The Boy Maeve

by Kai Ash

He only knows two things for sure: his name is Maeve and he’s a boy.

It’s 2002, and fourteen-year-old Maeve – an adopted, closeted trans boy – is facing another lonely year at school. At least he’s got Jeremy, his lifelong imaginary friend, for company. But even Jeremy, in all their wild wisdom, can’t explain the weird things that are happening to Maeve.

Like why Maeve’s hair spontaneously changes colour overnight. Or how Maeve knows his granny Beattie is dead, long before anyone can confirm it. Or why a stranger’s voice sounds uncannily familiar …

Maeve is full of questions – about his birth family and adoption, about Beattie and Jeremy, and about himself. But the answers are out of this world … and Maeve may have to give up everything he’s ever known to discover the truth.

For fans of Margo Lanagan and Alison Evans comes this dazzling, beguiling novel about a trans boy, his adopted family, and the search for self-acceptance, from extraordinary debut author Kai Ash.

Perfect for YA readers who love:

Queer stories exploring identity and coming out
Immersive spec-fic and Gaelic mythology
Own-voices LGBTQI+ novels
Stories about adoptive and biological families
Juicy fiction to discuss in book clubs and classrooms

Genres: Young Adult, Transgender, Queer

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 26, 2026

About the author

Kai Ash was raised in Yuggera country (Brisbane region, Queensland), where he grew up amid bush-covered ranges. Whenever his days seemed to grow dark, he would turn to books, seeking tales of strength and adventure. Once he was old enough, he left Yuggera country to explore the world for himself: Czechia, Palestine, Israel, New Zealand, Spain and Scotland. He studied gender, language, law and psychology before coming home to his beloved ranges. Today, Kai still turns to stories when things begin to look dark. But now he writes them too.

Kai’s work has been shortlisted in The Ampersand Prize, Adaptable, Lane Cove Literary Awards and Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Awards, and he was a mentee in the ASA/CA Award Mentorship Program. The Boy Maeve is his first published novel.

***

Tha Kai Ash na sgrìobhadair. ‘S ann à dùthaich Yuggera (Brisbane, Astràilia) a the e, ach tha air fuireach ann an iomadh diofair àite mar An t-Seic, Palastain, Iosrael, Sealainn Nuadh, An Spàinn agus Alba. Tha na sgrìobhaidhean aige air a bhith air a’ gheàrr-liosta airson The Ampersand Prize, Adaptable, Lane Cove Literary Awards agus Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Awards, agus bha e pàirt dhen ASA/CA Award Mentorship Program. Tha ceuman aige ann an lagh, inntinn-eòlas agus eòlas gnè is cultarach. ‘S e The Boy Maeve a’ chiad nobhail aige a chaidh fhoillseachadh.

Chan eil ach beagan Gàidhlig aige ach bidh e ga cleachdadh nuair as urrain dha air sgàth ’s gu bheil “nas fheàrr Gàidhlig bhriste na Gàidhlig sa chiste.” ’S ann leis fhèin a tha mearachd sam bith sa Ghàidhlig air an làrach-lìn seo.

Reviews

[Kai Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely objective and unbiased review of The Boy Maeve, which I wrote: 5 stars. No, 6 stars. Ceud mìle - a hundred thousand - stars. Top notch book. Possibly the best book ever written. Certainly the best book written by me so far.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all want to belong. It’s giving up what makes us different so that we can belong, which is the hard bit.

Kai Ash has a hero who wants to belong. The question is, belong to what?

This story is part a competition for the hero. Competing fathers, competing families, competing friends, even competing worlds. And it is part the hero working out for himself why they would bother.

Stories about who we are and why that can be different to how we are perceived are old stories because they’re really just the story of being a human.

The freshness in this story is that it comes from a child. A non-judgmental and often naïve child who moves easily – not comfortably but easily – between his idea of himself and his understanding of how others see him.

Part fantasy, part thriller, part search, part saga, all set in suburban Brisbane. The Boy Maeve is not easy to categorise. But after I finished I wondered that the message might well be, do we as humans need to do as much categorisation about each other as we do? Does our perception of what another person must be always need to precede what the other person might be?

