Diversity Spotlight Thursday: Books With Pansexual Protagonists

Hello, and welcome to my first Diversity Spotlight Thursday! Today, I’ll be spotlighting three books with pansexual protagonists. While all queer identities need so much more representation in YA, there is a huge lack of pansexuality, so I decided to use this post to feature titles with pansexual representation.

Don’t know what Diversity Spotlight Thursday is? Let me tell you!

Diversity Spotlight Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Aimal at Bookshelves and Paperbacks to promote diverse books: participators list one book they’ve read and enjoyed, one already released book on their TBR, and one diverse book that has not yet been released. For more information, check out the announcement post.

If you follow me on here or on Twitter, you know that I am a huge advocate of diversity and representation in YA. When I came across this meme, I knew that I had to participate and spread the love for hyped and under-hyped diverse books as well as underrepresented marginalizations in books. 

Top Ten Tuesday is a popular weekly meme in the blogging community, but I was simply getting tired of writing those posts, so most likely, it will not appear on this blog in the future. Instead, it will be replaced by this one in an effort to promote more diverse books and marginalized authors. I am really excited about these posts, and I hope you enjoy and find new book recommendations.

Clicking on the titles will lead you to the Goodreads page of the book. Without further ado, here are three books featuring pansexual characters! 

1. A diverse book I read and enjoyed

Out On Good Behavior by Dahlia Adler

Frankie Bellisario knows she can get anyone she sets her sights on, but just because she can doesn’t mean she should—not when the person she’s eyeing is Samara Kazarian, the daughter of a southern Republican mayor. No matter how badly Frankie wants to test her powers of persuasion, even she recognizes some lines aren’t meant to be crossed.

But when Frankie learns she’s been on Samara’s mind too, the idea of hooking up with her grows too strong to resist. Only Sam’s not looking for a hookup; she wants—needs—the real thing, and she’s afraid she’ll never find it as long as Frankie’s in her head.

Forced to choose between her first relationship and losing the girl who’s been clawing her way under her skin, Frankie opts to try monogamy…under her own condition: 30 days of keeping things on the down low and remaining abstinent. If she fails as hard at girlfriending as she’s afraid she might, she doesn’t want to throw Samara’s life into upheaval for nothing. But when neither the month nor Frankie’s heart go according to plan, she may be the one stuck fighting for the happily ever after she never knew she wanted.

This was one of my most recent reads, and I adored it. I don’t often reach for New Adult titles, but I love Dahlia on Twitter and also enjoyed one of her YA books, Under The Lights, so I knew I had to pick this one up. Luckily, I was not disappointed in the slightest. The pansexual representation was fantastic, as was the story itself, and I would highly recommend it.

2. An already-released diverse book on my TBR

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

Seven students. Seven (deadly) sins. One secret.

Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—from Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage, to Valentine, the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal.

When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the seven unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.

I’ve heard wonderful things about Riley’s first book, and since I loved her upcoming release, Noteworthy, this one was moved up on my TBR. I believe it was the first book to put a pansexual character on the page in mainstream YA, and that is something that makes me very excited to get my hands on it. This book has seven points of view, and the pansexual character is only one of those, but regardless of that fact, I cannot wait to read.

3. A diverse book that has not yet been released

27 Hours by Tristina Wright

Rumor Mora fears two things: hellhounds too strong for him to kill, and failure. Jude Welton has two dreams: for humans to stop killing monsters, and for his strange abilities to vanish.

But in no reality should a boy raised to love monsters fall for a boy raised to kill them.

Nyx Llorca keeps two secrets: the moon speaks to her, and she’s in love with Dahlia, her best friend. Braeden Tennant wants two things: to get out from his mother’s shadow, and to unlearn Epsilon’s darkest secret.

They’ll both have to commit treason to find the truth.

During one twenty-seven-hour night, if they can’t stop the war between the colonies and the monsters from becoming a war of extinction, the things they wish for will never come true, and the things they fear will be all that’s left.

27 Hours is a sweeping, thrilling story featuring a stellar cast of queer teenagers battling to save their homes and possibly every human on Sahara as the clock ticks down to zero.

27 Hours, a debut novel coming later this year, is probably my most anticipated release of 2017. Featuring a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, which includes a pansexual character, it looks absolutely incredible. I’ve heard great things from friends of mine that have already read this book, and that only makes me need it even more.

And there we have it: three books featuring pansexual characters! I loved finding books that fit these qualifications, and I cannot wait to write my next Diversity Spotlight Thursday post. I’m excited for this to become a regular and weekly occurrence on my blog, and I hope you are, too. I also hope you go and look up and buy all three of these books, because they are so deserving of the attention!

Have you read a book with a pansexual character? What was it? What books with pansexual characters are on your TBR? Are any of them the same as on my list? If you participated in DST, link me to your post – I’d love to check it out.

Thanks for reading!

Ava