Have you been searching for in books, who feel real? Not just included, but centered. Not just there, but loud, complicated, soft, furious, and full of magic, rage, or tenderness. If that鈥檚 you, you鈥檙e in the right place.
In this list, there’s no slow burn that never burns. These sapphic characters take space, claim power, and rewrite the rules.
Ready to get into it? Let鈥檚 go!
1.) Legacy of Orisha: Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
A richly built West African fantasy where magic once stolen is being reclaimed. Across three books, Zelie and Amari wrestle with grief, revolution, and the cost of power. In the third book, the sapphics finally claim space.
The Sapphic Characters: Amari, Mae’a
- Amari: Princess turned rebel general. Loyal, headstrong, always trying to do the right thing even when it breaks her.
- Queen Mae’a: She rules the Vine Kingdom with fierce grace and sharp intellect. Her complex, tender relationship with Amari blends power and vulnerability.
You Need to Read This: If you鈥檙e tired of slow burns that never burn. The third book finally gives Amari a sapphic arc that鈥檚 sharp, dangerous, and deeply tender.
2.) Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
Set during the Nigerian civil war, this coming-of-age novel follows Ijeoma, a girl forced to navigate loss, faith, and forbidden love in a society that criminalizes who she is. It鈥檚 quiet, tender, and devastating. A slow-burning unraveling of self under the weight of religious trauma.
The Sapphic Characters: Ijeoma, Amina, Ndidi
- Ijeoma: Soft-spoken but resilient. Her queerness isn鈥檛 loud or defiant, it鈥檚 aching, complicated, and deeply intimate. She carries her desire in silence and some would say deep depression for years, but it never stops blooming. I rooted for Ijay with everything in me. She deserved better.
- Amina: Ijay鈥檚 first love. Vulnerable, questioning, open in her affection. At least at first.
- Ndidi: The woman Ijeoma reconnects with later, a mirror of the life she was once denied.
You Need to Read This: If you鈥檝e been told your love is wrong but still love anyway. This is for the girl who鈥檚 tired of praying herself into straightness. It鈥檚 not soft in the way you want, but it鈥檚 honest in a way that hurts and heals.
3.) Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
In a utopian city where 鈥渕onsters no longer exist,鈥� a creature named Pet emerges from a painting to hunt a hidden evil. Jam, a Black trans girl, must face the reality that evil never left and that safety is sometimes an illusion.
The Sapphic Character: Jam
Young, tender, but uncannily perceptive. Jam is trans and queer, but her identity isn鈥檛 a problem to be solved, it鈥檚 part of her power. She鈥檚 a soft, sharp girl who communicates in sign language and moves through the world with deep emotional intelligence. She鈥檚 curious, brave, and a truth-teller in a world that gaslights its own children. Her quiet knowing unsettles people who lie to themselves.
You Need to Read This: If you鈥檙e done pretending everything is fine. You鈥檙e the one who senses the truth no one else will say out loud.
4.) Dazzling by Chikodili Emelumadu
A mystical dual narrative about two Nigerian girls tied to spiritual forces bigger than them. Treasure, bound to a river spirit as a spiritual wife, and Ozoemena, a girl chosen to carry the spirit of a leopard (goddess), navigate supernatural power, girlhood, and sacrifice. Magical realism meets body politics and West African spiritual lore.
The Sapphic Characters: Treasure, Ozoemena
- Treasure: At first, she feels like the sidekick. But she鈥檚 queer and learning what it means to choose herself. There鈥檚 softness and survival stitched into every chapter she gets. Bound to a spiritual cult, she鈥檚 fierce and suspicious.
- Ozoemena: Initiated into the Leopard Society, literally carrying a goddess inside her. She鈥檚 curious, reserved, tender, learning who she is, and full of ancestral rage. She鈥檚 the kind of girl who鈥檚 not here to please anyone, only to survive and carry power that terrifies the world.
You Need to Read This: If you feel like your body isn鈥檛 just yours. This is for girls who know the divine lives in them but still fear what that means.
5.) Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
A story of twin sisters and their estranged mother, told through fragmented memories and food. Spanning Lagos, Montreal, and London, this quiet stunner explores generational trauma, love, queer longing, sexuality, forgiveness and reconciliation. It tastes like home and heartbreak.
The Sapphic Character: Taiye
- Taiye: Sensual, emotional, and constantly searching. She鈥檚 the sister who runs toward pleasure and away from pain, who uses food and sex to remember and to forget.
You Need to Read This: If you have mummy issues and complex sapphic dreams.
6.) Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
A sweeping epic of dragons, ancient evil, and a divided world. While the West fears fire-breathing wyrms, the South reveres water dragons and lives in balance with them, heavily drawing on African, especially West African, and Swahili cultural and spiritual elements.
The East and West must unite to stop the ancient evil, with sapphic love blooming between a queen and her protector.
The Sapphic Characters: Ead Duryan, Queen Sabran
- Ead Duryan: A mage in hiding, bodyguard, undercover legend. Deadly, devoted, and fiercely loyal. This southern-born mage raised in secret to protect the queen is a badass bodyguard, holy warrior, and magic-wielder. She鈥檚 ridiculously competent, and secretly guarding the queen she鈥檒l fall in love with. Think spy energy + warrior skill + emotional control, cracking open slowly. Your fave could honestly never.
