This is a list (always incomplete) of the Sapphic — women loving women, or wlw — books I have read. I started when I realized my gender identity, and doubled down on wlw content. Almost 300 to date. I figure, maybe this list will be helpful for someone else, though to be clear, I maintain it for my use.
Every book on this list has a wlw relationship in it, often (but not always) the main feature.
This is almost exclusively fiction. There’s a mix of adult and young adult here, but I enjoyed all of them as an adult, myself. There’s a mix of books and graphic novels, too, but again, I don’t discriminate. I do discriminate when it comes to het or m/m relationships, so this list is only wlw (but inclusive within that).
As always, ymmv.
See also:
- Kiwi’s Queer Fiction Masterlist of book recs. There is a tab for “Sapphic Only” reads with upwards of 1,200 listings! (And she also uses Airtable, the database solution I use for my list.)
- The Lesbrary is… well, self-explanatory and amazing.
My List
Reminder of my rating system
If it takes me away it gets 4 stars, if it takes me away and I want to tell others about it, it gets 5. 3 stars for writing a damn book, that’s hard. Nobody gets 1 or 2.
Explaining my Sapphic ratings
Just how Sapphic is the book? All wlw all the time, or just a token appearance? The first three categories indicate attention put to a wlw relationship. I also have a Nope category, but those aren’t shown because they aren’t Sapphic.
- Centers wlw means just that, this book is about a wlw relationship, usually a romance.
- Definitely wlw means the book definitely has a wlw relationship at its core, and you’ll get that experience, but also they are concerned with another thing, too (trauma, being witches, something).
- Peripheral wlw means there is a wlw relationship in the book, but the book is not about that. Usually these are science fiction books, or horror books, or thrillers. You’re reading them for something else, and delighting that there are queer women with agency!
- Cursory wlw means there is a wlw relationship in the book, but we don’t explore it or get into it or get to see it much (like a romance where the mains are het but his sister is in a wlw relationship). Not satisfying if you’re here for the wlw.
Breakout Posts by Theme
I’m writing a few posts where I break out these books by theme, they are linked below:
The default sorting is by most Sapphic (imho) and then most recently published, so you can find the best new stuff.
If you are on a mobile device: To see the table below best, and to search or sort, use a desktop or tablet browser, or tell your phone browser to request the desktop version of the site (e.g., via the aA button in Safari on an iPhone). Sorry the mobile version sucks.