Chicago Review of Books, A Best Debut of 2025
Electric Literature, A Best Novel of the Year
Elle, A Best Book of the Summer
W Magazine, A Best Book of Summer
Named a Most Anticipated Title by Ms., Our Culture Magazine, Goodreads, Book Riot, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, The Millions, & Debutiful
“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 The sense of connection and play that used to suffuse social media has been replaced by a sense of work and duty.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
“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 Challengers included 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
QUICK VIEW
