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Hot Girls with Balls
In this outrageous and deeply serious satire, two star indoor volleyball players juggle unspoken jealousies in their off-court romance ahead of their rival teams’ first rematch in a year
Six is 6’7”, scheming to rejoin the starting lineup, and barely checks her phone. Green is 6’1”, always building her brand, and secretly jealous of her more famous girlfriend. Together, they’re going where no Asian American trans woman has gone before: the men’s pro indoor volleyball league. Our hot girls with balls just thought playing with the boys would spare them some controversy . . . haha.
Besides playing for rival teams, they’re also lovers tending to their relationship between away games, time zones, and their weekly Instagraph live show. Soon, they’ll reunite for the championship tournament, the first to accommodate in-person fans since the COVIS pandemic struck the world a year ago. Just as they enter an airtight bro bubble of the world’s best, they’re faced with a public crisis that necessitates an indisputably humiliating task: make a public statement online.
Can Green stock up enough clout for her post-ball future? Can Six girlboss her team’s seniority politics? Can they both take a timeout to just grieve? Their rabid fans and horny haters await their next move. We’re all just desperate for a whiff of the feminine sweaty energy that makes that ball thwack with such spectacular force.
Six is 6’7”, scheming to rejoin the starting lineup, and barely checks her phone. Green is 6’1”, always building her brand, and secretly jealous of her more famous girlfriend. Together, they’re going where no Asian American trans woman has gone before: the men’s pro indoor volleyball league. Our hot girls with balls just thought playing with the boys would spare them some controversy . . . haha.
Besides playing for rival teams, they’re also lovers tending to their relationship between away games, time zones, and their weekly Instagraph live show. Soon, they’ll reunite for the championship tournament, the first to accommodate in-person fans since the COVIS pandemic struck the world a year ago. Just as they enter an airtight bro bubble of the world’s best, they’re faced with a public crisis that necessitates an indisputably humiliating task: make a public statement online.
Can Green stock up enough clout for her post-ball future? Can Six girlboss her team’s seniority politics? Can they both take a timeout to just grieve? Their rabid fans and horny haters await their next move. We’re all just desperate for a whiff of the feminine sweaty energy that makes that ball thwack with such spectacular force.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2025
84 people are currently reading
13698 people want to read
About the author
Benedict Nguyễn
1 book72 followersBenedict Nguyễn is a dancer and gym buff who works as a creative producer in live performance. She’s written for The Baffler, BOMB, Los Angeles Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The Brooklyn Rail, The Margins, and other publications. In 2022, she published nasty notes, the redacted-email zine on freelance labor. Hot Girls with Balls is her first novel. @xbennyboo
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 326 reviews
September 26, 2025
already found the best title of 2025.
when the world is so disappointing and everyone online seems so stupid and selfish and cruel, reading funny and sharp and satirical books like this one is a balm for the soul.
HOT GIRLS WITH BALLS follows green and six, two asian american trans women volleyball players who have to play in the men's league due to transphobia in sports.
it's not all fun titles: the formatting of this book was a struggle even for me, a staunch defender of sally rooney's right to neglect quotation marks. it's filled with social media comments and exclamation points that can mess with readability...as can the over-the-top nature of the entire book.
but ultimately, this was an honest look at internet culture and bigotry and gender and being hot and sometimes dumb. and that works for me.
bottom line: fun (no exclamation point).
(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
when the world is so disappointing and everyone online seems so stupid and selfish and cruel, reading funny and sharp and satirical books like this one is a balm for the soul.
HOT GIRLS WITH BALLS follows green and six, two asian american trans women volleyball players who have to play in the men's league due to transphobia in sports.
it's not all fun titles: the formatting of this book was a struggle even for me, a staunch defender of sally rooney's right to neglect quotation marks. it's filled with social media comments and exclamation points that can mess with readability...as can the over-the-top nature of the entire book.
but ultimately, this was an honest look at internet culture and bigotry and gender and being hot and sometimes dumb. and that works for me.
bottom line: fun (no exclamation point).
(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
March 19, 2025
okay but like the girls in here are soooo hotttttt
November 21, 2024
Loved. Did for volleyball what Challengers did for tennis. Also really interesting insights on how impossible it is to do anything as a marginalized person in the public eye. Excited to see more from her !!
