This post is combining global Indigenous identities, not soley North American!
Elatsoe - YA fantasy / Lipan Apache / aro-coded ace MC
A Snake Falls To Earth - YA fantasy / Lipan Apache / ace MC
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet - YA contemporary / Indigenous Canadian/Métis / demisexual MC
The Witch King - YA fantasy / Seminole / demisexual LI, ace SC
Godly Heathens - YA fantasy / Seminole / demiromantic MC
Màgòdiz - dystopian/fantasy / I believe the author identifies as 'having Mi'kmaq/Anishinabe heritage while not being registered' / an aroace MC
Muneera and the Moon - folktale anthology / Palestinian / some with ace characters or queerplatonic themes (author also has lots of other short fiction!)
This year some of my favourite books I read were written by indigenous American authors and I just wanted to shout out a couple that I fell in love with
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Horror being my second most read genre, I did not think books could still get under my skin the way this one did lol. It follows four Blackfoot men who are seemingly being hunted by a vengeful... something... years after a fateful hunting trip that happened just before they went their separate ways. The horror, the dread, the something... pure nightmare fuel 10/10
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
An apocalyptic novel following an isolated Anishinaabe community in the far north who lose contact with the outside world. When two of their young men return from their college with dire news, they set about planning on how to survive the winter, but when outsiders follow, lines are drawn in the community that might doom them all. This book is all dread all the time, the use of dreams and the inevitability of conflict weighs heavy til the very end. An excellent apocalypse story if you're into that kind of thing.
My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
This book follows Jade, a deeply troubled mixed race teenager with a shitty homelife who's *obsessed* with slasher movies. When she finds evidence that there's a killer running about her soon-to-be gentrified small town, she weaponises that knowledge to predict what's going to happen next. I don't think this book will work for most people, it's a little stream of consciousness, Jade's head is frequently a very difficult place to be in, but by the last page I had so much love for her as a character and the emotional rollercoaster she's on that I had to mention it here.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Taking a bit of a left turn but this charming YA murder mystery really stuck with me this year. Elatsoe is a teenage girl living in an America where myths, monsters, and magic are all real every day occurrences. When her cousin dies mysteriously with no witnesses, she decides to do whatever she can, including using her ability to raise the spirits of dead animals, to solve the case. The worldbuilding was just really fun in this one, but the Native American myths and influence were the shining star for me, and the asexual rep was refreshing to see in a YA book too tbh
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
The audiobook, the audiobook, the audiobook!!!! Also the physical book because formatting and illustrations, but the audiobook!!! Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit throat singer, and this novel is a genre blending of 20 years worth of the authors journal entries, poetry, and short stories, that culminates in a truly unique story about a young girl surviving her teenage years in a small tundra town in the 70s. It is sad and beautiful and hard but an experience like nothing else I read this year.
I have made my own challenge to recommend a queer book for each color of the progress pride flag, based on the covers, inspired by @elumish and their pride flag reading challenge. my rules are to assign one book to each color on the progress flag.
Black: The Scapegracers by H. A. Clarke
Brown: That Kind of Guy by Talia Hibbert
Pink: Loveless by Alice Oseman
Light Blue: I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner
White: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Red: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Orange: Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie
Yellow: Burning Roses by S. L. Huang
Green: The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
Blue The Mirror Season by Anne-Marie McLemore
Purple: Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown
Ocultos • The Butcher's Masquerade • The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet • Elatsoe • A Wizard of Earthsea • Nightshade and Oak • Magic Flutes • Totem • The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún Vols 9-12 • Book of a Thousand Days* • Shadow Scale • The Eye of the Bedlam Bride • Snake Eater
Like everyone else's January, my January sucked ass. Especially in the second half of the month, after the sudden death of my cat, I increasingly turned to books as a distraction/to keep my mind occupied. And it... mostly worked? I definitely read some good books this month. And also, fittingly, the most drab, monochromatic collection of book cover colors yet. Judging by the number of parentheticals and small text asides below, I've got some Opinions on this batch.
