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Your next favorite book
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A luminous and romantic debut novel in verse about navigating first love as a non–binary teenager.
I feel invincible.
Like I could run and run
and never stop for breath.
I feel a power in me
I didn't know I had.
The power to speak,
to say what I need.
Surya knows exactly who they are. Coming out as non-binary to their queer parents and best friend? A total non-event. Catching feelings for Blessing – the boy in drama club whose smile makes their heart race? That's trickier.
As their final year of school unfolds and the two of them grow closer, Surya starts to question: Does Blessing really see them? Or just a version of them that doesn't exist? They'd ask their best friend for advice, but she's busy falling in love too...
With gorgeous illustrations throughout, Bad Queer draws us deeply into queer friendship, family secrets, and the necessary act of loving yourself. Perfect for fans of Alice Oseman, Dean Atta, and Sarah Crossan.
This is a love letter to queer futures – tender, curious, and fiercely alive.
"Kamalakanthan debuts with a scintillating verse novel that chronicles a nonbinary transgender teen's journey toward publicly claiming their queer identity...This poetic slice-of-life portrait is not to be missed." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This coming-of-age story centering on Surya, a genderqueer teenager from London, offers a thoughtful and nuanced take on relationships within and outside family." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Affirming and poignant." —School Library Journal
This information about Bad Queer was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gayathiri Kamalakanthan is a Tamil poet and producer. They're interested in how language shapes adolescence and how we might use it to build freer futures. Gayathiri is a recipient of the Disabled Poets Prize, the FAB Prize and the RSL Literature Matters Award. An alumna of the Southbank Centre New Poets Collective, Gayathiri runs Word-Benders, a poetry workshop centering the work of trans and queer poets of colour. Their work in Relationships and Sex Education shapes the questions they ask as a writer. gayathiri.co.uk, @unembarrassable.
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