For fans of Whiplash and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Sex Education and The Secret History - a blistering, queer coming-of-age drama about a high school debating team.
Seventeen-year-old Seb is back in school after a nervous breakdown. Desperate to leave his illness in the past, he falls in with the debate team, a group of boys at once dazzlingly articulate and emotionally volatile, fiercely loyal to one another and to their teacher, the enigmatic former champion John Hesketh.
Hesketh offers the boys a future brighter, richer, more alive - and competitions offer Seb the chance to be with Soren, his beautiful and neurotic debate partner. As they descend into the hyper-intellectual world of competitive debate, Hesketh pushes the boys further and harder. Buried traumas emerge, friendships fracture, and the group spirals towards catastrophe.
Tender and devastating, Bright Mouths is a queer coming-of-age novel about beauty, fear, and the dangerous allure of brilliance.