previously aroacebooks

media recs with little to no romantic or sexual content for aspec readers // Have a rec to add to our list? Submissions are open!!

[aspec-friendly-reading]

Welcome to aspec friendly reading!

This blog is a list of media recs with little to no romantic and/or no sexual content for all aspec readers out there.

We rely on submissions from the community so please follow the submission guidelines and send in some recs!

Please don't send any asks/submissions with ill intent. Asks about discourse, etc, will be deleted. If you notice an error in any recommendation, please let us know kindly.

Useful Links:

Website with trigger/content warnings for books

Masterlist (coming soon)

Masterlist but Spreadsheet (coming soon)

What are the mods currently reading?

Mod Nev (fae/he) @nevthetrailblazer is reading Neon Genesis Evangelion (Yoshiyuki Sadamoto) which has some romantic and sexual content

Mod Neon (they/she/he) @styrofauxm is reading Firefox (Craig Thomas) which has an unknown amount of romantic and sexual content (I just started it lol).

Mod Kasjan (formerly Jay) (he/it/she) @calcar is reading A shadow in summer (Daniel Abraham) which has romantic content and little sexual content.

Mod Saph (she/her) @sapphire2626 is reading Scythe (Neal Shusterman) which has romantic content but no sexual content.

(mod applications are closed now but if you are still interested message @nevthetrailblazer)

[aspec-friendly-reading]

hello! I'd like to reccomend the series Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan

Romantic content: the MC and another character have crushes on each other + there are a couple kiss scenes although the actual type of relationship they have is never explicitly stated and left open to interpretation. there's also two side characters who share a deep bond but also never stated what type. A few background romantic relationships are present but none are the focus of the stories. No sexual content.

Genre: Fantasy, Mythology

Other comments: the other character mentioned above is transgender & genderfluid + uses she/he pronouns. I personally (as a trans person) found the way it was written nicely done

(I hope this is okay even with the crushes + kiss scenes! I liked the way their relationship was written as an arospec person so I hope others might too)

Thank you for the rec! Although several mods have read these series and we all agree this should not be taged as romance free. Also, it's important to note that this is a teen fiction

[aspec-friendly-reading]

I recommend the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie! (Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy)

Romantic/sexual content: Main character is heavily implied to be aroace, and expresses disinterest in romantic/sexual relationships throughout. The books are not completely free from romantic/sexual content; many side characters have interest in romance, and there are scenes where sex is implied (but the plot doesn't focus on either of these things). One major side character is in love with the MC. But overall all the relationships in the book are very queer; they have a unique relationship category that doesn't really fit into our definitions of platonic/romantic. (sorry for yap)

Genre: Sci-fi, space opera

As an aroace person I really enjoyed this series and never felt put off by the slight romantic/sexual content, and I felt really represented by the main character :D! I also liked how this series approaches gender in a very queer way

(ps I love this blog it's been super helpful for finding book recs! ty for running it)

Thank you! Both for the rec and kind words :]

[aspec-friendly-reading]

Hey, I just found your blog today and I just wanted to thank you. Seriously. I kind of stopped reading anything that wasn't a childhood fave or a Star Trek pocket novel once I hit teens/young adult age and started struggling to find books with no sexual content. As a sex-repulsed ace reading new books started to feel like a game of roulette. So I stopped. I went to AO3 where I could filter out stuff. It was never quite the same though.

Now with this blog and the resources and recs you've provided I feel like I can go back to reading again. So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Hi Anon! I'm so glad that this blog is helpful for that, because that means that we are doing what we set out to do. It's really important to me that as aspec people, we all work together to support everyone in the community, and I'm constantly evaluating if a book I'm reading will fit the blog.

I personally am more sex (and romance) averse than repulsed, but it fluctuates, and it's so frustrating to be locked out of stories because of something out of my control. Since joining as a mod to this blog, I've used the recommendations from the other mods to help me as well, and also started reading a lot more.

I hope that your journey back into reading is an amazing one!

