Diversity Spotlight #5

Diversity Spotlight Thursday is hosted by Bookshelves and Paperbacks, and involves featuring 3 diverse books every week. This week I'm focusing on 3 contemporary books with LGBT+ characters.

A Book I Have Read

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
Diversity Note: bisexual and mixed race protagonist, and demisexual and gay main characters
I related to this book so much. Having read so many American contemporaries, it was amazing to find a book where the characters were going through exactly what I was going through at the time I read it. Frances and Aled and all the characters felt like real teenagers, and their struggles and breakdowns felt so real. Also maybe one of the characters is straight, and it was treated as totally normal. I have seen people complain before when they see this in books but it was precisely what my high school experience was and I want more people to treat this as normal. Honestly, Radio Silence is the me-est book I've ever read. I love how it's about being heard when you need help, and about friendship and finding new paths when you feel at your most hopeless, and overall it just a really important book to me that I highly recommend.
My Review | Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon UK

A Book My TBR

Release by Patrick Ness
Diversity Note: gay protagonist
Patrick Ness is one of my all-time favourite authors, so how could I not have Release on my TBR? It's about a day in one boy's life and covers all the things that happen and how it impacts his life and relationships. It sounds very sad but also kind of hopeful, and like with every Ness book, it sounds like nothing else he's written before. I've heard that Release also has elements of fantasy in it which I'm really excited to see. Truthfully, I'm a little nervous to read this. I tend to avoid sad books and I wasn't a fan of Ness' other contemporary-leaning book, The Rest of Us Just Live Here even though I thought the concept was awesome. Also Release is compared to Mrs Dalloway which I found boring and really hated. But I will without a doubt be reading this book anyway, because Ness is such an amazing author. I know there are mixed reviews, but I hope that if I go in with an open mind, I will love it as much as his other books.
Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon UK

A Book Not Yet Published

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Diversity Note: gay Puerto Rican protagonist and bisexual Cuban protagonist
This book is being released in September and the concept sounds really wonderful and heartbreaking. It's got a dash of sci-fi and is about two boys who get a call from Death-Cast telling them they will die today, so they meet up for the first time to try and have the best last day on earth that they can. This is another #ownvoices book, and also another sad one. But it also sounds beautiful and hopeful and I've heard wonderful things. I will say that I really didn't like Silvera's History is All You Left Me because the relationships didn't sit well with me (but I'm like the only person who didn't like it so it's probably just me). But Adam Silvera seems like a really cool person and I really want to love his books. They Both Die at the End sounds tragic but hopeful and I hope it's the book of his I fall in love with.
Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon UK

What about you? What books would you put for these 3 categories? Have you read any of the ones I've listed? What did you think? Is there anything you would recommend to me?