List
Autistic Fiction by Autistic Authors
This is by no means a comprehensive list. And that, dear reader, is a very big deal. In scarcely a decade, we have gone from almost no fiction by openly autistic authors being published to having an embarrassment of riches. I could easily have found three times as many titles in the library’s collection without changing the rules I set for the list.
Think of this list, then, as something of a sample platter. I have tried to represent a variety of genres. I have tried to show some of the extraordinary diversity of autism, and the ways in which autistic and LGBTQ identities so often overlap. Some of the books here feature autistic characters and the issues specific to them, some have characters who “read” as autistic even if the term is never used, and some do none of that. The only criteria are that these are works of fiction intended for adults, written by authors who have publicly identified themselves as being autistic.
Read what appeals to you, and then use that as a starting point for seeing what else is out there
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Late Bloomer
2024 by Eddings, MazeyGet this itemThe impulsivity, trusting nature, and “people-pleaser” tendencies that let Opal get fast-talked into buying a flower farm are also the traits that lead to her proposing a business relationship with the farm's current tenant (and possible rightful owner), Pepper. Although the story that follows is a bit like a queer Hallmark Channel movie, it keeps circling back to serious issues like the diagnosis vs. self-diagnosis debate–Pepper is “officially” autistic, while Opal knows what she is and sees no need to have an expert label her.
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Act Your Age, Eve Brown
2021 by Hibbert, TaliaGet this itemJacob Wayne fulfills every autistic stereotype. He’s a white guy who is better with numbers than people and always needs to have everything just so. Eve Brown is none of those things. She’s the kind of person who goes through life seemingly unable to get it together, her autistic traits imperfectly masked as something else. And in this delightful screwball comedy, they’ll find out just how much they need each other to become their best selves.
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Big Girl, Small Town
2020 by Gallen, MichelleGet this itemThere’s something noirish about Aghybogey, a charmless little Northern Irish town that in 2003 is very much in the shadow of the recent Troubles. Majella O’Neill is probably like a lot of Autistic people throughout history, masking to the degree needed for survival while unobtrusively building a life that feels true to herself in the gaps. Some may find the inconclusive ending unsatisfying, but we’re given sufficient reason to believe Majella will be alright, whatever she does next.
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With My Little Eye
2023 by Jackson, JoshilynGet this itemTwelve-year-old Honor Mills and her mother, Meribel, are wonderful characters who each prove a match for the human monsters they encounter in this thriller. In a not uncommon scenario, Jackson’s first inkling that she might be autistic came when her children were diagnosed, based largely on traits that she and other members of her family shared. Appropriately, she opted to have the parts of Meribel and Honor in the audiobook be read by herself and her own daughter, respectively.
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The Bride Test
2019 by Hoang, HelenGet this itemAutistic accountant Khai is understandably horrified when his mother returns from a trip to her native Vietnam with a potential wife for him. But the biggest hurdle to their relationship–even more than Esme not being completely truthful about who she is-turns out to be Khai’s internalized belief that just because he doesn’t express emotions quite the way other people do, he doesn’t have them. It’s certainly relatable, as is being unable to say the most important words until it’s (almost) too late.
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Every Heart a Doorway
2016 by McGuire, SeananGet this itemEleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is a sort of halfway house for adolescents who’ve been expelled from the fantastical worlds they found as children on the other sides of various portals but who are now unable or unwilling to reintegrate into human society. That the characters represent a range of neurodiverse and queer identities makes the subtext–and the message about the steep cost of asking young people to mask as what they aren’t–pretty obvious.
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The Butcher of the Forest
2024 by Mohamed, PremeeGet this itemA woman must return to the Forest she barely escaped before to rescue the children of the Tyrant oppressing her land. Not neurodivergent in any particular way, just a great new story by an author who identifies as autistic.
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You Sexy Thing
2021 by Rambo, CatGet this itemThe titular AI-controlled starship spends a lot of its time contemplating the mysteries of human(oid) emotions. And why not? Cat Rambo coined the term “neurodiversiverse” to describe their use of science fiction to explore ideas related to neurodiversity, but they’re acutely aware that they’re part of a genre with a long history of being written by and for autistic people. This swashbuckling space opera that tips its hat to everything from Firefly to the great, forever undiagnosed Douglas Adams makes a fine addition to the canon.
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A Room Called Earth
2020 by Ryan, MadeleineGet this itemSet over the course of 24 hours in Melbourne–a few days before Christmas, and therefore Australian summer–may be the strangest book on the list. It’s what you’d call a stream of consciousness novel, but what a consciousness! Even in the midst of her (usually stilted) interactions with other human beings, the nameless narrator is never anything less than fully open to the world in ways the reader will find either exhilarating or exhausting.
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The Framed Women of Ardemore House
2024 by Schillace, BrandyGet this item"He didn’t seem to understand: Jo was standing in front of Wuthering Heights." The author is paying homage to the Gothic fiction and classic detective stories she loves here. She does a particularly good job showing how Jo’s autism is both help and hindrance, allowing her to make connections no one else does while rendering communicating what she knows to anyone else (like the detective investigating the case) a laborious, frustrating process.
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Cassandra in Reverse
2023 by Smale, HollyGet this itemThe third-worst day of Cassandra Penelope Dankworth's life is also the day the mythology-loving oddball discovers she can (within certain parameters) rewrite the past. Holly Smale has credited her own journey to an autism diagnosis in her 30s with inspiring this comic fantasy. The theme of being condemned to keep making the same mistakes until one gains self-understanding will resonate with many readers, regardless of neurotype.
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An Unkindness of Ghosts
2017 by Solomon, RiversGet this item"We have a word for that down here, women like you. Insiwa. Inside one. It means you live inside your head, and to step out of it hurts like a caning." Autistic trauma–particularly that borne by autistic women and femmes of color–looms large in Solomon’s haunting Afrofuturist science fiction novel set on a massive “generation ship” 300 years into a voyage to a “Promised Land” in the stars. Aster’s PTSD is as much of a part of her as her autism. And her hero’s soul.
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