I’ve gone on four cross-country road trips in my life so far. Once from Long Island, down the east coast to Virginia, cutting across Tennessee and doing the southbound route largely dominated by big ass Texas, ending in Los Angeles. Once from Los Angeles to Virginia, driving in a straight line across the middle of the country. Once from Florida, along that southbound route again, to Vegas and then back with a slightly altered route to avoid Albuquerque after some superstition following a cursed night there. I’m sure I’ll do it again. I love long road trips. I’m sure I get it from my mother, who would always rather drive 16+ hours between destinations than catch a flight. I’m a pro at car snacks.

I don’t necessarily see any long car rides in my immediate future, but in the meantime, I can recommend some LGBTQ+ books that prominently feature road trips in their plot. Turns out there are quite a few of them! Road trips in general are fertile with potential for great fiction, much like dinner parties. Throw two characters in the confines of a car — or someone solo — and watch tensions simmer, realizations come to the surface, and changing surroundings shaping how people see and engage with themselves and the world. Here’s a smattering of road trip reads to perhaps bring on your next road trip or just escape into from the comfort of home.

A quick note: There is a tremendous amount of road trip queer erotica out there, to the point where I felt out of my depth recommending anything without having a chance to read them first, but search “queer” (or m/m or f/f or wlw etc, depending on what you’re looking for) and “road trip” on Goodreads lists, and you’ll find a treasure trove of self-pub and pulp erotica set around road trips out there!

This list was originally published in March 2023 and has been updated in August 2025.

Tramps Like Us by Joe Westmoreland

This queer cult classic road trip novel recently got a new re-release with an introduction by Eileen Myles. It was originally published in 2001 and follows a gay man who graduates from his Kansas City high school in 1974 and then hitchhikes across the country with Ali, a fellow queer outcast from his hometown. Their adventures take them to New Orleans as well as San Francisco. Friendship, self-discovery, hedonism, and community are all destinations on this wild road trip.

Make Sure You Die Screaming by Zee Carlstrom

With dark and humorous twists on the American road trip novel, Make Sure You Die Screaming sees its nameless nonbinary protagonist on a journey from Chicago to Arkansas on a search for their conspiracy theorist MAGA father who has gone missing. I mean it has one of the best blurbs of all time from Torrey Peters (“It’s Fear and Loathing for the generation devastated by the generation that brought us Fear and Loathing“). And if you’re not instantly hooked by the title alone, I cannot relate. Read more about it in our review.

How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? by Anna Montague

While going through her late friend Sara’s old journal, Magda discovers Sara’s grand plans for a big friendship road trip for Magda’s upcoming 70th birthday. So Magda takes the urn of Sara’s ashes with her on the road to do the adventure they never got to do together and uncovers secrets about herself, Sara, and the real depths of their relationship.

Girls Girls Girls by Shoshana von Blanckensee

I love how so many road trip novels are set in the past. This one is set in the summer of 1996, when two best friends and secret girlfriends Hannah and Sam decide to drive away from Long Beach, New York all the way to San Francisco.

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

Obviously! An iconic lesbian road trip tale! I want to go on the Carol road trip and eat every place where they eat in the film. For now, I’ll just re-read the book.

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

Another iconic entry on this list, Nevada recently received a much deserved flashy re-release from FSG and continues to be a seminal work of trans fiction. You can read Niko Stratis’ interview with Imogen Binnie for Autostraddle as well as Drew Burnett Gregory’s essay about the novel.

Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar

This memoir by queer Muslim author Randa Jarrar follows her journey on a road trip from Los Angeles to her parents’ place in Connecticut. She writes on single motherhood as a queer parent, domestic violence, fat bodies, American racism, and so much more.

Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing by Erika Lopez

Playful in story and form, Flaming Iguanas is an illustrated book that follows Tomato Rodriguez as she rides her motorcycle all over, meeting girls, good post offices, and endless adventures along the way.

Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden

This speculative graphic novel sees two young women, Bea and Lou, thrown together on a trip through West Texas, accompanied by a curious cat and haunted by dangerous men. It’s gorgeous and heartbreaking and alive in its art and language. It’s technically young adult, but I don’t read a ton of YA or a ton of graphic narratives, and I found myself completely immersed in this.

Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan

Speaking of YA, there are a lot of queer YA road trip books out there! This one follows Chloe and Fallon on a best friends to hookup to enemies to lovers journey as they drive around the country to various food truck festivals for the gourmet ice cream truck they work in together. Miscommunications! Tensions! Roadside side-adventures!

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner

When Cass’s best friend Julia is unexpectedly killed in a car crash, Cass becomes determined to still go on the road trip she and Julie had been planning — only, instead of taking a car, she only has her bike. And instead of having her best friend with her, she has her ashes. The book is about grief, friendship, and theater, Cass also keeping alive the project of the musical Julia had been writing when she died.

Kings of B’More by R. Eric Thomas

Another YA adventure, Kings of B’More is a Stonewall Honor Book about Black queer best friends Harrison and Linus, who embark on a mini road trip after Linus delivers the devastating news that he’s moving out of the state. R. Eric Thomas is also the author of the fantastic essay collection Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America.

Love, Misha by Askel Aden

While we’re on the YA train, consider this YA graphic novel mystery about Audrey, mother to nonbinary child Misha. They head on a road trip together meant to let them bond, but both are struggling to connect with each other and really see each other for who they are. Their parent/child journey gets a lot more complicated when a wrong turn leads them to the Realm of Spirits.

After the Parade by Lori Ostlund

Lori Ostlund’s debut novel is about a forty-year-old man named Aaron in a relationship with an older partner named Walter for the last twenty years. Aaron leaves Walter in New Mexico on a path of self-discovery and reckoning with his past in the Midwest, traveling to a new life in San Francisco. I am also a big fan of Lori Ostlund’s queer short fiction.

We All Loved Cowboys by Carol Bensimon, translated by Beth Fowler

This short work in translation is a novel about recently fallen out friends Cora and Julia coming back together for a road trip throughout Brazil. It’s a queer coming-of-age tale and a debut novel steeped in themes of friendship, change, and self-exploration.

The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán, translated by Sophie Hughes

A group of three friends in Chile embark on a road trip up the Andes cordillera after one of their mother’s remains goes missing in transit. The book touches on death, second-generation trauma, and friendship. Indeed, stories of intense friendship is a major recurring motif in these road trip books.

Have other queer road trip books you’d like to shout out? Drop them in the comments!

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