Until now, people like Jaigirdar had “never been given the narrative of happiness,” she says.Īlthough not strictly a romcom, Ryan O’Connell’s uplifting Just By Looking at Him, published earlier this month, offers much-needed representation to LGBTQ+ people with disabilities – the main character being a gay man with cerebral palsy – while Florence Given’s Girlcrush, published in August, is described by the author as: “queer, hilarious and full of joy”. It follows Jaigirdar’s first two novels, The Henna Wars – which was included in TIME’s 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time – and Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, both featuring heartwarming love stories between young queer Muslim women. Photograph: Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images It sounds delightfully messy: Bangladeshi-Irish teen Shireen goes on a baking show with her ex-girlfriend and another girl on whom she develops a crush. “Even more than that, I never saw queer Muslim women represented or queer women of colour.” In a sign that this trend will continue, Jaigirdar releases her novel, Donut Fall in Love, next year. “Whenever I saw queer women represented, which was almost never, it always ended in tragedy,” says author Adiba Jaigirdar. It’s a boom reflected in film and TV, too, notably with the release of Netflix’s Heartstopper, based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novel of the same name. These titles include Lily Lindon’s recently published Double Booked, about a 26-year-old woman who realises that she is bisexual, and two queer coming-of-age novels: Cynthia So’s young adult novel If You Still Recognise Me and Henry Fry’s First Time for Everything.
“I think that’s because the people that make the decisions are seeing that there’s an audience that are desperate to read queer romcoms.” “It feels like there’s sort of a shift,” says Kay. This summer, a host of LGBTQ+ romcom novels are coming out (excuse the pun), crammed with blossoming romances and glittery escapism. Published in April, Kay’s most recent book, Tell Me Everything, is another romcom, this time about therapist Natasha, who is still living with her ex-girlfriend. Whenever I saw queer women represented, it always ended in tragedy Adiba Jaigirdar