August 6, 2025
⭐️thanks to goodreads for sending this to me in a giveaway⭐️
would i be canceled if i say i feel like this is too woke or is that part of the point...i truly don't know. i dont really like books that have themes of covid in them, and i think it just sounds stupid when a book renames their social media platforms to be knockoff sounding versions of ours so that threw me off. just in general this wasn't anything like what i expected it to be and not nearly enough actual sports being shown. most of the book felt like it was just told through social media posts which got exhausting after a while. I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of thing, but it wasn't me
would i be canceled if i say i feel like this is too woke or is that part of the point...i truly don't know. i dont really like books that have themes of covid in them, and i think it just sounds stupid when a book renames their social media platforms to be knockoff sounding versions of ours so that threw me off. just in general this wasn't anything like what i expected it to be and not nearly enough actual sports being shown. most of the book felt like it was just told through social media posts which got exhausting after a while. I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of thing, but it wasn't me
August 25, 2025
this had so much promise but oh my god this was just COVID era liberal twitter in a book and it made me dizzy to read, what the fuck just happened
September 1, 2025
2.5. I’m so so sad that I didn’t really end up liking this 😭 I was so excited to read it but it fell flat for me. I usually like a satire and I get that the characters aren’t supposed to be likeable but still. The frequent social media live stream comment sections also got tiring after a while. It was also hard to follow who was saying what in dialogue because there’s no quotation marks and often no mention of who said what. My head definitely hurt in the beginning trying to keep track. And I don’t totally get what commentary the author is trying to make about COVID/precautions… it did get better like halfway through and I stayed up late to finish it. Maybe my expectations were too high.
Also heads up it’s a lot heavier in content than what the blurb gives off, there’s a ton of racist transphobic social media comments, a big plot line is about the murders of trans Asian women, and there’s another very transphobic plotline. It’s also definitely NOT a romance by any means.
Also heads up it’s a lot heavier in content than what the blurb gives off, there’s a ton of racist transphobic social media comments, a big plot line is about the murders of trans Asian women, and there’s another very transphobic plotline. It’s also definitely NOT a romance by any means.
May 25, 2025
Received from Edelweiss, thanks!
CW: transphobic language, misgendering, murder/hate crime (off page)
I found this book absolutely fascinating and powerful, even though I didn’t love the format. I’m not sure that this review will be overly coherent, because I’m not entirely sure how to even talk about this book.
It’s a book about two Asian-American trans women who are playing professional volleyball in a men’s league, because they don’t have the option of playing in the women’s league (because of transphobia in sports). Six and Green have socially transitioned, but not medically transitioned and there is a lot of discussion about that, both from the characters as well as on their social media. The book is written in omniscient third person POV, though most of the time it is focused on our two MCs. Though there are also large portions of the book that are written as comments to the MCs’ social media. I didn’t love how that read, as it was super fragmented and difficult to follow (as are most comment sections), but it also gave the reader an insight into what these women are going through. Social media plays a huge role in the story, and I found that an interesting, yet really effective, way of showing the reader the pressures of being a famous trans woman.
Overall, the book is a critical look at the expectations of being a famous trans woman as well as what it means to be trans. Six and Green are confident and comfortable in their bodies, knowing that they are women who don’t pass. They are high profile professional athletes who feel pressured to use their platforms to speak out when other Asian trans women are murdered and when gender affirming care for trans kids is at risk. But this is perhaps at the cost of being able to be vulnerable themselves and allow themselves to grieve and be mad or scared. And through the social media comments we see constant criticisms of Six and Green; that they’re not trans enough, they’re not doing it right, they’re not doing enough for the community, they’re being too performative. It really shows, not only how toxic social media is, but also how if you’re famous and a member of a marginalized community (or multiple communities, as Six and Green are) that no one will ever be happy with what you’re doing. It also discusses how you’ll never be effective if you’re not taking care of yourself and your relationships.
This book just has so much to say and I think it does a really good job of saying it.
CW: transphobic language, misgendering, murder/hate crime (off page)
I found this book absolutely fascinating and powerful, even though I didn’t love the format. I’m not sure that this review will be overly coherent, because I’m not entirely sure how to even talk about this book.
It’s a book about two Asian-American trans women who are playing professional volleyball in a men’s league, because they don’t have the option of playing in the women’s league (because of transphobia in sports). Six and Green have socially transitioned, but not medically transitioned and there is a lot of discussion about that, both from the characters as well as on their social media. The book is written in omniscient third person POV, though most of the time it is focused on our two MCs. Though there are also large portions of the book that are written as comments to the MCs’ social media. I didn’t love how that read, as it was super fragmented and difficult to follow (as are most comment sections), but it also gave the reader an insight into what these women are going through. Social media plays a huge role in the story, and I found that an interesting, yet really effective, way of showing the reader the pressures of being a famous trans woman.
Overall, the book is a critical look at the expectations of being a famous trans woman as well as what it means to be trans. Six and Green are confident and comfortable in their bodies, knowing that they are women who don’t pass. They are high profile professional athletes who feel pressured to use their platforms to speak out when other Asian trans women are murdered and when gender affirming care for trans kids is at risk. But this is perhaps at the cost of being able to be vulnerable themselves and allow themselves to grieve and be mad or scared. And through the social media comments we see constant criticisms of Six and Green; that they’re not trans enough, they’re not doing it right, they’re not doing enough for the community, they’re being too performative. It really shows, not only how toxic social media is, but also how if you’re famous and a member of a marginalized community (or multiple communities, as Six and Green are) that no one will ever be happy with what you’re doing. It also discusses how you’ll never be effective if you’re not taking care of yourself and your relationships.
