5 books starring autistic characters by #actuallyautistic authors

Hello again, dear friends! I hope you are happy, healthy, and safe, and if not, I hope brighter days head your way soon! Today we're here to celebrate our autistic fam, as April is Autism Month! And what better way to celebrate than with books which star autistic main characters and which are written by autistic authors! Books can be a valuable tool when trying to be better allies to autistic folks and other neurodivent people, as literature can give you a very close look into how someone else perceives and interacts with the world. So allow me to recommend some books which can give you that experience. Let's dive in!

Genres: YA; Fantasy
Keywords: Fae; changelings; sisterhood;

Twin sisters, both on the run, but different as day and night. One, a professional rogue, searches for a fabled treasure; the other, a changeling, searches for the truth behind her origins, trying to find a place to fit in with the realm of fae who made her and the humans who shun her. Iselia "Seelie" Graygrove looks just like her twin, Isolde... but as an autistic changeling trying to navigate her unpredictable magic, Seelie finds it more difficult to fit in with the humans around her. When Seelie and Isolde are caught up in a heist gone wrong and make some unexpected allies, they find themselves unraveling a larger mystery that has its roots in the history of humans and fae alike. Both sisters soon discover that the secrets of the faeries may be more valuable than any pile of gold and jewels. But can Seelie harness her magic in time to protect her sister, and herself?

Y'all know I'm obsessed with books involving the fae, so I was so happy to find a fae fantasy starring an autistic main character that was written by a #ActuallyAutistic author! Honestly, Unseelie has everything I think I could want in a novel: fae, treasure hunting, sisterhood—what more could you ask for?! I also love that Unseelie utilizes the Celtic myth of changelings, which said that neurodivergent (especially autistic) children were faerie changelings! It's a very neat nod to how Celtic cultures understood autism and neurodivergence, and a nice addition to the story!

Genres: Adult; Contemporary Romance
Keywords: Fake dating; friends-to-lovers; he falls first

Talia Hibbert returns with another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him “rescuing” her from their office building goes viral...

Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.

When brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?

Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his... um, thighs.

Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?

Hibbert is a much loved #ActuallyAutistic and Black author of romances, and her Brown Sisters trilogy has a lot of hype, so of course I'm very interested to get to it! In particular, Take A Hint, Dani Brown stars a fat, Black British, autistic woman and a Middle Eastern man falling for each other. I love that Hibbert chose to reflect the diversity of the real world in ways we don't usually see by writing an intersectionally marginalized main character in a non-White interracial romance! There's no question that I can't wait to get to this book!

Genres: YA; Contemporary Romance
Keywords: Coming of age

A contemporary teen romance novel featuring a Palestinian-Canadian girl trying to hide her autism diagnosis while navigating her first year of high school, for fans of Jenny Han and Samira Ahmed.

Fifteen-year-old Jessie, a quirky loner obsessed with the nineties, is diagnosed as autistic just weeks before starting high school. Determined to make a fresh start and keep her diagnosis a secret, Jessie creates a list of goals that range from acquiring two distinct eyebrows to getting a magical first kiss and landing a spot in the school play. Within the halls of Holy Trinity High, she finds a world where things are no longer black and white and quickly learns that living in color is much more fun. But Jessie gets more than she bargained for when two very different boys steal her heart, forcing her to go off-script.

Something More is really interesting to me in that it's a novel about an autistic Arab girl written by an autistic Arab author. The reason this book intrigues me is that we don't often see books about the intersections of non-Western culutres and neurodivergence, and I admire Khalilieh for taking on that topic! Often times different culutres have different ways of understanding and addressing neurodivergence, and I'm really hoping to see that reflected in Something More, which is why I immediately added it to my TBR.

Genres: YA; Science Fiction
Keywords: Dystopian

January 29, 2035.

That’s the day the comet is scheduled to hit—the big one. Denise and her mother and sister, Iris, have been assigned to a temporary shelter near their hometown of Amsterdam to wait out the blast, but Iris is nowhere to be found, and at the rate Denise’s drug-addicted mother is going, they’ll never reach the shelter in time.

Then a last-minute encounter leads them to something better than a temporary shelter: a generation ship that’s scheduled to leave Earth behind and colonize new worlds after the comet hits. But each passenger must have a practical skill to contribute. Denise is autistic and fears that she’ll never be allowed to stay. Can she obtain a spot before the ship takes flight? What about her mother and sister?

When the future of the human race is at stake, whose lives matter most?

For my sci fi fans I've got a treat for you! In my experience, it's pretty rare to find science fiction books which address neurodivergence (despite the fact that as tests to determine neurodivergence have gotten better across time and neurodivergence becomes better understood, more and more people have been diagnosed as some kind of neurodivergent. But I digress...), so I was ecstatic to find a sci fi book about an autistic main character that was written by an autistic author! On The Edge of Gone really captured my interest not only with the fact that it stars an autistic main character, but also with the fact that it discusses how autistic people are seen and valued within society and how that may impact them in a furutristic world. Plus, beyond that discussion, this book looks really amazing!

Genres: Adult; Contemporary Romance
Keywords: One's more experienced

A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...

Last but certainly not least, we have another Adult contemporary romance, this time by a #ActuallyAutistic author who's also East Asian! I've heard so many positive things about The Kiss Quotient and its two companion sequels, especially about the representation of the intersection between autism and East Asian cultures! I've also heard that this book is quite hot and steamy, so if you're a fan of spicy romances, The Kiss Quotient might be a good pick for you!

So, that's all I got for ya today, friends! I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe found a book or two that you're interested in reading! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a cup of chai with my name on it and a book my neurospicy brain is itching to hyperfixate on waiting for me 😉 Until next time, dear friends...