Christmas gift guide 2023 - fiction
by The Feminist Bookshop Team, November 2023
We had such a wonderful response to last year's Christmas Gift Guides, we decided to bring it back for 2023! Here we focus on a range of genres that are currently topping the bestseller lists, suggesting our favourite authors in these categories who are writing incredible books that otherwise often get overlooked.
You can read our 2023 non-fiction gift guide here.
Easy, feel good reads
Under the Rainbow
A bunch of queer activists move to the most homophobic town in the US for a year. Uplifting, hopeful, essential read.
The Call-Out
A fast-pace tragicomedy written in verse. Queer and trans celebrations. A rollercoaster of emotions!
Good Material
Dolly did it again! The perfect book to read curled up on the sofa during the festive season. No one writes on love and heartbreak like Dolly does!
Queer teens
Gwen & Art Are Not In Love
Queer medieval teen romance that will make your heart race. Love, friendship, secrets... A true delight.
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School
A vulnerable, witty and honest voice telling the joys and heartaches of living your truth out loud. Moving and unforgettable.
Bitterthorn
A gothic, sapphic, epic tale starring a monstrous witch and a wilful but unknowing victim. You're in for a dark, thrilling read!
Adult Romance
The Situationship
A hilarious romcom exploring the thrills and complications of modern love. Truly unputdownable!
WILD THINGS
Friendship, love and the blurred lines in between. Laura Kay is amazing at writing messy characters.
A Shot in the Dark
Two people recovering from their troubled past fall into the folds of a forbidden love affair. A stunning, queer, passionate entry into adult fiction.
Escape to a New World (Fantasy and Sci-fi)
The Terraformers
A sweeping and illuminating exploration of the future. Annalee Newitz is fantastic at creating immersive worlds far away and yet so close from our own.
Lies We Sing to the Sea
A dazzling fantasy romance inspired by Greek mythology and the tale of Penelope's twelve hanged maids.
Light From Uncommon Stars
An adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts. A genre-bending novel.
Escape to a Not-So-Distant World
The Future
The new novel from the Women's Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Power, The Future is a white-knuckle tour de force and dazzling exploration of the world we have made and where we are going.
Chain-Gang All-Stars
The sapphic Hunger Games you didn't know you needed. An explosive page-turner that's also a chilling social commentary.
World Running Down
A hopeful futuristic story with great trans depiction, a touch of AI and a lot of romance.
Graphic Novels
Boys Weekend
A hilarious trans-"final girl" horror graphic novel about a bachelor party gone very, very wrong.
Blessed Cure
A hopeful graphic novel on someone's experience going through medical conversion therapy.
The Sacrifice of Darkness
A full-length graphic novel, expanding an unforgettable world where a tragic event forever bathes the world in darkness.
Cosy Crime, Mystery & Fantasy
Death of a Bookseller (Xmas Edition)
This addictive thriller is a staff favourite of 2023. If you love books and bookshops, you'll love this special Christmas Edition!
Harlem After Midnight
A tightly woven, evocative exploration of 30s New York. Historical Mystery. Exploration of race.
Bookshops & Bonedust
A standalone cosy fantasy about the power of good bookshops, great friends and the unexpected choices along the way, from the bestselling author of BookTok sensation Legends & Lattes.
Witch-Fic
The Witches of Vardo
An intricately woven novel on misogyny and the witch trials that happened in Norway in the 17th Century. A compelling read.
Black Candle Women
A spellbinding story of family, heartache, and a fatal Voodoo curse. Four generations of Black women and the secrets they keep for and from each other.
Witchy Winter Box
Calling all witches and loved ones of witches: this is the giftbox for you- gorgeously wrapped and displayed in our exclusive The Feminist Bookshop gift boxes!
Unmissable Historical Fic
The Postcard
An unforgettable family saga spanning centuries and continents. A moving exploration of intergenerational trauma through the women in a single family line.
Learned By Heart
A breathtaking story based on two women in their early teens. A beautiful coming-of-age tale on girlhood and queerness.
Let Us Descend
A reimagining of American slavery as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. This is a story of beauty, love, rebirth and reclamation - a masterwork for the ages.
FOR LINGUISTS AND POLYGLOTS
THE CENTRE
A profound novel on translation and language with themes of identity and privilege. A real page-turner!
Vehicle
A timely and daring exploration of xenophobia, exploitation, the writing of histories and legacies, and the politics of translation.
How We Are Translated
Do you ever feel like you're not speaking the same language? As a young couple is forced to confront the things they don't have words for, they must translate themselves and find their place in the world.
TFB Staff’s 2023 Favourites
And Then She Fell
A staff favourite. Salomée says: a phenomenal story exploring motherhood, psychosis, legacy and the ramifications of colonisation in Canada. Beautiful storytelling.
Vagabonds!
In the bustling streets and cloistered homes of Lagos, a cast of vivid characters—some haunted, some defiant—navigate danger, demons, and love in a quest to lead true lives.
Fire rush
Set amid the Jamaican diaspora in London at the dawn of 1980s, a mesmerizing story of love, loss, and self-discovery that vibrates with the liberating power of music
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