#AutismAcceptanceMonth – Challenge: Autistic Pride Readathon

April is Autism Acceptance Month, and since I’m autistic myself, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to dedicate a few blogposts to autism and what it means to me to be autistic. I’m going to try to write a few blogposts about this, so fingers crossed I’ll manage!

I thought I’d start off by discussing a challenge I’m participating in this month: the Autistic Pride Readathon, hosted by Becca from Becca’s Book Realm and Kitty from Jellyfable. They put together challenge prompts, all centered around books written by autistic authors and/or with autistic characters.

Recommendations

I’ve already read a few books with autism rep that I loved, as well as books by autistic authors that I loved! Here’s some of my recommendations:

• Jen Wilde – Queens of Geek (autistic author, autism rep)

The autistic main character, Taylor, is one of the first characters I really recognized myself in. And fun anecdote: she’s even part of the reason I decided to seek out a diagnosis!

• Jen Wilde – The Brightsiders (autistic author, no autism rep)

After reading Queens of Geek, of course I also had to read The Brightsiders when it came out last year. I really enjoyed this as well!

• Amy Reed – The Nowhere Girls (allistic author, autism rep)

This is one of the only books by allistic (non-autistic) authors I’ve read where I felt the rep was really accurate. It didn’t rely on stereotypes and the autistic character was very relatable.

• Corinne Duyvis – On the Edge of Gone (autistic author, autism rep)

The autistic main character wasn’t very relatable for me personally, but I did love the rep. If anything, it’s great to see different types of autistic characters portrayed!

• Helen Hoang – The Kiss Quotient (autistic author, autism rep)

Even though romance really isn’t my genre, I really did appreciate The Kiss Quotient for it’s wonderful autism rep. The main character was incredibly relatable.

• Helen Hoang – The Bride Test (autistic author, autism rep)

I was lucky enough to read an eARC of this book! You can read my review here.

• Roshani Chokshi – The Gilded Wolves (allistic author, autism rep)

As far as autism rep by allistic authors go, Roshani Chokshi did a pretty good job. It was clear that she put in the effort to give a respectful portrayal and make it as accurate as possible. She did lay it on a little thickly at times in my opinion, but I didn’t have any real issues with it, and The Gilded Wolves is just such an amazing book all around as well!

• Bianca Toeps – Maar je ziet er helemaal niet autistisch uit (Dutch, autistic author, autism rep)

I received a review copy from the publisher, and read it almost right away. This book was so very relatable and empowering, and I would really recommend it to all of my Dutch followers. My review will be up soon!

TBR

Unfortunately, there aren’t very many books with good autism rep yet. There are still a few that I haven’t read though, and I’m hoping to get to some of these this month. The following books were recommended to me:

• Mira Grant – Into the Drowning Deep
• A.J. Steiger – When My Heart Joins the Thousand
• Kaia Sonderby – Failure to Communicate
• Riley Redgate – Seven Ways We Lie
• Judith Visser – Zondagskind (Dutch)