Here's hoping February will be a better month irl and an also-good month bookwise 🤞
Ocultos [GR review] ★★★☆☆ - Another Laura Pérez book where I look at the pictures and go "Ah yes, some weird shit. Keep it coming 🫡"
The Butcher's Masquerade ★★★★★ - A faaaascinating chapter of the DCC saga! That ending though. Ouch. Pretty insulted that this book [SPOILER] killed off a character I liked but resurrected the character with my dad's name. Where's the justice
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet ★★1/2☆☆ - Imma be real with you chat, this one was simply not for me. I was unprepared for just how meandering light on plot and slow-paced it was gonna be (it really was a LONG way to that planet, goddamn), and I wasn't in the mood for all the therapyspeak Aesops the characters went through. Would be good for someone who is in the mood for something episodic and therapeutic, I suppose.
Elatsoe ★★★1/2☆ - Finally crossed this one off the tbr! And what a fun romp. I loved that since the in-universe vampires had to follow the "must be invited in" rules, the Apache characters could disinvite them from large swaths of North America. Also the cute ghost animals! I want that ghost mammoth so bad
A Wizard of Earthsea ★★★1/2☆ - Another book that's been on my TBR for, oh, a decade or something. Having now read Ursula's craft book, it was very cool to see how she deploys her own techniques. Needed 80% more women in it, but I hear the sequels are good for that
also this was yet another book that made me go "oh, so THIS is what Name of the Wind is trying to be"
Nightshade and Oak ★★★1/2☆ - An ARC I snapped up because it looked fun. Had strong first and last acts and a middle that decidedly plodded. Cool "goddess trapped in mortal form" premise though, and I'd love to see more historical fantasy from this setting/era!
Magic Flutes ★★★★☆ - I definitely have to be in the mood for Eva Ibbotson, but when I am in the mood, she HITS. I really appreciate that while her romances all have similar plot structures and archetypes, she fills each of them with incredibly specific details and side characters that stand out. Also this book taught me like 12 new words. Ever heard of a charabanc? A smultronställe? Poob Eva has it for you
Totem ★★★☆☆ - Once again looking at Laura Pérez story-pictures going hell yeah right on sister. Watch your past self have sex with your now-dead gf who mysteriously disappeared into the desert! You go girl
Shadow Scale ★★★1/2☆ - Not as good as Seraphina, alas. Had way too many (admittedly cool) characters and didn't take enough time to explore the full impies (implications) of its own events. And call me a whiny baby but I wanted PROPER polyamory, not Schrodinger's Homewrecker! What do you MEAN she danced with Kiggs but not Selda at the wedding?? When I want grim self-sacrificing love triangles I'll watch Mujhse Dosti Karoge. This is an outrage who do I call
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride ★★★★☆ - Devoured this in 1.5 days because I desperately needed a distraction after my cat's sudden passing, and it was oddly comforting to read about the fictional Donut's adventures, especially since this is the book where everyone's mental health is relatably in shambles. Interestingly, this is the first DCC book that felt a little repetitive at times, but I ended up not minding so much because the final twist* (*not final there were like 3 more in the epilogue alone) being hopeful felt very earned after the previous book's bleaker ending.
Snake-Eater ★★★★☆ - A surprisingly fun vibe-forward time! Having now been to the Sonoran desert (and seen a roadrunner there) I felt like the setting was incredibly well-rendered—I could tell that unlike me Ms. Ursula loves the desert with her whole soul. This might be my second- or third-favorite T. Kingfisher book now? It was surprisingly tightly written for something so slow-paced for the first 80%. I love how I'll bitch about Becky Chambers writing something slow and therapeutic but when T. Kingfisher does the same thing I'm like no let her cook. A craft thing or a personal taste thing? Yes. Also this one has suspense and gradually building dread so that might be part of it
The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún Vols 9-12 ★★★☆☆ - Well, that was an ending. I'm not sure I liked where the story ended up, but that wild interlude with the king and the Church was interesting. And as usual, the art never missed.