- Mod Neon <2

[the-aro-agenda]

the thing is that i actually do enjoy romance in fiction but i also believe that romance-repulsed aros have the right to complain that NOTHING is made for them except maybe kids media. once you start to realize how pervasive romance is in every sector of society it's impossible to ignore. like you remember when there were barely any gay shows on television and straight people expected us to be grateful for the one gay side character on a network show? that's exactly how it feels with romance all the time. i want to see media created by adults for adults that doesn't involve romance anywhere in the plot. i want to see characters (main characters!!!) not want romance and not be treated as broken or crazy. i want a world where my romance-repulsed friends aren't confined to kids media (and even then, to only a limited selection)

[aspec-friendly-reading]

The Murderbot diaries series by Martha Wells

Canon aroace main charater, canon aroace side charaters

Sexual content: minimal; minor references to sex between various side characters, main character's monologing about how gross and weird it finds sex

Romantic content: moderate; frequent mentions of side character's romantic relationships (usually polyamorous) but none central to the plot, no romantic scenes

Genre: science fiction

Review: fun and relaxing series with fresh and intresting approach to non human (robot) characters. All characters are written well and natural. The world building and themes are very progressive: feminist, queer, anti capitalist and with overwhelmingly non white characters cast and autistic main character. It's not exactly an easygoing lighthearted series but it's not heavy and existential either, I found it to be a comfortable middle ground

Bonus: audiobooks of the series are available for free on youtube

[aro-absol]

[ID: The covers of the six "The Murderbot Diaries" book series by Martha Wells. All of the covers show the protagonist Murderbot, who looks like a humanoid robot in various situations, often including spaceships. The titles are in order: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collaps. / End ID]

[aspec-friendly-reading]

Thank you for the id!

[aspec-friendly-reading]

The Murderbot diaries series by Martha Wells

Canon aroace main charater, canon aroace side charaters

Sexual content: minimal; minor references to sex between various side characters, main character's monologing about how gross and weird it finds sex

Romantic content: minimal/moderate; frequent mentions of side character's romantic relationships (usually polyamorous) but none central to the plot, no romantic scenes; brief misunderstanding(s) of mc's relationship to two of side characters late in the series

Genre: science fiction

Review: fun and relaxing series with fresh and intresting approach to non human (robot) characters. All characters are written well and natural. The world building and themes are very progressive: feminist, queer, anti capitalist and with overwhelmingly non white characters cast and autistic main character. It's not exactly an easygoing lighthearted series but it's not heavy and existential either, I found it to be a comfortable middle ground

Bonus: audiobooks of the series are available for free on youtube

[aspec-friendly-reading]

i stumbled across kelly barnhill's works lately (the girl who drank the moon, the ogress and the orphans) and i'm under the impression that they have no romance or at least nothing central? i'm not sure about this exactly. i wasn't able to find those titles on this blog but some confirmation would be nice if anyone has read them :)

I have read The Girl Who Drank the Moon and as far as I can remember there is very little to no romance in it (I last read it 7 years ago so l cannot say for a fact which one it is though). I am positive there is no sex in it. I haven't read The Ogress and the Orphans so I cannot speak to that (hopefully someone who has read it can confirm though!)

On a personal note too, I have to say that I absolutely adore The Girl Who Drank the Moon. The story really touched me and stuck with me all this time. It is one of my go-to recommendations for middle grade books (to be clear, I am an adult and love middle grade books, so I think you'd love that book no matter how old you are).

[leehama]

Hi! I just found And Another Lovely Day by completely accident and I absolutely adore it! I feel like it's so rare to see aspec characters in media, let alone more than one in the same story, and I love the way that casual amatonormativity affects their relationship and how they're perceived by other people. I just rambled about how cool it is to see in a webcomic to some of my discord friends lol. Thank you for making this story!!

Hello there, thank you so much for reading AALD and for sending this lovely message!!

