Ace-Spec & Aro-Spec Book Recommendations
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- Thanks for watching! Let me know your faves down in the comments below, and let me know which books are on your TBRs as well!
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RESOURCES
Aromantic & Asexual Characters Database: bit.ly/2X4CuZ5
2 fantastic posts by Kitty and Dani over at Jellyfable, one of my favorite blogs, plus they host A-spec April!
Every Asexual Character in 2018 YA Lit: bit.ly/2AoPKdA
How To Find Books With Asexual & Aromantic Protagonists: bit.ly/2KAFPZj
Twitter thread of ace-Spec & aro-Spec BookTubers: bit.ly/2LeN2h4
Twitter thread of ace-spec & aro-spec book bloggers: bit.ly/2J59CGe
BOOKS MENTIONED
Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann
Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman
Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie
Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor
Water Runs Red by Jenna Clare
MY TBR
Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
The Spy With the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
Not Your Backup by C.B. Lee
The Trouble by Daria Defore
Immoral Code by Lillian Clark
Switchback by Danika Stone
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Being ace can be...lonely and scary. It's hard for me to find myself anywhere in fiction, and as someone who's ex partner used my sexuality to hurt me emotionally and blame me it's so so important to me to see aces being happy and okay and loved regardless. I wanna see powerful and confident aces in my books, I wanna see loved aces, aces who love themselves. And I just want to thank you for making that a little easier for me, and for thinking of us at all 💜💜💜
Dani Difranza I’m so glad I’m able to point you and others in the direction of books that make you feel safe and seen.
Just one warning: I am ace and I found Let’s Talk About Love very upsetting after having a similar situation with a partner using my sexuality to manipulate me and then breaking up with me. It’s very difficult to get through the first couple of chapters, even if everyone else in the book is deeply supportive and loving of Alice. I just want to make sure that you know that in case you hadn’t read it yet and want to 💜 it’s a wonderful book, just has a very personal and difficult beginning.
@@ProblemsofaBookNerd thank you for the warning! I figured as much, which is why I was hesitant to read it initially when I first started hearing about it. But I think ultimately its worth it for the overall book and I trust your recommendation 💜 we aces gotta be seen by ourselves too I think, it could be healing to read
As an Asexual, this video means so much to me thank you so much and I love this video as well💜💜💜
I actually teared up when I read the scene with Victor in Vengeful because it’s so rare to see an ace main character, especially in a story that’s not YA contemporary and he’s my favorite character in the Villains series!! It just meant a lot to see that on page!
That's so awesome! I'm beyond excited to read Vengeful and see that on page rep. I know it means so much to so many people.
As an aromantic person this is everything. thank you so much for doing this, means a lot to me 🌈💞💞
Wait, biromantic asexual exist? 😮 I think I just found myself!
@Emery Henry why?
I hate instaportal bots so much
@@rainnymph same 😩 the weirdest part is how they found my comment from 1 year ago, like HOW?
@@LifeendDeath Lmao yeah 😂😂
I am aromatic bisexual 😢
The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy!! ❤️❤️❤️
I haven’t finished watching this video yet, BUT I’M SO EXCITED FOR THE KNOWLEDGE YOU’RE ABOUT TO BESTOW UPON US!!!
I am SO HERE FOR THIS!! As an Ace person, you’re definitely right that the full spectrum isn’t represented as much. If they were, maybe I wouldn’t have to explain my identity so much!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Every Heart A Doorway knocked me on my a** with ace rep. I have NEVER felt so seen or understood or represented by a character as I was with Nancy. Her being ace isn't this enormous thing that always comes up, but when it is mentioned and explained, it's done SO PERFECTLY. And in a genre I'm obsessed with no less! I always recommend this book to anyone who'll listen.
I can't recommend enough the nonfiction book: The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality by Julie Sondra Decker. This is a wonderful primer for those learning about asexuality for whatever reason. It felt so affirming to be so recognized.
I’m reading Every Heart A Doorway right now and I LOVE it. I did not expect it to be as dark/creepy as it is, but I love that aspect of it. The characters are great and the language itself is incredible.
As a biromantic asexual, thank you so much for this video. It'd nice when people actually see us and we are just as valid as any other identity.
Cece. I am concerned you’re being impersonated. You didn’t mention Radio Silence.
