Hiya folks! April is Autism Pride Month, and I’m going to start this one off with a short personal anecdote.
I was diagnosed with autism–then Asperger’s–when I was 12 and was ashamed of it for years. Being a voracious reader, I checked out The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and I didn’t relate at all. As a teenager, I didn’t want to be autistic. When I was 18, I remember reading about Ty Blackthorn from The Dark Artifices–and I could see myself in him. Ty was definitely instrumental to accepting that I was autistic because he and I are SO similar in many ways. (Except for my love of sarcasm and figurative language, and Ty is like, so much smarter than I am.) Ty’s autism wasn’t a big deal–it just was, and he’s such a complex, brilliant character in a multitude of dimensions.
When I was twelve, I couldn’t relate to any books with autistic characters. Now, there are so many books about autistic folks, many by autistic authors, that I can connect with and love. I think it’s so important to boost the voices of autistic people, especially when allistics speak over us so much, so this list is entirely #ownvoices.
QUEENS OF GEEK BY JEN WILDE
Jen Wilde’s Queens of Geek is full of all the geeky fandom content you could want, but what stood out to me was that this is the first book I’ve read about an autistic girl and it made me cry real tears. Even though Queens of Geek has an autistic main character, Taylor’s autism is neither made light of nor focused on. It’s just a fun, quirky romance at heart that celebrates nerd culture and how the unlikeliest things bring people together, and I loved that.
THE KISS QUOTIENT & THE BRIDE TEST BY HELEN HOANG
I’ve heard so many good things about The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test! These are both adult romances–a genre I haven’t read before. I’m both Asian and autistic, so it really means a lot that there’s an Asian autistic woman publishing books about people like us. I received an ARC of The Bride Test recently which is next on my TBR, and I’m sure The Kiss Quotient will follow soon.
ON THE EDGE OF GONE BY CORINNE DUYVIS
On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis is a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic story about an autistic girl trying to escape a doomed Earth. I’ve been trying to get my hands on this one for a while but neither my library or local bookstores have this, so I’m still searching for a copy. But On the Edge of Gone sounds like such a good story, and I’m here for anything starring autistic girls.
THE BOY WHO STEALS HOUSES BY C.G. DREWS
I’m really excited to read The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews. I’ve loved reading her blog posts and tweets, and this book about a boy and his autistic older brother who are forced to break into empty houses to survive sounds really intriguing. The Boy Who Steals Houses comes out on April 4, 2019, so keep an eye out for it!
FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE BY KAIA SONDERSBY
Kaia Sondersby’s Failure to Communicate is another book that I’ve heard a lot from fellow autistic people. It’s adult sci-fi, about one of the last remaining autistic people alive, and her efforts to communicate with an alien species to stop tensions from arising and the outbreak of war. This sounds like such an incredible, creative concept, with fascinating and complex worldbuilding, and I can’t wait to read it.
Have you read books by #actuallyautistic authors before? If so, which ones?
crowing about books. 
I’ve heard that the author of Curious Incident isn’t ownvoices and in fact didn’t do much (if any) research for that book – though I haven’t looked into it myself, honestly it wouldn’t surprise me. which is disappointing, since it’s such a high-profile narrative; it’s absolutely so important to boost ownvoices and #actuallyautistic authors!
The Kiss Quotient was one of my favorite reads last year, and I’m so excited for The Bride Test – just like you, I’m also Asian(-American) and autistic, so that intersection is near and dear to my heart. and I’ve heard amazing things about The Boy Who Steals Houses, so it and the rest of this list have been added to my TBR. thank you so much for sharing these! 💕
Yeah, Curious Incident’s author didn’t do much research – some people claim he didn’t mean for the MC to be on the spectrum, and I don’t know if that makes it better or worse
It’s definitely not a good portrayal of autism if that was what he meant it to be though.
If you don’t already have an ARC, I think Edelweiss has The Bride Test as a book you can download now btw!
I do have an ARC of The Bride Test! so excited to read it, hopefully in the next few weeks 😊
Thank you very much for the recs !
Over the year i’ve been blogging, i’ve discovered the mental health reps in books; something I never really knew about. However, Autism is not something I’ve really been intentionally looking for, if it make sense ?
Around me, i’ve only really been seeing autism as my younger cousin; Though I know like many other thing you do have a whole scale of different ! So reading about it definately would have my eyes open a bit more.
No problem! I find most people don’t seek out autism rep, so that’s why I made this post 🙂 Most people have only a couple examples of autism, so trying to introduce a lot of stories, especially ownvoices stories, into the mix so people can learn more 🙂
Can support failure to communicate – excellent rep! I’ve heard bad things on the kiss quotient – apparently it presents the autism (touch aversion in particular) as something negative and bad to overcome, which, uh, ew.
Ooh sweet, I’ll definitely get to FTC soon! I’ve heard a lot of good things about TKQ, but that’s disappointing to hear.