I've read this three times and my book club is, literally, obsessed with it.
But, with a transmasc, queer, and Latinx lead, ghosts, brujas and brujos, found family, and young love, all in the days leading up to Dia de Los Muertos? Who wouldn't be!?
Best of all, it comes from a transmasc, queer, Latinx author! So, if you're looking for authenticity and adventure, Aiden Thomas can certainly provide.
You want a queer romance that doesn't beat around the bush? One with unapologetically queer characters whose struggles don't come from their sexuality? One with healthy romantic and familial relationship dynamics? With magic? Princes and pirates? Dangerous secrets and deadly bargains? Absolutely unsubtle flirting? In Deeper Waters gives you all that and more, a story about a sheltered prince learning the dark truth about how the world feels about parts of him he cannot change, and a mysterious boy who refuses to wear shoes and always shows up at the right time. If you want a heartwarming mix of adventure and romance, F.T. Lukens sure can provide.
This is my all time favourite book, enough so that I own several different copies and read/listen at least twice a year. Good queer fiction is hard enough to come by, but this one's almost 35 years old and still holds up! It's not sugar-coated, it's not censored, it's not relegated to subtext, it's just plainly and explicitly queer. You've got swordsmen, university dropouts, nobles with enough spare change to pay for assassinations left and right, volatile relationship dynamics that blur the line between devotion and recklessness, and plenty of good ol' fashioned murder, so what's not to enjoy?
All in all, Swordspoint really came out in the 80s just to say, "be gay, do crime," before it was cool.