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This article explores what it means to be queer, Indian and brown in a diasporic context through the lens of young adult fiction. Western discourses often offer an insufficient set of resources for young protagonists to navigate the specificities of their gendered, sexual and racial landscapes. Vivek Shraya's She of the Mountains, an Indian Canadian novel, addresses this challenge by layering the story of a queer Indian Canadian young adult within reimagined stories from Hindu mythology and unconventional visual illustrations. This paper argues that while Western discourses can limit the development of the protagonist's identity, reinterpretations of Hindu mythology and complex visuals result in a confluence of discourse and materiality that prompts new/different ways of being for queer diasporic youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how many popular Indian American young adult (YA) titles essentialize an entire culture and bolster other Orientalist stereotypes. Topics covered include the increase in the representation of Indian American protagonists in contemporary YA novels, problematic stereotypes in published Indian American YA novels, and cultural exoticism and the Bollywoodized narrative. Also mentioned are works of selected authors including Nisha Sharma, Sandhya Menon, and Padma Venkatraman.