Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Liked About Asexual Characters


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photograph of 18 heart-shaped sugar cookies. They are frosted with various combinations of green, yellow, orange, purple, white, and blue frostings as well as thinner frostings that have written X’s and O’s on them or left romantic messages like “hugs and kisses” or “forever” on them. Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone celebrating it!

For today’s Valentine’s Day freebie, I’ll be sharing a list of books I’ve read and enjoyed about asexual characters.

I’m actually on the asexual spectrum myself, so it’s been wonderful to see such an explosion of stories about people who are like me or similar to me.

This is a complex topic that could easily take up its own blog post, but go to this link if you’re curious about the wide variety of identities that exist within the asexual spectrum.

In the meantime, here’s my list.

Book cover for “Loveless” by Alice Oseman. It is a warm purple colour and has a black and white drawing of a slim person who has straight shoulder-length hair and is wearing jeans, a sweater, and a pair of sneakers. They are standing up but their neck and head are bent over as they look at a large heart they are holding in their hands. The heart is steadily releasing dozens of tiny little hearts into the air, and the little hearts are floating up and away from the person.

1. Loveless by Alice Oseman

 

Book cover for Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann. The image on the cover shows a radiant dark-skinned black woman with an Afro. She’s wearing a sleeveless white blouse with ruffles near her neck and his holding both arms up in a triumphant pose as she grins and closes her eyes.

2. Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

 

Book cover for Finding Your Feet (Toronto Connections, #2) by Cass Lennox. Image on the cover shows a background drawing of the famous outline of Toronto that includes the CN tower. In the foreground, you can see a drawing of two people’s legs as they dance together. One has light skin and appears to be Caucasian while the other has dark skin and appears to be African.

3. Finding Your Feet (Toronto Connections, #2) by Cass Lennox

 

The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz book cover. Image on cover shows a steaming cup of tea in a white mug that has fancy ridges and floral patterns on it.

 

4. The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz (My Review)

 

If you’ve read any other good books about asexual characters, I’d love to hear your suggestions.

84 Comments

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84 Responses to Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Liked About Asexual Characters

  1. I’ve loved Oseman’s Heartstopper series but have not read Loveless yet. Hopefully soon as I’ve heard great things about it.

  2. Thanks for sharing this list. An intriguing list with intriguing titles.

  3. I have read Finding Your Feet. I love that more books are exploring asexual characters. I’m demisexual myself.

  4. It’s so nice to see a list of books about ace characters for Valentine’s Day!

  5. Great choices! I’m definitely going to add Loveless to the list. Thanks!

  6. Great list! I’ve enjoyed getting more books with variety in the narrators, too. One I enjoyed recently with a character on the ace spectrum is The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese. Her main character in the book is autistic and demisexual, and it was great to see such a realistic portrayal of that in fiction.

    My TTT: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2023/02/14/top-ten-tuesday-free-short-fiction-for-valentines-day/

  7. Great idea for a list! I’ve already read two of these, but I’m also really interested in Alice Oseman’s books!

  8. Nice topic for today! I’ll have to take a look into these books. I haven’t read any of them. Happy Valentine’s Day!

  9. I appreciate you sharing the link to the asexual spectrum. I truly had no idea it was so broad! While these books are not ones I would read, I can appreciate that those who desire books like this can read and enjoy them. I think of a girl who was in my youth group and was struggling with her sexual preferences, it seemed they changed often, but I can see her falling into this category.

  10. Jo

    I’ve not read any of these but I’m glad you enjoyed them. I can’t say I’ve read too many books with characters on the ace spectrum, but one I did like was Daughter of The Burning City by Amanda Foody which has a demisexual love interest. The main character in Samantha Shannon’s Bone Season series is also demisexual.

  11. I think Alice Oseman is an author who is well liked! I haven’t read any books written by Alice, however books she writes make LOTS of lists. 🙂 Thanks so much for visiting my website this week.

  12. I love this, i think asexual need more rep in books

  13. I haven’t read any of these but I’m glad you liked them.

  14. Lovely list! I’ve read and loved both Loveless and Let’s Talk About Love and need to check out the other two.

  15. Nice list! I’m adding The Cybernetic Tea Shop to mine.

  16. Great that such books are now being written.

  17. Not exactly my kind of literature, but I did have one book in mind, so I posted it. I have seen some movies and TV shows where characters have been a major part of the story. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil comes to mind.

  18. This is such a wonderful list! I’ve started seeing asexual characters more often in books, and I’ve loved learning more about the identity through characters in books. I’d add The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso and Once More with Chutzpah by Haley Neil to the list as well!

  19. I really liked Radio Silence by Alice oseman so nice to see a book by her here.

  20. I have had Loveless recommended to me by a few people. I may need to look into it.

  21. I keep meaning to read Loveless! I loved the Heartstopper series & I’m sure I’d feel the same about it! Great topic!

  22. 1. Thank you for the link to the asexual spectrum.
    2. Loveless looks amazing – I’m squeezing it in sometime this year!

    Great list

  23. I’ve heard such good things about Loveless — one I definitely need to check out!

  24. Wendy Williams

    I just added Loveless to my tbr. What a great topic this week!

  25. I just read the book Planning Perfect by Haley Neil which has a character on the asexual spectrum.

  26. Haven’t read any of these, but I’ve loved the cover of “Let’s Talk About Love” from the moment it was released. Now, if I could just remember that said cover image goes with THIS book, and not Loveless… I’ve had to google lists of ace-focused YA books WAY too many times to remember what this one is called. *facepalm*

    (…hm, maybe that means I have another pair of book twins)

  27. What a fabulous topic for this week. I haven’t read any of these, but The Cybernetic Tea Shop sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing and for visiting my blog.

  28. vidya

    Such an interesting and wonderful take on the TTT theme.. I haven’t read any of these books but looks like Loveless is something I need to check out soon
    Thanks for visiting, as always..

  29. I love this ❤️ Thank you for sharing your list.

  30. I haven’t read any of these, but I’m glad you enjoyed them. It’s always nice when a book helps you feel seen and understood.

    Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!

    Susan
    http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

  31. Great topic choice this week. I really enjoyed The Cybernetic Tea Shop when I read it.

  32. Good choice for the twist. Hugely interesting. Thanks for the information, as well.

    And thanks for visiting my TTT this week.

  33. Such a great list. I love seeing more diversity in books, whether it be gender identity, sexual preference, whatever! The world is a diverse place, and people need to be able to see themselves in the art they consume. Thank you for stopping by my blog earlier.
    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!

  34. I really liked Loveless and the Cybernetic Tea Shop!

  35. I’d love to read more books about asexual characters! So many books are romance-focused.

  36. They look interesting and it is great to see more diverse stories around. I am always looking to expand my reading horizons!

    Have a great week!

  37. I love that cover for The Cybernetic Tea Shop. I hope you have a great weekend.

  38. Great list! I haven’t heard of the last two on your list but I have been wanting to read the first two. I really want to read Let’s Talk About Love. What did you think of that one?

    • Let’s Talk About Love had some portions that were a little slow (for my tastes), but it was worth it to keep reading.

      Alice was a very interesting main character. She seemed kind of immature for her age in certain scenes and could be a jerk sometimes, so keep that in mind as you’re reading. But she also became aware of her faults and genuinely tried to improve up on them.

      I don’t know if you feel the same way, but I’d rather read about a character who has realistic faults than one who always makes the right decision.

  39. Great topic choice! We need more ace books. Loveless is waiting on my bookshelf. 🙂

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