I enjoyed this delightful book and recommend it for children & adults interested in thinking about how other worlds may be closer than we think.

[Kai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a 3.5

Not sure how to feel about this one honestly, I enjoyed so much of the Scottish Gaelic and the history there it was great to see how close it is to Irish but it just felt like there was something missing for me

[Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read.
Maeve is just like any teenager on the inside, he is sure of himself, well, parts of himself. He is less sure of where those parts and himself as a whole, fit into the world around him.
The fantasy elements, Gaelic fey lore and endless austrailian-isms are effortlessly weaved into the the story. I loved the emotional depth Maeve was written with. In all the little relateable struggles early teens have. The social awkwardness, the people pleasing, torn between what you know to be true and what you think everyone else wants you to be. Truly this book was a delight and I can't wait to see what Kai Ash writes next.
If the blurb at all caught your eye, it's worth a read.

[Eve Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is 11pm at night. I should be sleeping but I just finished reading this and I need to talk about it.

I picked this up as a blind date with a book in a book store, the idea of it being a Scottish Gaelic mythology inspired story with trans MC piqued my interest.
Upon getting into it it was even better than I imagined. It started off with a banger and it got better and better with each chapter. A lot of plot twists and a lot of intense moments. So much so that physically recoiled and had to put the book down to remember to breathe a few times and was fighting back tears in the last few pages.

It was beautifully written. Maeve has my heart, I felt for him so deeply his trying to explain to people and the inner turmoil about his identity. I love that while his transness was a big part of the story it was woven in with a good balance of normal teenage shenanigans and not so normal teenage shenanigans (caused by a rather mysterious entity).
And over the course of the story we see Maeve grow more confident in himself through his inner voice - this was done very subtly and very well (I take my hat off to the author for it).

More on the ending - it was bittersweet, but I think I couldn't be happier with how it played out. It was also rather open... Which makes me hopeful that maybe just maybeeeeeee there will be more and if not, well one can dream.

[Tracy Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Boy Maeve was such a delightful, easy and entertaining read; an intriguing fantasy (think dark fey mythology) that somehow managed to wrap a bunch of themes together with quirky, sometimes funny, sometimes gory, yet overall wholesome goodness.

Maeve journeys through his discovery of his supernatural origins, while struggling through being an adopted child who doesn't feel like they belong. I loved the setting, it brought back a lot of nostalgia for my Aussie QLDer childhood and some pretty old slang I haven't heard in a while. It reminded me a bit of reading Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman but with more heart.

Being about a trans adopted kid struggling to find his identity, the story could have taken all sorts of directions, but the book is pretty PG and I think would make a great read even for younger teens (I'd particularly recommend it for parents who may have a teen who's coming out and might be looking for realistic, emotionally connecting and trans friendly stories). Being trans is also only one aspect of Maeve as the protagonist, so I also wouldn't pigeon hole it as a read that way.

All in all, really enjoyed it and great to see new stories from a new Aussie writer!

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

An excellent premise, but the story was very poorly executed. A premise was like many fey changeling/ foundling stories; however, the storyline was all over the place, obviously trying to establish contexts for further works in a series to the point that many major elements remain unexplored and therefore unexplained by the end of this book. Some other very novel viewpoints (such as trans children) made for interesting leans in the tale but ultimately were wasted themes. If this is the start of a series, I will not be lining up for the next instalment. This book possibly underestimated its intended audience's (it is a Young Peoples' novel after all) intelligence and ability to absorb and interpret complex themes and storylines.

[Shane Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading this as it felt so relatable as a transgender person myself. Lots of similarities in how things happened with gender pronouns in my life also. A great read!

[Piper · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is definitely aimed at a younger audience, so the fact that it didn't work for me doesn't mean it might not be awesome for kids. I found the plot quite lacking, just waiting for something interesting to happen. There are some good moments, and the trans main character is pretty well-handed and communicated. Unfortunately, the climax of the narrative felt like a whole lot of nothing really happening, and somehow the protagonist's problems get mostly resolved without any input from him.