I didn't want to mention it since Aled is technically a side character instead of the main character but it did hurt my soul to not gush about it 😭😭😭
Owl of YarnOwlReads I was expecting Radio Silence too!!
You can't imagine how happy this video made me!! Being aroace, I've somewhat gotten used to not being represented anywhere, so I'm really excited for these books!
Most of the time I identify myself as heteroromantic asexual (sexuality is a weird and confusing thing lol), and when I read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe a few years ago, even though the book didn't specify, I read Aristotle as being asexual or in the spectrum at least. We read the story from his point of view and I could connect with him a lot; it's been a while since I read it but I remember that was the impression I got. It's great to see more people talk about asexuality!
Great video Cece! Thank you for all the recommendations, I'll definitely check them out :)
Liana I read him as ace too!! I was just waiting for confirmation lol
Woah I see that. I feel like I just had a revelation
@@phix27 Yes! Even though the book doesn't specify, I could totally see him as ace. I'm glad I'm not the only one!
i know right??? i really though ari was on the ace spectrum at least, and was really confused when i learnt that he was bi instead, well, everyone can interpret in their own ways!
The Mirror Visitor quartet seems to feature an aro/ace main character. It's never said explicitly as it's a fantasy setting but I swear she is. They're also my favorite books of this year!
Omg the resource in the description is my favorite thing ever. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Thank you CeCe!! I’m heading to the library later today so hopefully I can pick up some of them!
Yesssss yesssss, had to stop the video after this amazing intro to get my goodreads ready for massive tbr expansion! ❤❤❤
I'm so happy you made this video, as an aro ace person I'm always on the lookout for some ace and/or aro books. I've read a few of the books you mentioned, loooved Let's Talk About Love but need to check out some of the others too!
You are the entire reason I read "every heart a doorway" and I LOVED it. Need to find the rest of the series.
never thought i'd be this happy to discover so many books with ace characters 😁 thank you so much for leaving resources in the description! it means a lot to us, ace ppl 💜
I am so excited about this video aaaaaahh!! It makes me so happy to see a(ro)spec recs.
Thanks so much for making this video! As an aro person I have a hard time finding media that reflects my experiences or even seeing people talk about it (especially given how much of a focus romance is for a lot of people in the media they engage with) so I think it's lovely that you're reccing stuff and encouraging the conversation. And the resources in the description are super helpful too!!
Thank you for talking about ace & aro spec books! As an ace person, I can never get enough of them. I LOVE Let's Talk About Love and Every Heart a Doorway and I can't wait to read Tarnished Are the Stars (and the other books on this list that I haven't read)
PS. Fun fact: I don't like my earlier videos but they all have the ace flag in the background so there's that at least.
I love the amount of effort you put in your videos
I appreciate you so much for making this video and these lists!
I love how you immediately started to smile so brightly when you held up ‚Let‘s talk about love‘ 💜
Haven't even watched the video yet and I already subscribed!!! 💜🖤 Thank you for such a great topic!
So many demi options in the database, AMAZING!
This plus Adriana’s video about enby books and creators have made my day so much better. I feel so seen today! And these books will help me feel seen whenever I read them, too! Thank you for being awesome!
bagankify I can’t wait to watch Adriana’s video! I’m always thrilled when we upload queer stuff on the same day 😂
As someone who identifies as Ace I am beyond excited to see this video! I read Let's Talk About Love and almost cried cause I was so happy to be reading a book with someone who identifies like me and now here's a whole video all about books with characters that identify like I do UGH I'm so happy! Thank you!!!
I've been waiting for this video my whole life 😭 Thank you so much
Out of the ones you mentioned I've only read Every Heart a Doorway, although a few more are definitely on my TBR. I haven't read a ton of aro and/or ace rep books in general, but I really liked The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy :)
As an asexual queer person, I definitely appreciated this. Thank you!
I know this video is from a while back, but I just came out as Ace so I really loved this video! and thank you for all the recommendations! 💗
Definitely checking them out. I’m been looking for more recommendations for books whose ace aro. Cause I’m Along those lines . So, it makes my day to see this.
I loved the rep in the wayward children series!
