Culture
The best sapphic books to read next
5 min read · Updated November 2026
The best sapphic books include Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop, Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth and Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. Below are 28 picks across romance, literary classics, fantasy and memoir, each with a quick, spoiler free pitch.
Sapphic simply means stories centered on women who love women, whether the characters are lesbian, bi, trans or still figuring it out. Some of these are cozy, some will wreck you a little. All of them are worth your time.
Romance
One Last Stop
Casey McQuiston, 2021
A cynical New York newcomer falls for a cool girl on her subway line, who turns out to be stuck in time. Funny, warm and very queer.
Delilah Green Doesn't Care
Ashley Herring Blake, 2022
A photographer returns home for her stepsister's wedding and clashes with the bride's best friend. Sharp, tender, and full of found family.
Written in the Stars
Alexandria Bellefleur, 2020
A skeptical actuary and an astrologer fake date for the holidays. A rom-com with a big heart and a lot of Seattle rain.
Honey Girl
Morgan Rogers, 2021
After a wild Vegas night, a newly minted PhD wakes up married to a stranger. A gentle story about burnout, love and starting over.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Reid, 2017
An aging Hollywood icon finally tells her life story to an unknown journalist. Glamorous and heartbreaking, with a bisexual lead.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Malinda Lo, 2021
In 1954 San Francisco, a Chinese American teen discovers a lesbian bar and a girl she cannot stop thinking about. A YA gem.
Literary and classics
Carmilla
Sheridan Le Fanu, 1872
A lonely young woman befriends a mysterious, beautiful guest. The original lesbian vampire novella, older than Dracula.
The Well of Loneliness
Radclyffe Hall, 1928
The landmark novel that was put on trial in Britain. Melancholy, but a crucial piece of lesbian history.
Orlando
Virginia Woolf, 1928
A poet lives for centuries and changes sex along the way. Woolf's playful love letter to Vita Sackville-West.
The Price of Salt
Patricia Highsmith, 1952
A young shop clerk falls for an elegant older woman. Famous for an ending that refused to punish its lovers. Basis for the film Carol.
Rubyfruit Jungle
Rita Mae Brown, 1973
A brash, funny coming of age story about a girl who refuses to be ashamed of anything. A 1970s cult favorite.
The Color Purple
Alice Walker, 1982
Told in letters, a woman in the rural American South finds her voice, helped by the love of a glamorous singer.
Annie on My Mind
Nancy Garden, 1982
Two teenage girls meet at a museum in New York and fall in love. A tender YA classic that was once pulled from library shelves.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson, 1985
A girl raised by a fiercely religious mother falls for another girl. Bold, darkly funny and semi-autobiographical.
Stone Butch Blues
Leslie Feinberg, 1993
A working class butch comes of age in the bars and factories of mid century America. Raw, essential, unforgettable.
Tipping the Velvet
Sarah Waters, 1998
An oyster girl from Kent follows a male impersonator to the music halls of Victorian London. Lush, witty and adventurous.
Fingersmith
Sarah Waters, 2002
A young thief joins a con to defraud an heiress. The twists are so good you should know nothing else going in.
Nevada
Imogen Binnie, 2013
A trans lesbian in New York quits her life and takes a road trip west. Funny, honest and widely loved by trans readers.
Fantasy and sci fi
Ash
Malinda Lo, 2009
A Cinderella retelling where the girl falls for the King's Huntress instead of a prince. Quiet and enchanting.
Gideon the Ninth
Tamsyn Muir, 2019
Lesbian necromancers in space, a haunted palace, and a sword-wielding heroine with a terrible sense of humor. Chaotic in the best way.
The Priory of the Orange Tree
Samantha Shannon, 2019
A huge standalone epic of dragons, queens and an ancient evil, with a slow burn romance at its center.
This Is How You Lose the Time War
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 2019
Two agents on opposite sides of a war through time start leaving each other letters. Short, poetic and devastating.
A Memory Called Empire
Arkady Martine, 2019
An ambassador arrives at the heart of a galactic empire to investigate her predecessor's death. Political intrigue with a sapphic thread.
The Jasmine Throne
Tasha Suri, 2021
An imprisoned princess and a maidservant with a dangerous secret are drawn together. Rich South Asian inspired fantasy.
Memoir and nonfiction
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Audre Lorde, 1982
Lorde called it a biomythography: her life as a Black lesbian in mid century New York, told with poetry and fire.
Fun Home
Alison Bechdel, 2006
A graphic memoir about growing up in a funeral home and discovering she and her father had more in common than she knew.
In the Dream House
Carmen Maria Machado, 2019
A memoir of an abusive relationship between two women, told in inventive short chapters. Brave and brilliant.
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers
Lillian Faderman, 1991
A readable history of lesbian life in twentieth century America, from romantic friendships to the bars to activism.
Where to find more sapphic books
Independent and queer bookstores are the best place to start, because their staff usually love making recommendations. Your local library likely has more LGBTQ titles than you expect, and many libraries let you borrow ebooks and audiobooks free through an app.
Online, readers sort books with tags like sapphic, wlw and lesbian romance, so searching those terms on book review sites will turn up hundreds of picks. If a particular author on this list clicks for you, read their backlist next: Sarah Waters and Malinda Lo have several other queer novels.
How to choose your next read
- Want comfort? Start with One Last Stop or Written in the Stars.
- Want history? Pair Last Night at the Telegraph Club with Stone Butch Blues.
- Want plot twists? Fingersmith, no question.
- Want to feel seen as a butch or femme? Stone Butch Blues and Zami are touchstones. Then take the lesbian types test for fun.
Frequently asked questions
What is a sapphic book?
A sapphic book centers on women who love women, through romance, friendship or identity. The characters might be lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, trans or questioning. Sapphic is a broad umbrella term, named after the ancient poet Sappho, that lets readers find queer women's stories without needing every character to use the same label.
What is the most famous lesbian novel?
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (1928) is probably the most historically famous, because of its obscenity trial in Britain. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (1952) is also iconic, partly for its hopeful ending and partly for inspiring the film Carol. Today Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet is a favorite starting point.
What is a good first sapphic book to read?
For something light and joyful, try One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston or Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur. For a page-turner, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters is hard to put down. For fantasy readers, Gideon the Ninth or The Priory of the Orange Tree are popular gateways into sapphic genre fiction.
Are there sapphic books with happy endings?
Yes, plenty. Modern sapphic romance, like Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Written in the Stars and One Last Stop, is built around happy endings. Even back in 1952, The Price of Salt stood out for not punishing its lovers. If you want to avoid tragedy, the romance section of this list is a safe place to start.
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