This book just has so much to say and I think it does a really good job of saying it.
Want to read
June 15, 2025AHHHH I just got an early copy in the mail!!!! So excited 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
August 24, 2025
Although I mostly like the Goodreads challenges and the opportunity they offer to read different and new books, I cannot phantom why this would be in a challenge except from it being a challenge to finish.
Sadly, I’ve got no positive things to mention. No clarity in writing, narrative is confusing and the aim of the plot is also debatable. A pity.
Sadly, I’ve got no positive things to mention. No clarity in writing, narrative is confusing and the aim of the plot is also debatable. A pity.
January 8, 2025
Thank you to the author for the ARC.
Nguyễn weaves together internet influencers, professional athletes, fans, and parasocial followers into one. At first, one might be skeptical of their parallels, but as the reader continues through Nguyễn's novel, the more similarities are drawn such as the vapid consumption of the influencer/athlete and how they're reduced to statistics like their height, weight, followers, wins, etc. Nguyễn's novel also utilizes the choral voices of the internet through tweets and discourse between Twitter users. The tweets and discourse might seem absurd and exaggerated to some extent for comedic purposes, yet if one has spent anytime on Twitter they'll know it's all too true and real. Nguyễn's novel is written in a fast pace like a round of volleyball or something trending on the internet. It's thrilling but Nguyễn knows when to slow down and to give the narrative moments to hold space. Nguyễn's novel will leave readers laughing and wanting more of her future work.
Nguyễn weaves together internet influencers, professional athletes, fans, and parasocial followers into one. At first, one might be skeptical of their parallels, but as the reader continues through Nguyễn's novel, the more similarities are drawn such as the vapid consumption of the influencer/athlete and how they're reduced to statistics like their height, weight, followers, wins, etc. Nguyễn's novel also utilizes the choral voices of the internet through tweets and discourse between Twitter users. The tweets and discourse might seem absurd and exaggerated to some extent for comedic purposes, yet if one has spent anytime on Twitter they'll know it's all too true and real. Nguyễn's novel is written in a fast pace like a round of volleyball or something trending on the internet. It's thrilling but Nguyễn knows when to slow down and to give the narrative moments to hold space. Nguyễn's novel will leave readers laughing and wanting more of her future work.
August 13, 2025
DNF at ~50%
Some books do not translate well to audiobooks and I think this one of them. I’ve been confused the whole time who is speaking, who were following, even who the characters are.
I believe I’ve also determined satire is not for me. I don’t *get* it. And maybe there isn’t anything to get and that’s part of my problem but no. This is not for me
Some books do not translate well to audiobooks and I think this one of them. I’ve been confused the whole time who is speaking, who were following, even who the characters are.
I believe I’ve also determined satire is not for me. I don’t *get* it. And maybe there isn’t anything to get and that’s part of my problem but no. This is not for me
August 18, 2025
Loved this. Designed to be a summer book + a reflection on a hectic, inward-looking, parasocially-projecting moment on social media mid-2021, when COVID rates were still sky high, social media microcelebrities attempted to do activism that would make them money, and trans people were transforming from neoliberal progressivity-porn to culture-wars target in a more marked way.
Our heroes-- Six, a 6'9'' Vietnamese-American trans woman, and Green, a Japanese-American trans woman who is just 6'2'', both play men's volleyball, and they've been blasted to temporary, athleticism-based stardom. Now they're in a long distance lesbian relationship, and are brought together for a tournament where they'll play against each other on different teams-- after a week in a quarantine bubble. Meanwhile, everyone online is scrutinizing them both. Six would be able to disengage more, except that Green is fixated on her girlfriend's relatively larger fame, larger frame, more special beauty, and the evil comments that trail after them whenever they make an Instagraph Live video. Meanwhile, the murder of three trans women makes Green feel like she has to be an activist and makes Six feel even further from her girlfriend, and ALSO meanwhile, another teammate is hoping to come out as trans herself.
I like the lack of quotation marks because of how it marks both in person dialogue and comments sections as equally real.
It doesn't go as deep as it could, because it goes wide, within its narrow range, but Nguyen's effective sketch of the content and feeling of online comments sections, of people's projection on trans women's bodies and internal selves, their sexual fixation on trans women, and their desire to profit off of them-- that hits pretty hard. Unlike other novels I've read about queer people suffering through spiraling anxiety, Nguyen is relative generosity towards Green, who has been driven essentially temporarily insane by isolation and hyper-internet frenetics and isn't being a super great girlfriend. The lack of a collapse in the girls' solidarity (even if it wobbles) makes this book stand out as more capable than most Literature, especially Literature on queer community drama, at talking about anxiety and darkness without lapsing into fatalism. That said, you could read some wry irony into the ending. I don't know if it will be possible for our girls to escape the eviscerating gaze of the public, even if they create their own gym.
