Books by Tanya Boteju

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens

by Tanya Boteju

“Poignant and important.” —Refinery29
“A bright and sparkly celebration of love and self-acceptance.” —Kirkus Reviews

Judy Blume meets RuPaul’s Drag Race in this funny, feel-good debut novel about a queer teen who navigates questions of identity and self-acceptance while discovering the magical world of drag.

Perpetually awkward Nima Kumara-Clark is bored with her insular community of Bridgeton, in love with her straight girlfriend, and trying to move past her mother’s unexpected departure. After a bewildering encounter at a local festival, Nima finds herself suddenly immersed in the drag scene on the other side of town.

Macho drag kings, magical queens, new love interests, and surprising allies propel Nima both painfully and hilariously closer to a self she never knew she could be—one that can confidently express and accept love. But she’ll have to learn to accept lost love to get there.

From debut author Tanya Boteju comes a poignant, laugh-out-loud tale of acceptance, self-expression, and the colorful worlds that await when we’re brave enough to look.

Out Now: Queer We Go Again!

by Kosoko Jackson, Tara Sim, Mark Oshiro, Meredith Russo, Eliot Schrefer, Katherine Locke, Julian Winters, C.B. Lee, Caleb Roehrig, Saundra Mitchell, Tanya Boteju, Cam Montgomery, Will Kostakis, Fox Benwell, Kate Hart, Hillary Monahan, Jessica Verdi

QUEER WE GO AGAIN!

Fans of Becky Albertelli, Adam Silvera and Nina LaCour will eat up this delicious anthology of romantic and adventurous contemporary and speculative stories featuring LGBTQ+ teens.

A follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Out anthology, Out Now features seventeen new short stories from amazing queer YA authors. Vampires crash prom…aliens run from the government…a president’s daughter comes into her own…a true romantic tries to soften the heart of a cynical social media influencer…a selkie and the sea call out to a lost soul. Teapots and barbershops…skateboards and VW vans…Street Fighter and Ares’s sword: Out Now has a story for every reader and surprises with each turn of the page!

This essential and beautifully written modern-day collection features an intersectional and inclusive slate of authors and stories.

With original stories from:
Fox Benwell
Tanya Boteju
Kate Hart
Kosoko Jackson
Will Kostakis
CB Lee
Katherine Locke
Saundra Mitchell
Hillary Monahan
Candice Montgomery
Mark Oshiro
Caleb Roerig
Meredith Russo
Eliot Schrefer
Jessica Verdi
Julian Winters

Read the entire set of companion anthologies featuring queer teens in the past, present, and future!
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
Out Now: Queer We Go Again!
Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder (coming soon!)

Messy Perfect

by Tanya Boteju

Perfect for fans of Mason Deaver and Becky Albertalli, this tender, raucous novel follows a rule-following, perfectionist teen who starts an underground GSA club at her conservative Catholic high school, from the acclaimed author of Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens.

Cassie Perera is a star student in St. Luke's junior class. But the new school year brings an unwelcome surprise--the return to St. Luke's of Cassie's former friend, Ben, who left a few years ago after a homophobic bullying incident Cassie knows she didn't do enough to prevent.

Still harboring guilt from her inaction, Cassie decides, in her usual, overzealous way, to team up with the neighboring public school to found an underground Gender and Sexuality Alliance--as a complicated strategy for making things up to Ben. Secretly, Cassie is also tempted by the possibility of opening up about her own sexuality for the first time.

As Cassie's new friends urge her out of her comfort zone, she unlocks a kind of joy and freedom she's never felt before--even as she struggles to balance these experiences with her typical tightrope of being the perfect daughter, student, and Catholic.

Cassie's perfectly curated life unravels into turmoil, but can she embrace the mess enough to piece together something new?