It’s funny you should say parents wouldn’t be able to tell off the bat. Hell, I’ve known a lot of young people to read Cassandra Clare novels, and as a person who actually dabbles in writing YA LGBTQ fiction, I sincerely did not know that her novels included LGBT characters.

I just thought they were sort of New Wave urban fantasy. And since that’s not particularly my thing, I never dug any deeper than that.

So I think you have a pretty good point there!

It’s cool as hell, if you ask me, that writers like Clare include gender and sexual minorities in their novels. Real representation is what we need to get over the hump.

If you don’t mind a little tiny bit of constructive criticism, the beginning paragraph of this essay doesn’t really tell us what we’re going to be reading. If you could start out with just a couple three sentences outlining your purpose, I think potential readers might be drawn in better.

Hope you don’t mind my unsolicited advice.

Jim