Our heroes-- Six, a 6'9'' Vietnamese-American trans woman, and Green, a Japanese-American trans woman who is just 6'2'', both play men's volleyball, and they've been blasted to temporary, athleticism-based stardom. Now they're in a long distance lesbian relationship, and are brought together for a tournament where they'll play against each other on different teams-- after a week in a quarantine bubble. Meanwhile, everyone online is scrutinizing them both. Six would be able to disengage more, except that Green is fixated on her girlfriend's relatively larger fame, larger frame, more special beauty, and the evil comments that trail after them whenever they make an Instagraph Live video. Meanwhile, the murder of three trans women makes Green feel like she has to be an activist and makes Six feel even further from her girlfriend, and ALSO meanwhile, another teammate is hoping to come out as trans herself.
I like the lack of quotation marks because of how it marks both in person dialogue and comments sections as equally real.
It doesn't go as deep as it could, because it goes wide, within its narrow range, but Nguyen's effective sketch of the content and feeling of online comments sections, of people's projection on trans women's bodies and internal selves, their sexual fixation on trans women, and their desire to profit off of them-- that hits pretty hard. Unlike other novels I've read about queer people suffering through spiraling anxiety, Nguyen is relative generosity towards Green, who has been driven essentially temporarily insane by isolation and hyper-internet frenetics and isn't being a super great girlfriend. The lack of a collapse in the girls' solidarity (even if it wobbles) makes this book stand out as more capable than most Literature, especially Literature on queer community drama, at talking about anxiety and darkness without lapsing into fatalism. That said, you could read some wry irony into the ending. I don't know if it will be possible for our girls to escape the eviscerating gaze of the public, even if they create their own gym.
July 17, 2025
I waited, and waited, and waited some more for excellence, mediocrity even, and it didn't come. This novel is BARELY about volleyball, and not that it should have been, but in the vein of Carrie Soto is Back or The Favorites, I expected there to be MORE volleyball. Even still, the dialogue was rudimentary, boring, unrealistic, and at times downright annoying. The plot, whatever little there is, is so convoluted that the only thing I managed to get out of this novel is that transgendered people are discriminated against and are often fetishized, abused, exploited, and killed. Which is nothing I didn't know already, and this novel did not help me appreciate this fact any more. It in fact detracted from that message because there were no instances or moments of clarity or apotheosis in any of the characters. I wanted to enjoy this novel so badly because the title and premise both were so intriguing and a wonderful satirical topic. But alas, Nguyen fell dramatically short, like Six did on the court.
September 11, 2025
I’m not online enough for this.
November 14, 2025
I do like satire but this was too painfully reminiscent of 2020 Twitter to be enjoyable
August 25, 2025
For a book this short it was so exhausting to read. The prose was clunky and so much of it felt so unnecessary. The social media comments grew tired very quickly and this required a level of online even I don’t have. The characters were so hate-able but I don’t think that was intentional,,, I actually have not one nice thing to say so I’m going to cut my review off here.
August 2, 2025
Killer title, killer cover, can’t wait
December 6, 2025
I think this might work better if you approach it as an art piece instead of a novel.
Because, and believe me I feel bad saying this, Hot Girls With Balls is one of the worst published books I've ever read.
10 out of 10 title, but the rest...
was so goofy and cringey and far more "online" than I'm comfortable with being these days. Not to mention the formatting and punctuation actively pushing the reader away for no reason.
I mean, the choice to exclude quotation marks when there are dozens of speakers here is not only unintelligible and brutal to read, but it also feels lazy rather than purposeful.
Like seriously, why do that? It's not cool and meta, it's confusing and difficult to read. It makes this feel more like a rough draft than anything else.
I think the most painful part of this narrative are the comment section sections where the author includes what the followers of these volleyball players are putting in the chat on their videos.
It just wasn't well done, at all, imho.
There's even a part, right during the climax of the story in fact, where the comments are shuffled randomly into the narrative instead of being isolated from it. I get what the author was trying to do with that, but it was SO frustrating to read, I'd call it a failure.
And speaking of failures, while I can see where the author was going with her social commentary in places, none of it ever came to a head in a clear, meaningful way. I just feel like this kind of satire is, overall, rather shallow, low-effort, and tone-deaf.
It's super annoying and world breaking to read "TicTac" instead of TicTok or "SpaceTime" instead of FaceTime or "InstaGraph" instead of Instagram.
Ew.
Juxtaposing this kind of goofiness with the serious, life or death issues facing the trans community just didn't work for me. Because honestly, it didn't feel like commentary, it felt like mockery. And I'm damn near certain that wasn't the author's intention.
Also, this book lacks a plot. The volleyball scenes aren't good, so it's hard to care about the competition. Then the characters aren't good either, so it's hard to want to be with them at all. A random villain shows up about halfway through, and I couldn't quite accept their motivations because, like everything else here, they were too cartoonish and goofy to take as seriously as these topics deserve.
Also, the dialogue here is, hands down, the worst, phoniest, nonsense I've ever read in my life. These characters speak almost exclusively in exclamation marks. It's feels forced, canned, and utterly ridiculous, almost like a modern spin on the vapid Valley Girl trope, but accidentally instead of intentionally.
