Dispatch No. 2 · July 2026
Dispatched 30 June 2026 · 36 new releases for July
July, and the rainbow bunting is already down. The publishers who rediscovered the word "queer" four weeks ago have moved on to back-to-school. The books, happily, did not get the memo.
Thirty-six releases, and the season has turned hard toward horror — sixteen of them, plus a vampire cluster that all lands on the 7th, as though the genre kept office hours (The Brides retells Dracula from the wives' side; The Red Sacrament answers with covens). The month's flagship is warmer: John Wiswell, fresh off a Nebula for Best Novel, returns with The Dragon Has Some Complaints, a cozy fantasy narrated by a three-headed dragon who can't agree with himself. And August Clarke follows the Lambda-winning Metal from Heaven with The Felicity Complex — six lab-grown women turning on the billionaires they were built to serve. Bring garlic, or at least a grudge.
| Title | Author | Release Date | Publisher | Representation | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mirrorwoven | Bori Cser | 7/2/26 | Harper Fire | Sapphic, lesbian | YA, romantasy, love triangle |
| Our Devil's Awake | Chloe York | 7/3/26 | Undertaker Books | Sapphic, lesbian, pansexual | YA, horror, urban fantasy, demons |
| Fabulous Bodies | Chuck Tingle | 7/7/26 | Tor Nightfire | Queer, lesbian, gay (whole cast) | Horror, supernatural, body horror, occult |
| Kloud 9: The Star Soldier | AJ O. Mason, Dominic Bustamante | 7/7/26 | Top Shelf Productions | Achillean | YA, graphic novel, space opera, romance, found family, aliens, coming of age |
| Ladies of the Knight | Fiona Marchbank | 7/7/26 | Oni Press | Sapphic, lesbian, queer, nonbinary | YA, graphic novel, fantasy, historical, older protagonist, sword lesbian, established couple |
| Perverts | Mac Crane | 7/7/26 | Dial Press | Queer, nonbinary, lesbian | Collection, dystopian, literary, desire, shame |
| The Brides | Charlotte Cross | 7/7/26 | Hanover Square Press | Queer, sapphic | Gothic, horror, vampires, Dracula, retelling |
| The Language of Knives | Haralambi Markov | 7/7/26 | Mythic Delirium Books | Queer | Collection, horror, Bulgarian, mythology, folklore |
| The Last Soldier of Nava | Yejin Suh | 7/7/26 | Magpie | Queer, sapphic, lesbian | YA, fantasy, romance, Korean, Korean mythology |
| The Red Sacrament | Sara Hinkley | 7/7/26 | Titan Books | Queer, achillean | Historical, gothic horror, vampires, covens |
| The Revenant of Surolifia | Florence Chien | 7/7/26 | Rising Action Publishing | Queer, achillean | Epic fantasy, science fantasy, colonialism |
| Twelve Bound By Fate | M.N. Bennet | 7/13/26 | - | Queer, achillean | Fantasy, dark academia |
| Champion of the Rose, Vol. 1 | Cat Aquino, Dominique Duran | 7/14/26 | VIZ Media | Queer, transmasc, achillean (ensemble) | YA, graphic novel, fantasy, Filipino, colonialism |
| Misery's Wife | Joan Tierney | 7/14/26 | Flatiron Books | Transfem, queer, lesbian | Paranormal, Portuguese diaspora, climate, haunted house, folktale, retelling |
| Ruinous Ends | I.V. Marie | 7/14/26 | Delacorte Press | Queer, achillean (ensemble) | YA, romantasy, paranormal, dark academia |
| The Assassin's Guide to Dating | Natalie C. Parker | 7/14/26 | Candlewick Press | Sapphic | YA, urban fantasy, romance, assassins, superpowers |
| The Dragon Has Some Complaints | John Wiswell | 7/14/26 | DAW | Queer, transmasc, asexual | Fantasy, cozy, disability, found family, dragons |
| The Hexing Miss Helena | Darcy McGuire | 7/14/26 | Boldwood Books | Queer, lesbian | Historical fantasy, romance, witches |
| Remnants: Disruption | Mourning Star | 7/15/26 | - | Queer, sapphic | Paranormal, romance |
| The Case of Elmwood Ranch | Deanna Grey | 7/15/26 | - | Sapphic, bisexual | Paranormal, romance, Black, fantasy western |