I haven’t read any of these so looks like my TBR just grew
Thank you so much for making this video! I loved Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire and the Iamos Trilogy (books 1 and 2) by Lyssa Chiavari. I've also read Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman and Not Your Backup by C.B. Lee and while they weren't really for me, I would still recommend them to people who find the synopses interesting. If I remember correctly, Seanan McGuire has said that she doesn't consider Dodger from Middlegame to be ace rep because Dodger doesn't embrace that identify. That being said, I still connected to Dodger and absolutely loved Middlegame. Water Runs Red, Hullmetal Girls, and Tarnished Are the Stars (once it's out) are on my TBR! Thank you for all the great videos you make :)
Alice and Takumi are honestly relationship goals! I think this was the first YA book I read that had a character in therapy for just reasons (as opposed to Traumatic Mental Health Event). The only other book on this list I've read is "Tash Hearts Tolstoy," which I also loved. I've added the rest to my TBR, and I'm super excited because your recommendations are so good!
Wow! How amazing!!! :D new books to my TBR! :D I think I only have read Let's Talk About Love and Tash Hearts Tolstoy and love them both!! :D
I can't tell with words how much I appreciate this video
As someone that has recently (finally) come to terms that I'm asexual, this is a great video and I can't wait to read some of these. Thank you, Cece! :)
I feel so seen as a grey Ace human💜🔮 thank you for being such an inclusive creator as I’ve been able to come back to this video time and time again and find more books that show representation.
Every Heart A Doorway is absolutely brilliant!
Thank you so much for this video! I am asexual, and i always spend pride feeling like I don’t really belong there. It’s an amazing feeling to be seen and acknowledged!
I heard about Tarnished are the Stars last year at GeekGirlCon and have been (im)patiently waiting ever since.
My tbr has increased exponentially
I'm late to the party here, but as an aroace person, thank you for this! I've been meaning to check out Seanan McGuire's work for a long time anyway, so Every Heart a Doorway is going to the top of my reading list!
Awesome video!! *adds 20 more books to my tbr*
Yesssss this is exactly what I wanted to hear 😂
I just watched Jesse's wonderful discussion-video and then seeing yours with ace, aro and trans rep... thank you so much for such always thoughtful videos !
let's talk about love is SO CUTE and such a good summer read!
I’ve been just thinking that someone needs to make a recommendation video of books with ace and aro characters, so thank you for reading my mind💛
p.s. Sawkill Girls is such a cool, creepy book. Highly recommend it!
I enjoyed ”Perfect Rythm” by Jae so much! Really made me understand and be happy with parts of myself regarding assexuality . The 2nd main character is ace-lesbian and it’s a F/F romance
Thank you for the ace/aro recs!! It means a lot! I'm so looking forward to Tarnished are the Stars and Beyond the Black Door!
I cannot wait to read Beyond the Black Door! An ARC arrived in the mail for me like the week I got back from New York and I about died when I opened up the box.
I was disappointed by Beyond the Black Door. I really wanted to like it, the world is cool and unique, the plot is clever and the representation is always welcome (2 ace characters). But, the main character is kind of a Mary Sue. She literally does everything in the story. The secondary characters were left out of the action completely and they didn’t need to be. The two ace characters end up as a couple, but it’s not believable because the love interest is basically ignored for the whole story.
Thank you for the Ace/Aro recs! I'm asexual and I struggle to find books with ace characters. I want to talk about my experiences and the ace community on my blog but if I'm not posting about books I feel like it would feel out of place on a book blog. 😣
Thanks for providing link to aro ace database
My goal for 2020 is to get the rough draft of my book done, as a pan/ace person I haven’t read any books with protagonists like me so my main character is a bad ass ace girl and it will deal more with chosen family and the love between friends as I think it’s something overlooked in favour of romantic or sexual love which to be perfectly honest bores the hell out of me
Thank you! ❤️ Ace Pride ❤️
A video I always knew I needed!!! Thank you so much for the rep!! This was greatly needed! Can't wait for your trans rep one!! Also excited to see what you think of The Spy with the Red Balloon!! I just found it and had to add it to my TBR immediately!!
Cece! I love this video so much
Jellyfable I couldn’t even imagine talking about ace stuff and NOT linking your blog. It’s absolutely my most valuable resource for finding ace and aro books. I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to participate in a future a-spec April since I wasn’t able to this year.
@@ProblemsofaBookNerd Omg 💛 I'm so happy it's been helpful! I hope you can participate next year, it would be awesome to have you 😊 Honestly, with how much interest there was this April I'm seriously considering making it into a year-round bookclub in addition to the once a year readathon.
