Summary and Reviews of Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyen

Media Reviews

Cosmopolitan This brilliant satire is a one-of-a-kind debut.

Debutiful Terrific and sidesplitting ... It's the type of novel that is effortlessly laugh-out-loud funny.

e-flux The tone is light comedy, but the substance is real enough ... Class difference is one of the least explored dimensions of trans life. Fortunately, Nguyen doesn't offer an imaginary resolution to the real contradictions of class. It's enough to illuminate them.

Electric Literature A joyfully hailed satire.

Harper's Bazaar If you thought Challengers made tennis sexy, just wait and see what Hot Girls with Balls can do for volleyball...All in all, the novel is the outrageous, hilarious, and biting social commentary that we need in a time where the government continues to invalidate and target the trans community.

Los Angeles Times Get set for this funny and very sexy off-court romp.

Our Culture Steamy and funny.

Vulture It's hard to find a better opening sentence than the beginning of Benedict Nguyễn's debut novel: 'No one could think straight because everyone was actually gay.' Hot Girls with Balls gets only funnier and more audacious from there.

W Magazine A confident, wry story.

Forbes This book is best for those who love romance with a dash of real life.

The A.V. Club Benedict Nguyễn's 'deeply serious satire' Hot Girls with Balls makes a great beach read.

Publishers Weekly (starred review) Nguyễn dazzles in her riotous debut...With agile prose and tongue-in-cheek humor, Nguyễn delivers sharp insights into the pressure trans people face to justify their identities and gender presentations. This bold novel hits as hard as a spike to the face.

 Chantal V. Johnson, author of Post-Traumatic Hot Girls with Balls is a thrillingly cheeky, tenderly irreverent, seriously funny novel, anchored by a loving duo I couldn't stop rooting for and featuring a very spicy send-up of the comments section. No one is spared from Benedict Nguyễn's dishy satire, but with writing this alive, we wouldn't want it any other way.

 Jasmine Gibson, author of A Beauty Has Come Hot Girls with Balls is a cheeky and daring presentation of women defining themselves for the love of the game. Nguyễn moves blithely through Six and Green's ability to balance their own bodily autonomy, the transphobic/fetish gaze, and the love and envy that can exist for these women creating themselves in the gender segregationist world of sports. Dear reader, consider yourself immersed in the world that is Hot Girls with Balls!

 Patrick Cottrell, author of Sorry to Disrupt the Peace I rarely come across a novel with the style, humor, and vitality of Hot Girls with Balls. It's a rigorous and gutting satire, a courageous social fantasy, a realistic portrait of the hell that is humanity, a deeply felt book about love and competition. Benedict Nguyễn is a star. I love the way she sees the world.

Reader Reviews

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