Hot Girls with Balls

a 🏐 novel / sapphic sporty sicko serious satire / literary brainrot / golden retriever x black cat / enemies & lovers / 

PREORDER the PAPERBACK - JULY 14, 2026

📖 buy the print or e-book 📖
🎧 buy the audiobook 🎧
🎤 six and green summer tour dates 🎤

---

ABA INDIE NEXT PICK - JULY 2025
AARDVARK BOOK CLUB PICK - JULY 2025
USA TODAY NATIONAL BESTSELLER

---

---

REVIEWS

 🏐 Xtra 🏐 Brooklyn Rail 🏐 Literary Review 🏐 Lux (major spoilers) 🏐 Publishers Weekly (starred) 🏐 e-flux 🏐 BookPage 🏐 BookBrowse
 

BEST BOOK OF 2025

Lit Hub 🏐 Elle 🏐 Electric Lit 🏐 Them 
🏐 Chicago Review of Books 🏐 Autostraddle

MOST ANTICIPATED

🏐 Elle 🏐 Vulture 🏐 T Magazine 🏐 Forbes 🏐 W Mag 🏐 LA Times
🏐 The A.V. Club 🏐 Autostraddle 🏐 Cosmopolitan 🏐 Chicago Review of Books 🏐 Oprah Daily 🏐 Harper’s Bazaar 🏐 Our Cuture Mag 🏐 The Millions 🏐 Literary Hub 🏐 Bay Area Reporter 🏐 Electric Lit 🏐 Betches 🏐 Debutiful 🏐 Ms. Magazine 🏐 Book Riot 🏐 Goodreads

MORE BALL BUZZ

This Streetball Collective Is Reclaiming Space For Trans Athletes – Service95
Publishers Weekly Spring 2025 Writers to Watch
Sunny’s Book Truck - August 2025 Pick
Haus of Bad Bitches - August 2025 Pick
The Cut’s 100 Small Wins in *****’s first 100 Days
Poets and Writers 2025 Get the Word Out Fiction Cohort
From Provincetown Book Festival - Out Magazine

INTERVIEWS & PODCASTS

Foglifter 🏐 BOMB Magazine 🏐 Debutiful 🏐 Language Arts Substack 🏐 Chicago Review of Books 🏐  Referential Substack 🏐 Autostraddle 🏐 They Read Book Substack 🏐 Gays Reading 🏐 Books and Boba 🏐 Joysauce 🏐 Book Riot’s First Edition 🏐 Shelf Awareness

HOT HOT PRAISE

"Cheeky and provocative . . . While the book does tackle the politics of trans women in sports, it’s really a meditation on how our social media feeds seep into our psyches and alter our lives . . . Nguyen throws a lot at the wall with this debut novel—set in a slightly alternate world, it juggles sports, romance and social critique. But one of the accomplishments that makes it stand out is the nuance with which Nguyen sorts through the pitfalls and opportunities of life online . . . In the past few decades, social media has shifted. Instead of people who post, we now have 'creators'; instead of accounts we have 'platforms.' The sense of connection and play that used to suffuse social media has been replaced by a sense of work and duty. With humor and heart, Hot Girls with Balls explores what that change means." —MJ Franklin, The New York Times

"Get set for this funny and very sexy off-court romp." —Lorraine Berry, Los Angeles Times

"This book is best for those who love romance with a dash of real life." —Toni Fitgzerald, Forbes

"With all the hubbub surrounding trans friends in sports, this satire about two women in a men’s pro indoor volleyball league is just what we need now. Benedict Nguyen serves up a piping hot cup of tea with this perfect balance of political discourse, irony, drama and humor." —Ms.

"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." —Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's Bazaar

“A mixed-media satire told with style and verve, Hot Girls with Balls has plenty going for it beyond its incredible title. The narrative will inevitably draw comparisons to Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, but with volleyballs instead of tennis rackets, a much heavier dose of internet culture, and two Asian American trans women as its leading characters . . . Benedict Nguyễn’s sharp, funny-yet-serious debut explores the constant pressure to present identity ‘correctly,’ especially when that identity is under equally constant threat.” —Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle

"A sharp, funny, lively book about the wildly horrifying transphobic, conservative politics of contemporary American society."—Lydi Conklin, Oprah Daily

"This brilliant satire is a one-of-a-kind debut." —Tamara Fuentes, Cosmopolitan

"Benedict Nguyễn’s 'deeply serious satire' Hot Girls with Balls makes a great beach read." —Jen Lennon, The A.V. Club

"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." —Isle McElroy, Vulture

"Hot Girls with Balls brims with charisma, envy, sabotage and taut, taut muscles . . . Nguyễn’s knack for recreating the chaotic, hate-it-but-can’t-look-away nature of online discourse makes this, her debut novel, a text in perpetual motion. She is an athlete herself—a dancer and self-professed gym buff—and writes as deftly about the stresses, training regimens and team choreography of competitive sports as she does about the micro-details of being trans in the public eye. Hot Girls with Balls is an expertly structured text, its central narrative arc intercut and propelled by scrolls of livestream and forum comments from Six’s and Green’s supporters and enemies . . . Nguyễn has written a polyphonic, tender, biting novel, with two fascinating trans heroines at its centre. Six and Green feel so real that you might find yourself searching for their handles on socials once you’ve finished reading, hoping for just one more glimpse of the trophy-winning, ponytail-wielding volleyball stars." —H Felix Chau Bradley, Xtra

