Nikhil Out Loud is a Middle Grade novel by actor/writer Maulik Pancholy.
Nikhil Shah, a 13-year-old voice actor, has gained fame as the star of the popular animated series, Raj Reddy in Outer Space, residing in the bustling city of Los Angeles. However, his world is turned upside down when his mother relocates them to Ohio to care for his ailing grandfather, leaving Nikhil feeling like a fish out of water in a new school where his celebrity status makes him the center of attention among both students and faculty. Despite landing the lead role in the middle school musical, Nikhil's stage fright is crippling, worsened by his voice starting to crack, a sign that his time as Raj Reddy may be coming to an end. To make matters worse, a conservative group of parents plans to protest the play once they discover that Nikhil is gay. Amidst these challenges, Nikhil must find the courage to stand up for himself and discover his identity beyond being Raj Reddy.
This book has the following tropes
- Be Yourself: The moral and theme of the story is finding courage to stay true to yourself.
- Calling the Old Man Out: In the wake of the protest threat, not to mention dealing with Nana's passive-agression towards her choices, Nikhil's mother finally lets him have it and tells him his beliefs and attitudes are why she and Nikhil haven't been by to visit.
- Children Voicing Children: Nikhil is 13 years old and has been voicing the child main character Raj Reddy for several years, unfortunately as he is getting older, his voice is cracking and getting deeper which leads to him having to give up the role.
- Doting Parent: Nikhil's mother loves and supports Nikhil, and she is his biggest advocate when the homophobic protest is announced. She also stands up for him against her own father, when Nana starts spouting homophobia about Nikhil.
- Fish out of Water: Nikhil is an openly gay kid from L.A. moving to a small town in Ohio. His openness with sharing that fact is what leads to the protests of him being the lead in the musical.
- Gayngst:
- In Nikhil's case, this is driven by external forces. Nikhil has no angst about being gay, but the upcoming protest against the musical completely crushes him.
- Mateo is a straight example, as he hasn't told anyone that he is gay, but ends up coming out to everyone after seeing Nikhil bravely dealing with the homophobic protests.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Constance Shaffer, a "concerned parent", protests the musical after reading the school paper article that reveals Nihkil is gay. Also Nana wasn't too keen on hearing that Nikhil was gay, but Nikhil's mother stands up for him and tells him he's no better than Shaffer.
- Parents as People: Nana has more traditional beliefs and constantly admonishes Nikhil's mother getting divorced and also about Nikhil, from his voice acting job, to his sexuality. Once confronted with the fact that he's as bad as the woman protesting Nikhil's school, he softens considerably.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Principal Dawson, who doesn't back down in the face of the upcoming protest and touts that the school celebrates diversity.
- Inopportune Voice Cracking: Nikhil voice is cracking, meaning that he can no longer voice the character of Raj Reddy, who is meant to always be a young boy. He has major anxiety over this and tries to hide his voice troubles from everyone. Only for it to crack during a live table read, and the show's producer and his mother point out they've noticed his voice getting deeper and have been preparing themselves for the day he would have to move on from the role.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Constance Shaffer is an annoying busybody that rallies other conservative parents to protest the school musical, despite the fact she doesn't have a child that attends the school. Her protest is immediately drowned out by the huge counter-protest rally.
- Show Within a Show: Raj Reddy in Outer Space, the show Nikhil works on. It's also very popular in-universe.