Exaggerating speech in this way, combined with the laziness of the satire and plot plus how surface-level a lot of the commentary is just all the more makes this feel like mockery instead of wokeness.
I think this book needed about a dozen more rounds of editing, including a formatting overhaul and an entire reworking of every bit of dialogue, before this was ready for publishing.
Work of this quality is meant to be posted online for free, not sold sold between a hard back for $28 good, old American dollars.
1 out of 5 stars and a solid contender for the worst thing I've read all year... maybe ever.
Because, and believe me I feel bad saying this, Hot Girls With Balls is one of the worst published books I've ever read.
10 out of 10 title, but the rest...
was so goofy and cringey and far more "online" than I'm comfortable with being these days. Not to mention the formatting and punctuation actively pushing the reader away for no reason.
I mean, the choice to exclude quotation marks when there are dozens of speakers here is not only unintelligible and brutal to read, but it also feels lazy rather than purposeful.
Like seriously, why do that? It's not cool and meta, it's confusing and difficult to read. It makes this feel more like a rough draft than anything else.
I think the most painful part of this narrative are the comment section sections where the author includes what the followers of these volleyball players are putting in the chat on their videos.
It just wasn't well done, at all, imho.
There's even a part, right during the climax of the story in fact, where the comments are shuffled randomly into the narrative instead of being isolated from it. I get what the author was trying to do with that, but it was SO frustrating to read, I'd call it a failure.
And speaking of failures, while I can see where the author was going with her social commentary in places, none of it ever came to a head in a clear, meaningful way. I just feel like this kind of satire is, overall, rather shallow, low-effort, and tone-deaf.
It's super annoying and world breaking to read "TicTac" instead of TicTok or "SpaceTime" instead of FaceTime or "InstaGraph" instead of Instagram.
Ew.
Juxtaposing this kind of goofiness with the serious, life or death issues facing the trans community just didn't work for me. Because honestly, it didn't feel like commentary, it felt like mockery. And I'm damn near certain that wasn't the author's intention.
Also, this book lacks a plot. The volleyball scenes aren't good, so it's hard to care about the competition. Then the characters aren't good either, so it's hard to want to be with them at all. A random villain shows up about halfway through, and I couldn't quite accept their motivations because, like everything else here, they were too cartoonish and goofy to take as seriously as these topics deserve.
Also, the dialogue here is, hands down, the worst, phoniest, nonsense I've ever read in my life. These characters speak almost exclusively in exclamation marks. It's feels forced, canned, and utterly ridiculous, almost like a modern spin on the vapid Valley Girl trope, but accidentally instead of intentionally.
Exaggerating speech in this way, combined with the laziness of the satire and plot plus how surface-level a lot of the commentary is just all the more makes this feel like mockery instead of wokeness.
I think this book needed about a dozen more rounds of editing, including a formatting overhaul and an entire reworking of every bit of dialogue, before this was ready for publishing.
Work of this quality is meant to be posted online for free, not sold sold between a hard back for $28 good, old American dollars.
1 out of 5 stars and a solid contender for the worst thing I've read all year... maybe ever.
August 31, 2025
Hands down winner for the best title in 2025, and the cover is equally delightful.
The premise centers on two Asian trans women, Green and Six, who are girlfriends and star volleyball players in the American men’s professional volleyball league. In the book’s universe, professional volleyball became a huge sport during 2020, and these women were rocketed to fame.
The book contents with fame, celebrity social media, parasocial relationships, the pressures of representation, what it means to “transition,” online hate, and in-person violence in America against Asian people, trans women, and the intersection of identities. Some of this is much smoother than other parts, but hats off to Nguyễn on an ambitious debut novel.
I listened to this on audiobook, and I believe that greatly enhanced my enjoyment of it. The book changes narrative points of view from Six, Green, Walt (a closeted team member), a couple of other characters, and, perhaps most controversially, online commenters. The commenters’ voice gives the book room to bring in the overwhelming internet, from the overly supportive alley to the creepy chaser to the transphobe.
Through reading other reviews, I found out that the book does not employ quotation marks, and many reviewers said that this detracted from their enjoyment. I know this is a trend in LITERARY writing. However, the entire point of grammar is for clarity, and while I’m not a stickler for grammar, if not using a grammar convention, such as quotation marks around your dialogue, and thus, readers struggle with understanding your important story… add the damn marks.
Listening to the audiobook, I had no idea. The talented narrator, Nicky Endres, gave different voices and tones to the various characters, so I never had problems distinguishing who was speaking. Those online comments always had a tone that conveyed assigned judgment regarding their value and purpose.
Overall, I very much felt for Green, Six, and Walt. I liked how by adding Walt, as a closested team member, there was one more trans woman who could choose a different path which matches the book’s various themes. As a trans person, I appreciated how awkward Walt was around Green and Six and how all three interacted with each other.
