In Deeper Waters

About In Deeper Waters

In Deeper Waters is a young adult fantasy novel by F.T. Lukens, published in 2021 by Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster). It follows sixteen-year-old Prince Tal, the youngest and least expected member of the royal family, as he embarks on a long-awaited coming-of-age tour of his kingdom. The tour is meant to be a formality — a chance for the kingdom's citizens to see their prince, and a chance for Tal to finally feel part of the world he is supposed to one day inherit.

The tour does not go as planned. Tal encounters Athlen, a young man who is intriguing, roguish, and not entirely what he appears — and before he can figure out what Athlen actually is, Tal is kidnapped by pirates. The novel shifts into an urgent survival story, with Athlen as Tal's unexpected and unlikely means of escape.

Queer Romance and Fantasy Worldbuilding

At its center, In Deeper Waters is a love story between two boys, told with the warmth and directness that characterizes Lukens's work. Tal's attraction to Athlen is not treated as a problem to be solved or a source of internal crisis — it is simply part of who he is. The novel's world is one in which same-sex attraction does not carry the social burden it often does in fantasy settings meant to parallel historical Europe, which allows the story to focus on the actual plot rather than spending its energy on an identity narrative.

Lukens is known for writing LGBTQ+ characters in fantasy settings where their queerness is not the defining conflict. In In Deeper Waters, Tal's most pressing concerns are political intrigue, a dangerous mystery surrounding Athlen, and the question of whether he is capable of becoming the leader he is supposed to be. The romance is central but not the only thing happening, and the balance between the two makes the novel feel fuller than many single-genre entries in the YA fantasy space.

Why In Deeper Waters Has Been Banned

The novel has been banned or challenged in two school districts: Clear Creek-Amana Community School District in Iowa and Boyle County Schools in Kentucky. Both challenges are consistent with the broader pattern of removing books with LGBTQ+ central characters or relationships from school library shelves.

A fantasy novel about a prince who falls for another boy is not sexually explicit content in any meaningful sense — it is a romance, and the romantic content is no more explicit than what appears in countless fantasy novels featuring heterosexual couples. The challenge is not really about content standards. It is about visibility: about whether LGBTQ+ teenagers deserve to see themselves in the stories available to them in their school libraries. Lukens's books exist to affirm that they do.