While a newly elected strongman’s bloody war on drugs is revving up in the Philippines, it’s business as usual inside BangBang Touch, a massage parlor in the heart of Manila where men come to enjoy the company of the young male staff. But soon the body of one of the masseurs is discovered and, not long after, a drug raid hits BangBang, scattering the survivors.

Tough guy Benjie is captured by the police, broken, and reshaped into a professional killer. Gentle Manuel finds work and safety at an upscale spa where he reunites with a lost love, the kept woman of a corrupt congressman. And lola, the bakla owner and manager of the massage parlor, is sent to the notorious Bilibid Prison, where she earns the attention of a dangerous gang leader.

Peter Zaragoza Mayshle's polyphonic debut blends kinetic drama, seductive thrills, and poetic intensity. A wild, sweat-drenched literary crime novel, The BangBang Boys asks what it might mean to look out for your loves, to grow up strong, and to find grace, in a world imperiled by authoritarian rule.