Hot Girls with Balls may not have lived up to the amazingness of the title, but it was well worth the read, and I’m looking forward to what Nguyễn will write in the future.
The premise centers on two Asian trans women, Green and Six, who are girlfriends and star volleyball players in the American men’s professional volleyball league. In the book’s universe, professional volleyball became a huge sport during 2020, and these women were rocketed to fame.
The book contents with fame, celebrity social media, parasocial relationships, the pressures of representation, what it means to “transition,” online hate, and in-person violence in America against Asian people, trans women, and the intersection of identities. Some of this is much smoother than other parts, but hats off to Nguyễn on an ambitious debut novel.
I listened to this on audiobook, and I believe that greatly enhanced my enjoyment of it. The book changes narrative points of view from Six, Green, Walt (a closeted team member), a couple of other characters, and, perhaps most controversially, online commenters. The commenters’ voice gives the book room to bring in the overwhelming internet, from the overly supportive alley to the creepy chaser to the transphobe.
Through reading other reviews, I found out that the book does not employ quotation marks, and many reviewers said that this detracted from their enjoyment. I know this is a trend in LITERARY writing. However, the entire point of grammar is for clarity, and while I’m not a stickler for grammar, if not using a grammar convention, such as quotation marks around your dialogue, and thus, readers struggle with understanding your important story… add the damn marks.
Listening to the audiobook, I had no idea. The talented narrator, Nicky Endres, gave different voices and tones to the various characters, so I never had problems distinguishing who was speaking. Those online comments always had a tone that conveyed assigned judgment regarding their value and purpose.
Overall, I very much felt for Green, Six, and Walt. I liked how by adding Walt, as a closested team member, there was one more trans woman who could choose a different path which matches the book’s various themes. As a trans person, I appreciated how awkward Walt was around Green and Six and how all three interacted with each other.
Hot Girls with Balls may not have lived up to the amazingness of the title, but it was well worth the read, and I’m looking forward to what Nguyễn will write in the future.
August 12, 2025
What a plot! Complex with serious DRAMA. I loved the infusion of complex and just 2 people struggling to belong somewhere.
September 15, 2025
Never have I ever read something that so aptly conveys the kind of bullshit discourse so prevalent in online communities, particularly post-pandemic.
July 10, 2025
really interesting characters, unlike any book i’ve read before — however i dislike reading bigoted hate comments even when they are fictional
September 13, 2025
I did it. I finished it. Das Thema war super, aber wie es geschrieben ist, war nicht so meinst. Ich hab mir schwer getan, vor allem das Finale Match war soo durcheinander von sooo viel, dass lesen echt anstrengend war.
Highlight waren die kurzen Abschnitte als Walts Sicht. Die waren so nachvollziehbar und emotional.
Ich bin mir nicht ganz sicher ob ich das Buch mag oder nicht. Das muss ich mir noch überlegen. Deswegen noch keine Sternebewertung.
Highlight waren die kurzen Abschnitte als Walts Sicht. Die waren so nachvollziehbar und emotional.
Ich bin mir nicht ganz sicher ob ich das Buch mag oder nicht. Das muss ich mir noch überlegen. Deswegen noch keine Sternebewertung.
August 24, 2025
found the format of internet comments to be annoying
September 13, 2025
....at least, that was how the kids on Flitter complained about a year of the COVIS pandemic frying their brains. (or, in other words, yeah, it's one of those plots)
....so......
...I figure I was either going to absolutely love this, or absolutely hate this. I may very strongly dislike Cybil, the in-house Goodreads book blogger whom I also think might be the worst book blogger of all time, but I have to give her credit in at least agreeing that this is one of the most compelling titles of this year's new releases. The cover art is simultaneously low-effort, but achieving a compelling aesthetic than an aging Millennial like me can definitely appreciate, CGI retro-futurism.
And hey, I'm always for trans women's rep, because it's not like there's a ton of it either way.
But yeah, this is just....baaaaad.
The best way I can describe this, to use an admittedly loaded term, is just...terminally online. I've complained in recent reviews about recent books wanting to be Soooo Topical! and this one manages to go a step further, doing one of those things where they go, "it's a completely fantastical word but it's just like our own!" (I'm not sure how else to talk about or what to call it, but I'm pretty sure the opening quote pretty much tells you all you need to know). I'm not kidding, exactly the kind of terminally online, cringey discourse that most people get away from as they delete their social media accounts doesn't just permeate but dominates the plot, to the point where, well, it is the plot. It's pretty much someone's Twitter account in novel form. What else can I say? It's terminally online.
Look, I mean...here's the inevitable part where I say, I get what the author is saying. There's some parts where the main characters openly and frankly talk about the experience of being bullied from both sides as a trans woman, or just trans (including nonbinary) people period, from the usual bigoted rhetoric to not being "woman" enough, micro-transgressions galore from otherwise well-meaning people, and yes all the also usual rhetoric on how to be a "real" woman with some anti-nonbinary bigotry thrown in for good measure.