Looking forward to summer blue bird
I’ve just found this and it’s made me so happy considering my (ex now) boyfriend used my sexuality as a baseline to his jokes along with my insecurities. It wasn’t only him but his two friends who said they supported me. 💜
You rule ! 💪🏻💜 Tnx from an ace struggling to find texts I can correlate with over specifically my sexual identity since I know of 0 other aces at all. 💪🏻💜
WOOOOOOOOOOOO 😂🤣 im such a nerd for asexual+ aromantic+ topics
I love you for making these beautifully diverse 💚💚
Androgynous_ Cosplayer of course!!! I hope you found something new to read 💜
Thank you for this video !!! ❤️❤️
Thanks, I needed this!!
I AM SO INSANELY GRATEFUL YOU DECIDED TO MAKE THIS!! Thank you thank you thank you!! This is the book recommendations video I have needed for so long! THANK YOUUU!!! ☺️✨🌿🏳️🌈
I’m lesbian but I definitely don’t read as much diversely as I should do, so I’ve really been enjoying your videos this month with all the recommendations
Jemma G I’m so glad I’ve been able to recommend some new stuff to you! 💖
i'm aroace and I have an extremely low-effort booktube... Sadly I've only read like 2 books with an aspec protagonist (both of which were on this list lol) but thanks for the other recs! Might check a few out eventually.
also I still want to scream about how much I loved Sawkill Girls and the asexual rep in it is so important
I think I’m ace 🖤💜🤍 Thank you!
Thank you for this
thank you so much for this!!!!
The Chameleon Moon series has lots of LGBTQIA+ rep including several characters who are somewhere on the a-spec, with at least one being a main character (haven't read all of the books yet. There are two main books and two short story collections)
Literally just did a video on this because I thought no one was talking about this, so glad I was wrong!
Words in Flames omg that’s so exciting! I definitely just saved your video to watch, I’m always looking for more recommendations 😊💖
as a ace spectrum person I appreciate this list so much
I was just thinking to myself "I wonder if their are any good books with asexual charectors in it" when I came across this video! I'm gonna have to read some of these!
Does anyone know any book where the lead is a panromantic asexual male?
OMG THE DATABASE!!! Now I can finally find books about demisexual-homoromantic people like me! Thank you thank you thank you!!
I'm so glad it helped! I was so overwhelmed when I found it but it's such an amazing resource.
I haven't read any of the books but I kinda want to read them
i am aceupscriber
and i really like aceidecharacter!
AROS! FINALLY WE GET ACKNOWLEDGED
I never knew Summer bird blue featured aroace character
Every Heart a Doorway was my favorite of the ones you recommended. I'm surprised Radio Silence wasn't on the list
Haha, I know some people are shocked by that. I didn't want to mention Radio Silence since Aled is not the main character in the book. When I'm recommending books for particular rep I don't often mention books that only feature that rep in side characters. It makes it easier for people to find books where they can see themselves in a lead character! I love Radio Silence a ton but when I recommend that one in a dedicated sexuality video I would only include it in a bisexual recommendations list :)
@@ProblemsofaBookNerd That makes a lot of sense, I guess you wouldn't want people going in thinking that that particular rep was for the main character when it wasn't.
I kind of hate when people recommend books raving about how inclusive they are when then have one side character of any diversity who are only in the book for like three pages
I know this is an old video, but I came here after reading • Get a Life, Chloe Brown •, whitout knowing how sexual it was. I was so very excited, bc I never read or enjoy reading romances and everyone kept talking about that one, and it seemed different. But I guess everyone forgot to mention that it was very sexual. So as an asexual reader, it was disappointing and uncomfortable. And then I realized that the only book I know that features a protagonist in the aro-ace spectrum is Loveless by Alice Oseman, and I was really worried thinking that maybe it was the only one that existed. So THANK YOU, SO MUCH! This means more than you realize. I just want to be able to actually relate to a character, at least once. Thank you. ❤️
well, self-promo kinda makes me anxious, but I'm a bisexual demiromantic and demisexual booktuber bb
You should read Loveless by Alice Osman
This ace queer girl thanks you so very much for this
I AM SO READY TO ORDER THESE THROUGH MY LIBRARY APP: I LOVE THAT YOU REPRESENT THE FULL SPECTRUM OF LGBTQIA 🖤🖤🖤 Like you mentioned, sometimes it's hard for someone who's asexual to get representation that makes you feel like you belong. Thanks, babe 🖤💜🖤
💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
This video makes my little Ace/Grey-Ro heart happy 💜🖤💚
I do have a blog (grexcarolinii/wordpress .com)
and insta (@grexcarolinii)
Though neither are heavily ace/aro focused, also because I need to read more of these books for sure!!!
