to their gender and/or sexual orientation, as well as celebrating their difference and resilience!
Porté Disparu (12+)
Brigitte Giraud
Brigitte Giraud uses the point of view of several characters to showcase the different relationships to a character's homosexuality, reactions that cross the spectrum from homophobia to complete acceptance. Livio is known as a shy teenager, but one day, he puts himself on the spot by doing an in-depth presentation on Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish German physician and sexologist who fought for equality and gay rights. This is not to the liking of everyone in his classroom and some classmates involve their parents and the school authorities. Following this outcry, Livio runs away, and his classmates, parents and teachers are left to try to understand him and make sense of what happened. A novel about courage and coming out by the winner of the prestigious prix Goncourt 2022.
📚 Coming soon to La Médiathèque
Oh, boy! (12+)
Marie-Aude Murail
Siméon, Morgane and Venise suddenly find themselves orphaned. Where to go and who to entrust them to? All three want to stay together. The children's home can't take them all, and there might be the possibility of being fostered by their half-siblings. But Josiane, a very serious dentist, only wants to look after the cute youngest, and the other, Bart, is fun but completely irresponsible. Oh Boy! is about life, and its ups and downs. The book tackles a range of subjects, both serious and light, with subtlety and intelligence, including family, childhood, adoption, homosexuality, illness, domestic violence and death.... And above all, we laugh, a lot. You won't forget its characters, who are as whimsical and surprising as they are endearing
Ton absence (14+)
Guillaume Nail
This new novel (end of 2022) by Guillaume Nail is the romance of our selection. It's also the one that showcases love and sexuality and delves into the questions surrounding these themes, all through the eyes of a first person protagonist.
Leo, his friends, and a bunch of other teenagers, are training to be future summer camp leaders. Straight away, he is mesmerized by Matthieu, but his group of friends is not so in love with him. Especially, Damien, a dominating teen with toxic views, that makes a point to "hunt him down". Leo is stuck between his growing feeling for Matthieu and his need to belong to the group...
📚 Coming soon to La Médiathèque
A copier 100 fois (16+*)
Antoine Dole
Antoine Dole, who is better known for his comic book series Mortelle Adèle, delivered a short but poignant novel about homophobia and bullying.
The main character lives alone with his father, and the latter, seeing his son coming back with bruises after school, keeps telling him he should "man up": "Daddy told me a hundred times how I should be." Through his eyes, you read how he gets stuck between the physical violence he receives from some homophobic classmates and the feeling of not being accepted and loved as who he is in his home. Until the point it might be just too much to bear.
*We consider this novel is for 16+ because of some mature themes: physical agression, suicide attempt.
Gabriel.le (16+*)
Vivien Bessières
Vivien Bessières delivers a novel about the conflicts and questions around gender and sexuality that can fill a teenager's life. In high school, nobody knows for sure if Gaby is a girl, and Gaby keeps their answers ambiguous, after all, whose business is it anyway? After a party at their house however, a picture of them is leaked by a mysterious account on social media. Gaby is adamant it's been photo-edited and they’re on the prowl to find the photographer and they have a tool to help them: an unused medical machine that records a person's traumas through their own eyes. Will Gaby find the culprit? A fusion of sci-fi, mystery and social drama, that tackles important questions around harassment and gender identity.
*We consider this novel is for 16+ because of some mature themes: sexual encounters, trauma and sexual agression.