But also, I do mean some parts. Like, a couple paragraphs here and there.
Ok, ok, so, like, the author clearly intends for all of it, but the vast majority of it just reads like pandemic-era Twitter, which is the last thing I'd probably ever want to read in my whole freaking life at this point.
No, seriously, and I am not kidding - regardless the author's intentions, it reads more like a bad parody written by a right-winger of a strawman of a trans person practically living on Twitter, then a quarter into the book they quit being a bigot, but then decided to finish the book anyway.
Ugh.
Whatever. 1 star, and I'm still going to look for good books with trans and nonbinary characters.
....so......
...I figure I was either going to absolutely love this, or absolutely hate this. I may very strongly dislike Cybil, the in-house Goodreads book blogger whom I also think might be the worst book blogger of all time, but I have to give her credit in at least agreeing that this is one of the most compelling titles of this year's new releases. The cover art is simultaneously low-effort, but achieving a compelling aesthetic than an aging Millennial like me can definitely appreciate, CGI retro-futurism.
And hey, I'm always for trans women's rep, because it's not like there's a ton of it either way.
But yeah, this is just....baaaaad.
The best way I can describe this, to use an admittedly loaded term, is just...terminally online. I've complained in recent reviews about recent books wanting to be Soooo Topical! and this one manages to go a step further, doing one of those things where they go, "it's a completely fantastical word but it's just like our own!" (I'm not sure how else to talk about or what to call it, but I'm pretty sure the opening quote pretty much tells you all you need to know). I'm not kidding, exactly the kind of terminally online, cringey discourse that most people get away from as they delete their social media accounts doesn't just permeate but dominates the plot, to the point where, well, it is the plot. It's pretty much someone's Twitter account in novel form. What else can I say? It's terminally online.
Look, I mean...here's the inevitable part where I say, I get what the author is saying. There's some parts where the main characters openly and frankly talk about the experience of being bullied from both sides as a trans woman, or just trans (including nonbinary) people period, from the usual bigoted rhetoric to not being "woman" enough, micro-transgressions galore from otherwise well-meaning people, and yes all the also usual rhetoric on how to be a "real" woman with some anti-nonbinary bigotry thrown in for good measure.
But also, I do mean some parts. Like, a couple paragraphs here and there.
Ok, ok, so, like, the author clearly intends for all of it, but the vast majority of it just reads like pandemic-era Twitter, which is the last thing I'd probably ever want to read in my whole freaking life at this point.
No, seriously, and I am not kidding - regardless the author's intentions, it reads more like a bad parody written by a right-winger of a strawman of a trans person practically living on Twitter, then a quarter into the book they quit being a bigot, but then decided to finish the book anyway.
Ugh.
Whatever. 1 star, and I'm still going to look for good books with trans and nonbinary characters.
July 13, 2025
this book was quite intense but i think in the end i liked it? mostly.
intense for a couple different reasons but one big one is that it heavily featured deeply transphobic racist misogynistic etc etc social media comments that were just vile. also lots of discussion about trans women being murdered, covid, and a really awful plot about someone in their lives trying to destroy them.
i wouldnt rlly call this book funny at all… but maybe a little sweet? not a romance but a book about maintaining a relationship through a lot of stressors. a lot of commentary on performative celebrity activism which uh, i don’t care enough about to read a whole book about lmao.
also like lol so many fake names for brands and… covid. i get the bran thing (to an extent) but covid was weird. and a writing style i normally do not like but i didn’t dislike this
overall, very different from the queer sports books i normally read but i do think it was worth reading. i am still yearning for a cutesy volleyball romance tho…..
intense for a couple different reasons but one big one is that it heavily featured deeply transphobic racist misogynistic etc etc social media comments that were just vile. also lots of discussion about trans women being murdered, covid, and a really awful plot about someone in their lives trying to destroy them.
i wouldnt rlly call this book funny at all… but maybe a little sweet? not a romance but a book about maintaining a relationship through a lot of stressors. a lot of commentary on performative celebrity activism which uh, i don’t care enough about to read a whole book about lmao.
also like lol so many fake names for brands and… covid. i get the bran thing (to an extent) but covid was weird. and a writing style i normally do not like but i didn’t dislike this
overall, very different from the queer sports books i normally read but i do think it was worth reading. i am still yearning for a cutesy volleyball romance tho…..
July 31, 2025
I was really looking forward to this one, so I'm disappointed at how little this worked for me. I even feel bad giving this the rating I am because I wanted to like it so badly.
I feel like I have to explain myself, leaving this such a low rating, so here's a quick rambling review:
This is very much a satire, which I tend to enjoy, but there was something about how this was done that made it miss the mark for me. It's on the darker side of the spectrum, and while I've seen it described as a comedy in some places, I didn't find anything to be funny in here.
I appreciate the commentary that the author was providing about how trans people are exploited, disrespected, fetishized, and physically harmed. They are constantly under attack just for existing, and discourse even within their own community can be problematic and harmful (as we see in comment sections of Six and Green's livestreams).