Another canonically Ace character is Victor in Vicious - I may have cried upon finding V.E. Schwab's tweet on this, especially Victor being my favourite fictional character in my favourite novel
It wasn't handled as overtly in Vengeful as I would have liked, but still appreciate that it wasn't just in her tweets
(I personally would have liked the *word* to be used and it wasn't, because it's not a word everyone really knows/understands so using the terms can really help? But I can kinda believe that Victor himself wouldn't necessarily know the term, just how he felt).
Thank you so much for making this recommendation video! I identify as a biromantic ace woman, and I'm always excited to read more books with ace/aro characters!
I just came to the realization this week that male and non-binary ace/aro characters seem to be particularly rare in books, especially YA and NA. I think Morgan, the wizard in The Lightning-Struck Heart, is the only on-the-page asexual male character that I think I've read about. I've also never read a book with demisexual or demiromantic characters yet. Anyone have any recs?
Hopefully, we'll continue to get more and better queer rep in the next few years.
I am also always searching for ace & aro guys and books that explore a wider range of the ace and aro spectrums! I will say that The Trouble by Daria Dafore has an aromantic guy as the main character, so that's why that one is on my list. Also, The Spy With the Red Balloon has a demisexual main character! And Not Your Backup uses a lot of words like demisexual, demiromantic, sex-repulsed, and a bunch of others while the mc is trying to figure out her place on the asexual and aromantic spectrums.
@@ProblemsofaBookNerd Thank you for the recs! I definitely want to read Not Your Backup.
As someone on the ace spectrum, I'm so thankful that you pointed out the booktube bias towards mostly reading books about L and G in LGBT+ acronym. And even when they try to include books with ace protagonists, it's always the same three books.
Also a big big big thank you for the list of all the books with ace-spec and aro-spec protagonists!! I didn't know there were so many!
I also have a blog: rrstorybook.tumblr.com/
I'm a self published author and I'm making it my mission to put in AT LEAST one Asexual character in each of my series.
I'm an Asexual Homoromantic woman and I need more Asexuality in my life, especially in fantasy, because that's what I read.
I gave up halfway through Tash hearts Tolstoi because the way asexuality was explained/portrayed just felt so off to me, I know we all experience being on the ace spectrum in a different way (the author is demi after all) but I couldn't get on board with that one?
I know that you are not the only one who felt that way! It was definitely one that caused a divide for lots of ace folks, which can be disheartening when you're searching for rep, but I know a lot also felt represented so I didn't want to leave the book out. I hope that you have found some other books that have rep that feels a bit more true to you ❤️❤️
Could anyone share Jenna's channel, please?
Yes! Here is her channel: czcams.com/users/jennaclarek
And I'll add it to the description for everyone else. Sorry it wasn't there before!
Do you have any recommendations for books with positive demisexual representation? I've been trying to find more LGBT+ books on Goodreads, but other than Rainbow Rowell, Akemi Dawn, Pattrick Ness, Cassandra Clare and the Green Brothers, I haven't been able to find much.
Angela Solon I believe Technically You Started It has a demi main character and I’ve heard great things! I also know that Scavenge the Stars, and upcoming release, has a demi main character and I think The Girl With the Red Balloon does as well! I would definitely recommend checking out the aro/ace database in the description for more, but I hope these titles also have what you’re looking for
@@ProblemsofaBookNerd Okay! Thank you! I'll definitely be checking these books out!
I've read Every Heart a Doorway which I loved and Let's Talk About Love which I didn't like. The writing style didn't work for me. Will you do a bi rec video as well?
Amy L not this pride! But I would like to do a video dedicated to bi and Pan books sometime in the future. I feel like I’m going to get overwhelmed making my list, but I want to be able to have the resource available to people!
@@ProblemsofaBookNerd Sounds good and completely understandable. Their have been a lot of great books with accurate bi rep this year so when you do the video you willl have a lot to choose from. I know Hot Dog Girl was on your anticipated list but I'd advise skipping it. Chelsea read it and said the bi rep perpetuates stereotypes.