- Queen Sabran: Regal, Stoic, brittle, burdened, and raised to rule through duty and fear. Her armour is political, but underneath it all, she yearns fiercely. She鈥檚 just a girl trying to hold a kingdom together and daring to want love
You Need to Read This: If you love a competent woman with a sword and secrets. This is for the girl who wants a slow-burn romance between equals who would literally die for each other, but also live. You鈥檙e the babe who wants your women dangerous and deeply loyal, and your dragons ancient and feminist. This is for the ones who know that magic tied to lineage, matriarchy, and oranges is peak divine queer feminism.
7.) The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
When Vivek dies under mysterious circumstances, his loved ones uncover who he really was; a gender-nonconforming, queer person living with secrets. The story unfolds backwards to reveal his truth and the love he fought for.
A lyrical mystery about grief, gender, and identity, told in fragments, as a community tries to piece together Vivek鈥檚 life after their death.
The Sapphic Characters: Vivek, Osita, Elena
- Vivek: Ethereal, gender-expansive, luminous, and too soft for a world that tried to harden her. Caught between shame and selfhood. Vivek glows, even in pain. Even in death. They aren鈥檛 just queer, she鈥檚 soft and spectral, defiant in her femininity and radiant in their self-knowing. Her relationships are queer in every sense: gender-bending, intimate, sacred.
- Osita: Vivek鈥檚 cousin and first love 鈥� not sapphic, but central to Vivek鈥檚 story.
- Juju: Vivek’s closest friend and confidante. She’s part of the tight-knit group of Nigerwives’ daughters, including Elizabeth, Somto, and Olunne, who provide Vivek with a sanctuary to express his true self.
You Need to Read This: If you鈥檝e always known you are more than one thing. You鈥檙e the babe who has been called too much or too confusing. You want to feel it all: the ache of hiding, the beauty of being seen, the rage of loss because you know that being fully yourself is its own kind of miracle.
8.) The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Inspired by a song from clipping, this novel tells of descendants of pregnant African slaves thrown overboard during the transatlantic slave trade have built an underwater society. In time, they had forgotten the pain of the past until Yetu, the historian, remembers everything. Now, it鈥檚 tearing her apart鈥ntil she decides to surface and find her own way.
A haunting, beautifully queer tale about memory, lineage, and rebellion.
The Sapphic Characters: Yetu, Oromo
- Yetu: Hyper-sensitive, angry, and exhausted from holding the pain of a people. She鈥檚 queer, neurodivergent-coded, and desperate for peace but still burns for connection. Her love story offers the first touch of softness she鈥檚 ever known.
- Oori: The surface-dwelling girl who shows Yetu that another life is possible.
You Need to Read This: If you鈥檙e tired of carrying what no one else will. This is for the babe who wants to dive deep, find love under pressure, and rise gasping but feeling complete.
Sapphics So Good We Forgave Them for Not Being African
Okay, full disclosure, these next two aren鈥檛 African. But listen. When I tell you they did what they needed to do? The yearning is unholy. The power struggles are delicious. The women? Chaotic, strategic, terrifying, soft, sometimes all in one scene.
If you’re here for queer women who will burn kingdoms and whisper apologies later, keep reading.
9.) The Burning Kingdoms Trilogy by Tasha Suri
In a crumbling magical empire riled by prophecy and rot, inspired by South Asian history and myth, Malini, a dethroned princess, is imprisoned in a temple. Priya, a former temple servant with dormant power, becomes her unlikely ally and lover in a rebellion that will shake the gods. What begins in survival becomes war, love, and a quiet kind of revolution.
The Sapphic Characters: Priya, Malini
- Malini: Calculating, traumatized, power-hungry. Soft only for one person. Malini is strategic and gorgeous in that I鈥檒l-stab-you-and-you鈥檒l-thank-me way. She鈥檒l burn the world to build a new one.
- Priya: Divine, reluctant, full of suppressed rage. She loves with her whole heart, even when it terrifies her. Priya and Malini鈥檚 relationship is fire and blood and longing. Priya is soft until she鈥檚 not, dangerous when pushed, devout in her love. This wasn鈥檛 a series I could put down. It鈥檚 the first sapphic fantasy that made me scream with joy at the top of my lungs.
You Need to Read This: If you鈥檙e the babe who wants political intrigue, holy rage, and a sapphic enemies-to-lovers that aches before it explodes.
10.) The Radiant Emperor Duology by Shelley Parker-Chan
A genderqueer, sapphic reimagining of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu assumes her brother鈥檚 identity to seize power and escape her fate, but desire and vengeance complicate everything. It鈥檚 lush, brutal, and full of characters who will destroy empires before letting go of power or love.
The Sapphic Characters: Zhu Chongba, Ma Xiuying
- Zhu Chongba: Ambitious, ruthless, and queer. Assigned female at birth, but lives as a man and desires power, glory, and sometimes, women. Zhu is dangerous, brilliant, and clinging to survival like it owes her something. Zhu wants to be remembered, not as a girl, not even as a savior, but as a force.
- Ma Xiuying: Zhu鈥檚 love. Devoted, principled, and quietly powerful. Ma is steady, sincere, and constantly trying to pull Zhu back from the edge. She鈥檚 terrified of what loving Zhu means for her soul. Their relationship is messy, magnetic, and steeped in grief.聽
You Need to Read This: If you鈥檙e the babe who鈥檚 tired of soft love and wants something fierce. You鈥檙e the girl who wants ambition so sharp it cuts through every rule and still finds room for devotion.
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