Unapologetically Here & Queer: The Art of Camp in Queer Lit
By Mora C.
Wigs on the floor diva! We celebrate PRIDE every month—we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re doing the absolute most. For those who may not know, “camp” is a beloved key term rooted in queer culture, originally born in the ballroom scene that also gave rise to RuPaul’s Drag Race. Think Drag Race—but on steroids. Camp is all about excess and queer survival. It’s melodrama. It’s grotesque glamour and theatrics that just won’t let up! If you like your lit loud, extra, and a little unhinged, this list of queer camp books are ready to snatch your wig, so watch out! (LMAOOOOO)
(CONTENT WARNING: dramatic monologues, fashion crimes, and absolutely no filter ahead.)
Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis
Unfolding over just 10 days, a lesbian influencer couple falls apart while drowning in their self-help nonsense. Dykette isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. It’s part satire, mostly meltdown, and has all the excess and drama you can handle. It’s a sharp critique of queer nonconformity wrapped in a glossy wellness package. This one’ll have you questioning how much self-intellectualizing is too much, or if a wellness retreat can be a form of emotional warfare. Dykette is here to serve chaos with a dash of glitter.
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
Set in the 1990s zine-and-punk underground, this horny, genre-defying queer romp is literal camp wrapped in the form of an identity crisis. Icon, Paul, is part queer boy, all shape-shifting sex icon. Paul can shapeshift across genders and bodies, falling headfirst into scenes, subcultures, and sexual awakenings. Campy, ecstatic, and deeply sensual, this is a queer fever dream with smudged eyeliner and a dash of glitter.
Nevada by Imogen Binnie
Stealing your girlfriend’s car, shoplifting a pack of American Spirits, and driving straight into a cross-country gender meltdown? That’s about as camp as queer lit gets. Meet Maria: jaded, hilarious, painfully self-aware, and completely over it. Maria is a trans anti-hero with no interest in being “relatable.” If deadpan and deeply queer lit is your jam, Nevada by Imogen Binnie is definitely for you. Think camp, but less sequins and more Doc Marten curb-stomping.
Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn
When I say I support women’s rights and wrongs, I need this novel cited in the footnotes. Seemingly cold, pretentious, obsessive, and deeply insecure, messy sapphic writer Astrid just can’t seem to get her sh*t together. She mistakes limerence for love, spirals with style, and stays trapped in self-destructive loops like it’s performance art. I love this book for its unapologetically sapphic, feminine chaos. It’s raw, melodramatic, and emotionally charged—in other words, peak camp. Think heartbreak with good lighting and, of course, a signature scent.
So, while you continue to celebrate queer pride ALL year—not just in June—don’t forget that camp has always been more than sequins and punchlines. It’s queer survival—resistance through performance, identity through exaggeration, and simply making our presence known in the loudest, most unapologetic way possible. I hope you find a book here that makes you feel seen, whether you’re into messy breakups, identity spirals, gender performance, or just love your fiction a little unhinged.
Now go forth and snatch those wigs!