If you and your discord friends are still looking for stories with aspec characters, here are more you can check out:

The Webcomic Travelogue's "Celebrating Aromantic Visibility Week with Ten Comics" collection

The Webcomic Library's tagpacker site where you can search for webcomics featuring aspec content in the "LGBT+" menu

The manga series "I Want to be A Wall", "She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat", and "Kemutai Hanashi" all feature canon aspec protagonists/prominent side characters; "Umi ga Hashiru Endroll" has an aspec lead (though his sexuality isn't deeply explored) and "Ikoku Nikki" has an ace minor side character and a deuteragonist who could be read as aspec (though not canonically confirmed)

The drama series "Koisenu Futari" has two aspec leads and is about asexuality/aromanticism

Alice Oseman (the creator of Heartstopper) has a novel called "Loveless" about asexuality and aromanticism

If you are especially interested in how amatonormativity affects people (both aspec and allo), I particularly recommend Koisenu Futari and Kemutai Hanashi!

Aspec rep is still relatively rare in the grand scope of all media, but I'm not the first or only person telling these kinds of stories--there are lots of stories to enjoy and creators to support :)

[robinjomargaret]

Aro Books For Pride

Something I've noticed through the years, is that straight and queer people alike often have a tendency to forget about a specific queer identity: aromanticism.

Sometimes it's misunderstood, sometimes it's confused with asexuality, and sometimes it's ignored and/or erased.

This pride month, 23 authors have come together to gather their works and offer them at a discounted price to celebrate aromantic representation from all over the spectrum.

Whether it's to read them during pride month or the rest of the year, by buying this bundle you can get yourself tons of books while also  supporting indie authors directly during a time when every little bit of support and community counts more than anything.

Get 23 books for $15, or get all 36 books for $20.

NOTE: this is a bundle that also incudes 18+ content intended for an adult audience.

If this is your first time hearing of the term aromanticism, or if you've heard about it before but are confused about what exactly it is and/or how it differs from asexuality, here's lots of cool resources (and also, my own beginner guide I made some time ago).

[clintbeifong]

For Valentine's Day my local library set up a romance free collection in the YA section, complete with little ace and aro colored hearts with silly "eww" "nope" "not for me" messages, and I for one think that is incredibly asexy of them.

[aspec-friendly-reading]

Shadow by K. J. Parker, part one of Scavenger trilogy

Sexal content: minimal, two implied sex scenes, not graphic

Romantic content: minimal, almost none, there's a mention of mc's loving marriage at the very end

Genre: fantasy

Review: although it's thick book (almost 600 pages) it reads very nice and fast. The author plays with nonlinear narrative, multiple povs, reaveals new informations in very natural way and sometimes stright up lies so this book keept me on my toes the whole ride. I definently could sympathize with mc's general sense of confusion and uncertainty, very fun read

[aspec-friendly-reading]

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Sexual content: minimal passing mentions.

Romantic content: minimal, past failed relationship.

Genre: fantasy, sci-fi

Notes: main charater can be read as aroace, both the past relationship and mentions of sex are in context of the main charater being confused and not fitting in

[astraldraco]

My (late) contribution for Make A Terrible Comic Day! I've been going to the library more often lately so this has been coming up a lot, cause I want something to read but have had trouble finding anything that I'm comfortable with.

If anyone has recommendations please please let me know because I am struggling.

[aromanticofficial]

official aromantic terrible comic

[aspec-friendly-reading]

Hi! Have you gotten any books of poetry recommended?

Not from what I remember, does anyone have any recommendations?

[aspec-friendly-reading]

reply from @sometimesthedragonwins

thanks for the recs!

[aspec-friendly-reading]

Firefox by Craig Thomas

Romantic/Sexual Content: Very little romantic and sexual content. It is occasionally stated matter-of-factly that some people are romantically and/or sexually involved, but that is the extent of it. The main character has no romantic or sexual involvment.

Genre: Aviation Thriller (spy + heist + airplane)

Content Warnings and More Information

Quick summary: Set during the cold war, the Soviet Union has created the most advanced plane yet, the Firefox. It is immune to radar, and it's weapons systems are controlled by thoughts. The only way the United States can hope to compete is to steal the plane for themselves.

Review: Honestly, an amazing book. I picked it up more-or-less on a whim, and ended up really enjoying it. The beginning is a bit slow, but it picks up. Thriller is very apt, I was on the edge of my seat for a good 2/3rds of it. 4.5/5 stars.

[aspec-friendly-reading]

Hi! Have you gotten any books of poetry recommended?

Not from what I remember, does anyone have any recommendations?