Hello Netflix, I come to you at the moment with some recommendations for LGBTQ+ books and graphic novels to adapt into movies. Additionally, please populate the roles with queer actors!
Again in February 2021 (looks like eons since then), CNN reported on the findings of The Netflix Variety Audit. Lengthy story quick? Whereas Netflix improved in sure areas, it nonetheless must do extra. Right here at E book Riot, we’ve already posted some recommendations of works you may adapt to fill these gaps: queer, Black, multicultural romances, Latinx-led adaptations, and tales specializing in disabled people. However that isn’t all, my pals. We would like extra. And, in my case, I would like extra LGBTQ+ books became films.

Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabby Rivera and Celia Moscote
This exists in each ebook and graphic comedian kind, however I consumed it in graphic novel kind so I’ll base my emotions on that model. Juliet is a queer Puerto Rican lady from the Bronx, and he or she takes off for a summer season internship in Portland with Harlowe Brisbane, the white feminist creator of Raging Flower: Empowering Your Pussy.
All of us love a coming-of-age expertise, don’t we? In Juliet’s case, she meets and joins a neighborhood of sensible, queer Black writers, dates a horny library intern named Kira, turns into extra snug in her physique, and learns about intersectional feminist ideologies. What. A. Summer time. Moreover, there may be an insightful critique of “white girls feminism” that may be very needed.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor
The writing on this ebook is vivid and breathtaking, and Taylor’s consideration to element provides every second a cinematic high quality. On this semi-autobiographical story, Wallace is a homosexual, Black doctoral pupil residing in a predominantly white Midwestern city whereas he finishes his PhD.
As a shy younger man from Alabama, he wrestles with numerous complexities as he tries to determine what he desires to do along with his life. There’s a complicated tryst with an ostensibly straight good friend, the frustration of a mysteriously failed research, and the stress to reply politely to fixed microaggressions in his friendships and dealing relationships. On the entire, the ebook is unputdownable and, in the precise director’s fingers, a film model can be beautiful.

The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
Neela and Rukmini are two South Asian girls musicians who kind a powerful friendship after Rukmini covers one in every of Neela’s songs. Sadly, whereas Rukmini’s star is rising, Neela continues to battle at attaining success. Ultimately, the stress builds till a single tweet causes a doubtlessly irreparable rift between them.
The music scene that they inhabit is vibrantly portrayed, as the 2 girls battle to make their means in a irritating, tough trade. It is a layered, fast-paced novel coping with friendship, race, profession, and artwork.

Bestiary by Okay-Ming Chang
Nominated for a slew of awards, the story follows three generations of Taiwanese American girls, mixing fabulism with queer romance in a “half coming-of-age and half mythological retelling” (Chang’s personal phrases on GoodReads).
Telling a singular, folktale-inspired story by the use of generational saga, these three girls’s tales are proven by means of blurring genres. At instances violent and grotesque, at instances lovely and transferring, it is a story the viewers wouldn’t overlook anytime quickly.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Why haven’t I heard a movie model of this being mentioned but? Studying it’s so visceral that the expertise was already film-like. Plus, the bumbling, affable Arthur Much less would make for a humorous, flawed romcom hero. I’ve really useful this earlier than and I’ll once more, eternally and ever.
Arthur, a novelist of some reputation, has tumbled into center age and is feeling very uncomfortable about it. After getting an invite to his ex’s marriage ceremony and wanting an excuse to skip it, Much less embarks on a sequence of jaunts around the globe — hopping round worldwide literary occasions. This has all the things: well-developed characters, scenic settings, and a deliciously glad ending.

Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner
This feminist celesbian romance would undoubtedly make for a enjoyable watch. Jo is a powerhouse showrunner with no time for enjoyable, whose impartial way of life is immediately shaken up. However why? Nicely, by burgeoning emotions for her attentive, succesful, and cunning assistant Emma. After working collectively for a yr and slowly changing into pals, issues get difficult when the paps catch the 2 girls in a suggestive photograph — is their relationship nonetheless absolutely skilled?
This isn’t all fluff both, there’s a critical subplot involving the #MeToo motion and on-set harassment. That is precisely the kind of ebook that Netflix likes to show right into a summer season of affection romcom — Emma’s sister even owns a bakery, which looks like a chief setting for some wooing.

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Ava lacks heat and confidence. A loner, she has left her native Dublin to show English in Hong Kong. Although she isn’t good at making pals, she is sweet at males, she tells us. So it isn’t lengthy earlier than she turns into concerned with Julian, a British banker who appears to love her however received’t commit. They get pleasure from one another’s firm, bantering continuously, and he invitations her to maneuver into the spare room. To save cash and go away an uncomfortable residing association, she agrees.
Ultimately, although, Julian goes house to London for six months. Whereas residing in Julian’s place alone, she falls for Edith, a cute, intelligent lawyer from a well-off Hong Kong household. As Ava has at all times struggled to attach with folks, which of those two does she really feel extra comfortable with? Usually, this could be superior to see — it’s uncommon to see a personality’s bisexuality offered so fortunately and matter-of-factly.
So there they’re, Netflix. Please adapt these LGBTQ+ books. I’ll be prepared and ready, popcorn and licorice at my aspect.