| Match Me If You Can | Milena McKay | 7/17/26 | - | Sapphic | Novella, romance, contemporary fantasy, Greek mythology |
| A Fate Worse Than Drowning | Sarah L. Hawthorn | 7/21/26 | Poisoned Pen Press | Queer, sapphic, lesbian | Gothic, horror |
| Endangered: A Horror Romance Novella | Beckett Krane | 7/21/26 | - | Queer, sapphic | Novella, horror, romance, revenge |
| Funerals Are for the Living | Sami Ellis | 7/21/26 | Amulet Books | Queer | YA, horror, paranormal, Black, mental health, racism, cults |
| Null Entity | Seth Haddon | 7/21/26 | Tordotcom | Sapphic, transfem, queer | Novella, science fiction, surveillance, found family |
| Take It to Your Grave | Louangie Bou-Montes | 7/21/26 | Godwin Books | Queer, achillean | YA, horror, paranormal, Latino, Afro Boricua, ghosts |
| The Flayed Man | Chloe Lauter | 7/21/26 | Soft Skull Press | Queer, lesbian, sapphic | Horror, family curses, ghouls, vampires |
| The Lord of the Wood | E.M. Anderson | 7/21/26 | Hanover Square Press | Queer, achillean | Horror, science fantasy, cozy, enchanted forest |
| Dining on Delirium | Simon Ellerslie Marshall | 7/28/26 | Ellerslie Publishing | Queer | Fantasy, afterlife |
| Harder Than It Looks | Kendra Wells | 7/28/26 | Iron Circus Comics | Queer, trans, pansexual, nonbinary, gay, poly | Graphic novel, fantasy, bounty hunters |
| The Demon Star | Jesse Aragon | 7/28/26 | DAW | Queer, poly | Science fantasy, horror, mental health, gods, demons |
| The Felicity Complex | August Clarke | 7/28/26 | Erewhon Books | Queer, sapphic, lesbian, trans | Dystopian, science fantasy, class |
| The Harpy Knight | Sara Omer | 7/28/26 | Titan Books | Queer, demi, bisexual, sapphic | Epic fantasy, Southwest Asian, Turkic, Kurdish |
| We Were Never Here | Sophia Hannan | 7/28/26 | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | Sapphic, lesbian | YA, horror, paranormal |
| The Sworn Soldier | T. Kingfisher | 7/31/26 | Subterranean Press | Nonbinary | Omnibus, collection, fantasy, horror |
| This Mortal Coil | Jasmine Walls | 7/31/26 | Bonedust Press | Queer, nonbinary | Novella, fantasy, horror, wizard |
A note on method: representation here is my best reading of ARC reviews, blurbs, author channels, and Goodreads, all of which lie occasionally. A blank means I found nothing specific, which usually means queerness isn't central to the book. Corrections are welcome and frequently necessary. How the list gets made is on the about page.
Two new corners of the site since the first issue: Keep the door open, free and legal ways to read plus queer archives, and Good company, the shelf of people worth your attention.
Worth your time
- The Weight of One Pomegranate — sapphic, a Persephone retelling from a Lambda poetry finalist. Too rooted in this world for the table, but if you don't insist your myths run literal, make room.
- Nino Cipri talks to Haralambi Markov about The Language of Knives (in this month's dispatch): Slavic folklore, body horror, and a nine-headed monster who agrees to a podcast interview.
- Grimdark Magazine on Sara Hinkley's The Red Sacrament (also in this month's dispatch): 1869 Paris, a vampire theatre troupe, and a debut that rereads Anne Rice's Théâtre des Vampires as a story about bosses betraying workers.
- Izzy Wasserstein's new Nightmare story, "Patterns of Dentition in Transgender Adults" — trans life under authoritarianism, plus mysterious teeth. Free to read.
- C.L. Clark's running list of favourite butches in (mostly) fantasy — a rec engine disguised as a reading list.
- Rosiee Thor and Madeline Dyer follow Being Ace with Being Aro, an anthology of aromantic voices; in Publishers Weekly, Thor writes about growing up on teen dystopian romance and never seeing themself on the shelf.
Replies reach a human. If I've missed a release or got a representation wrong, tell me — it happens more than I'd like.
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