"Hot Girls with Balls is such a funny and sharp satire that follows Six and Green, two Asian American trans women and stars of the men’s professional volleyball league. Together, they must navigate love, competitiveness, and a growing base of fans and transphobic critics. Nguyễn’s debut is a fantastic takedown of capitalism, social media, and conservative politics." —Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books

"Hilarious in its excavations of internet fame and the content-ification of relationships, Hot Girls with Balls follows Six and Green, two late-twenties Asian trans women on rival teams in the men’s pro indoor volleyball league . . . It’s a great 'internet novel' and specifically a queer internet novel." —Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Autostraddle

"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." —McKenzie Wark, e-flux

"Certain books just exude cool—pick it up and you know you’re in for something original. Enter Hot Girls with Balls, Benedict Nguyễn’s debut novel. With the verve, humor, and social commentary of Challengers, Bottoms, and Love Lies Bleeding, the novel tells the story of Six and Green, two Asian American trans women who compete in the men’s pro indoor volleyball league on rival teams while also doing 'Instagraph' lives as an influencer couple." —Michael Colbert, Referential Substack

"Clever and nervy . . . Nguyễn’s playful satire tackles everything from sports celebrity to social media, boy’s club dynamics to girlboss politics, romantic jealousy to PR damage control. Also on tap: hot volleyball action." —Goodreads

"A terrific and sidesplitting satire. It’s the type of novel that is effortlessly laugh-out-loud funny while also taking a sharp lens to the politics of gender and identity where two transwoman are forced to play in a men’s volleyball league." —Debutiful

"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." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The 'internet novel' has been pretty popular for the past 10 years. Many writers have tried to add elements of our 21st-century lifestyles—oversharing through posting, mindless scrolling, going off on endless tangents—into the tried-and-true form of the novel, but few have been able to really capture this new kind of life. Benedict Nguyen’s Hot Girls with Balls is an exciting entry into the lineage, one that succeeds in replicating the feeling of living, loving and majorly losing online . . . The success of Hot Girls with Balls comes from the delicate yet hilarious ways in which Nguyen deals with contemporary issues . . . Six and Green’s lives may be spectacles, but the heart of this novel is a love story that shows the humanity behind the image." —Eric A. Ponce, BookPage

"Hot Girls With Balls delivers a satire that defies every expectation of trans fiction. Nguyễn recounts high school volleyball, trans awakenings, and coming-out stories but trauma isn’t central. Or even adjacent. It’s off in the corner, out-of-mind so Six and Green can focus on being hot, world-class athletes. The pair navigates racism and transphobia without losing the confidence that made them known the world over . . . Six and Green aren’t trying to be perfect; they’re trying to win. Few trans protagonists get that freedom, and Nguyễn makes the most of it." — Max Schlenker, The Brooklyn Rail

“Benedict Nguyễn's Hot Girls with Balls is so fun, so adrenalized, as grippy as Pilates socks, that it seems a little unfair that it's also smart as hell. It's a novel that's utterly contemporary, vividly specific, funny, and moving. Nguyễn has given us a kinetic, deeply pleasurable satire that I'll be pressing into many hands, this volleyball season and after.”
—Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of All This Could Be Different

"Benedict Nguyễn’s Hot Girls With Balls is literal genius: nailbiter sports fiction meets Kathy Acker on EMDR meets our shiny screentime moment, with all the desire & denial & overwhelm & the queer Asian trans girls at the heart of everything that matters. I love this book! It's so observant & emotionally intelligent & moving & shot through with clarity. SO SO GOOD! & I like volleyball now!"
—Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

“Following its heroines as they navigate their relationship on and off the volleyball court and online, alongside a relentless comments section full of lovers and haters, I was rooting for Six and Green every step of the way. Sharp and stylish, Hot Girls with Balls is pitch-perfect satire with a generous heart.”
—Lisa Ko, author of Memory Piece

"Hot Girls with Balls is an antic drama of fame, envy, and vanity, equal parts kinetic and erotic, and intensely self-aware—like if Challengersincluded the online discourse about Challengers. More than anything else, it's about the perilous double-bind of visibility: how you need it to have your existence acknowledged, and how it constrains and deforms that same existence. All the ills of the internet are here: the performed vulnerability, the eternal servitude to the peanut gallery, that paranoid feeling of all humanity constantly looking over your shoulder—including a couple of real freaks. Like any good volleyball player, Benedict Nguyễn can truly serve, and knows just when to go in for the kill."
—Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection

"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."
—Chantal V. Johnson, author of Post-Traumatic

"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."
—Patrick Cottrell, author of Sorry to Disrupt the Peace

"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!"
—Jasmine Gibson, author of A Beauty Has Come

"Nguyễn serves up sharp, hilarious satire about trans celebrity and the limits and costs of trying to change a world from within it. I’ve never read such an unflinching celebration of the weird, violent poetry of online trans discourse, and was here for Six and Green’s journey—via fierce tournament play, lesbian processing, brand deals and soaring follower counts—somehow to rise above it."
—Jeanne Thornton, author of Summer Fun and A/S/L


Literary Agent: Danielle Bukowski
Sterling Lord Literistic
danielle [at] sll [dot] com

Publicist: Megan Fishmann
Catapult
megan [dot] fishmann [at] counterpointpress [dot] com