Unfortunately, none of this was new information to me, and, while it was delivered to me in a way I hadn't seen done before, I didn't find it effective in the way a satire should be. I like my satires to be a bit more biting and perceptive in the way they tear down those they're critiquing—I found it hard to take these commenters seriously because the things they were saying were just so stupid, and it was the same few things over and over again.
I think the structure of this (with there being so many of those comment sections), combined with a loose plot, and how hard the author was trying to drive their points home made this repetitive, hard to follow, and somehow also boring. I had to force myself to read through to the end.
I feel like I have to explain myself, leaving this such a low rating, so here's a quick rambling review:
This is very much a satire, which I tend to enjoy, but there was something about how this was done that made it miss the mark for me. It's on the darker side of the spectrum, and while I've seen it described as a comedy in some places, I didn't find anything to be funny in here.
I appreciate the commentary that the author was providing about how trans people are exploited, disrespected, fetishized, and physically harmed. They are constantly under attack just for existing, and discourse even within their own community can be problematic and harmful (as we see in comment sections of Six and Green's livestreams).
Unfortunately, none of this was new information to me, and, while it was delivered to me in a way I hadn't seen done before, I didn't find it effective in the way a satire should be. I like my satires to be a bit more biting and perceptive in the way they tear down those they're critiquing—I found it hard to take these commenters seriously because the things they were saying were just so stupid, and it was the same few things over and over again.
I think the structure of this (with there being so many of those comment sections), combined with a loose plot, and how hard the author was trying to drive their points home made this repetitive, hard to follow, and somehow also boring. I had to force myself to read through to the end.
June 2, 2025
Thank you so much Catapult for the ARC!
While the message is great, and the inclusivity of trans characters is wonderful, I had a really difficult time with the formatting of the book. The characters do not speak in quotation marks, and the social media posts weren’t formatted any differently. I really enjoyed the characters and the overall discussion and dialogue, but it was difficult to read because of the formatting.
While the message is great, and the inclusivity of trans characters is wonderful, I had a really difficult time with the formatting of the book. The characters do not speak in quotation marks, and the social media posts weren’t formatted any differently. I really enjoyed the characters and the overall discussion and dialogue, but it was difficult to read because of the formatting.
October 3, 2025
Ugh. I’m frustratingly disappointed with this one. I was very excited for a book marketed as Challengers that I think did it a disservice because it set my expectations in a different direction than the book actually went.
This is a story about two trans women that play on a men’s professional volleyball team who are in a viral lesbian relationship and are dealing with the challenges of living and working in the spotlight. When I think of Challengers I think of tension built between a couple, a quiet, unspoken struggle of things left unsaid, a yearning, and an undeniable chemistry. In this book I do not believe we got that, or much of any real understanding of this relationship dynamic outside of the superficial. I never feel like I truly understood or differentiated either of these characters and was left wanting more. More about their dynamic, more about their relationship, more about their experiences in a men’s league, more of everything.
Instead, I feel this book explores the tension of celebrity, parasocial relationships, fandom, and dealing with micro celebrity internet virality and fame. I think this is an interesting dynamic to explore, but again I never felt like it actually went deep enough to say anything.
I think the largest problem was the formatting. The lack of quotation marks combined with constant internet dialogue that we as readers had no idea where it was coming from. Were they comments on pictures? From a livestream? Singular tweets? The lack of context for any of this dialogue combined with the lack of quotation marks made this difficult to read and I kept getting taken out of the story.
I love the concept for this, and I really was just left wanting more. If you are intrigued by fandoms, parasocial relationships, and celebrity- definitely check this out and see how you like it. But maybe I wasn’t the right audience for it.
This is a story about two trans women that play on a men’s professional volleyball team who are in a viral lesbian relationship and are dealing with the challenges of living and working in the spotlight. When I think of Challengers I think of tension built between a couple, a quiet, unspoken struggle of things left unsaid, a yearning, and an undeniable chemistry. In this book I do not believe we got that, or much of any real understanding of this relationship dynamic outside of the superficial. I never feel like I truly understood or differentiated either of these characters and was left wanting more. More about their dynamic, more about their relationship, more about their experiences in a men’s league, more of everything.
Instead, I feel this book explores the tension of celebrity, parasocial relationships, fandom, and dealing with micro celebrity internet virality and fame. I think this is an interesting dynamic to explore, but again I never felt like it actually went deep enough to say anything.
I think the largest problem was the formatting. The lack of quotation marks combined with constant internet dialogue that we as readers had no idea where it was coming from. Were they comments on pictures? From a livestream? Singular tweets? The lack of context for any of this dialogue combined with the lack of quotation marks made this difficult to read and I kept getting taken out of the story.
I love the concept for this, and I really was just left wanting more. If you are intrigued by fandoms, parasocial relationships, and celebrity- definitely check this out and see how you like it. But maybe I wasn’t the right audience for it.
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