A luminous and romantic debut verse-novel 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 want. Prema is absolutely not a girl. Coming out to their queer parents and their best friend is easy. But how do they do that at school, with new friends or the cute boy in their drama club, the one they can''t stop thinking about? Join Prema in their last year of A Levels as they try to figure all this out, contending with complex family dynamics, fading friendships and first loves. With gorgeous illustrations throughout, Bad Queer is a love letter to queer joy, life, love and resistance. This is a beautiful, song-from-the-heart novel, perfect for fans of Alice Oseman, Dean Atta and Sarah Crossan.

Autorentext

Gayathiri Kamalakanthan is a Tamil writer 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 Poetry Archive Now! Worldview Prize, the FAB Publisher's Prize and the RSL Literature Matters Award. Their play Period Parrrty is a trans Tamil romcom and opened at Soho Theatre in October 2025. An alumna of the Southbank Centre New Poets Collective, Gayathiri runs Word-Benders, a poetry workshop centering trans and queer poets of colour.
gayathiri.co.uk, @unembarrassable.

Klappentext

A striking and romantic debut verse novel exploring falling in love for the first time as a queer teenager.