DNFs: None!
January superlatives: here
Next up:
I've got The Swan's Daughter and Nine Goblins checked out from the library. I also hope to get around to Mariana Enriquez's memoir and perhaps the first Bartimaeus, which a friend gifted me!
previous months:
2024: july august september october november december
2025: january february-june july august september october november december
btw since i have vampires on the mind after seeing sinners i would just like to mention that elatsoe by darcie little badger has my favorite version of “vampires can’t enter places they’re not welcome” because the main character is native american and at one point is gets rid of a vampire by going “this entire state is my ancestral home and you’re not welcome here”
Not really a commission but I wanted to know your personal opinions on examples of good aromantic/ asexual rep in media. Hope you have a good day!
Hello thanks for asking this! I find this sort of stuff interesting to talk about since analysing representation in media is something I’m into. (And don’t worry you’re allowed to literally put whatever you want in the ask box so you’re good).
Uh I’d say the basic expectation I would have for it would be for it to at least be implied in the media itself (to varying levels of subtlety depending on the context) and to be stated outside of the show without being vague about it because, in my opinion, that risks confusing the fandom/upsetting aspec fans/confusing the two labels. Basically I’d like it to be shown in the media an then confirmed outside of it by the creator, preferably, to avoid issues arising. Also I’d like variety. Give us murderers, give us normal people, give us nerds, give us socially aware, give us socially unaware, give us romance repulsed, romance neutral, romance averse, sex averse, sex positive, sex neutral, greysexual, cupioromantic, just aro, just ace, aro ace… you get the idea variety is good
Obviously I’m only one aroace person and hence I hold one viewpoint that’s different to others and topics like this one are relatively subjective so yeah~
In terms of actual examples I’ll just use a sort of ranking system.
Imma insert the barrier thing here cus this is gonna be a pretty long one so ye boom.
Uh starting off with Alastor I’ll give him a 6 or 7 out of 10 (ok ok the reference wasn’t intended shdgfygyegywz) because I do relate to him on several levels as concerning as that is and I mean his orientation is more implicit than it is for some other aspec characters but it still needs improvement. I think the problem for me is that due to some allos in the fandom being really into the shipping side (which absolutely makes sense since the show has lots of pairings which I can definitely get behind) but to a slightly toxic extent where they seem to ignore the fact that although he is heavily implied within the show and merch to also be on the aromantic spectrum in favour of shipping when that really isn’t necessary. But the point I’m making there is that due to them just not telling us his romantic orientation there have been problems in the fandom which is pretty sad when other characters get to have their sexualities openly embraced (from what I’ve seen, I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s at least a few instances of homophobia since every fandom has a few issues, like I won’t deny that this isn’t just a hazbin specific issue). Blah blah you get the point I have way too much coffee and black tea in my system to make sense right now so apologies for that. The positive though is that he is shown as having close friendships to Nifty, Mimzy and Rosie and he is very confident so that breaks the introvert stereotype pretty well.
Edit: uhm I guess the Radiorose qpr/best friends ship ish thing head cannon low-key had to return to shore and get checked over for issues cus of season 2 so uhm. I still think they’re friends just- it’s complicated…
Also coming back to this Alastor does get extra point since he is made by an asexual person so that’s a positive. Also also I really like the hints we get through the show and merch. I just wish he could be confirmed as arospec for real just to shut up some idiots. It would be nice. But I dunno if we’ll ever get him fully sturdily confirmed to the point that certain media illiterate people will get the point so oh well. Anyways I appreciate that he helped me figure out I was aro ace. That’s nice of him. Very altruistic. Apologies if I got a little heated I just… I’m just tired…
Lilith Clawthorne. It’s really sad that she is this low but *sigh*… 4 or 7 out of 10 depending on how you look at it… It’s really disappointing because otherwise I’d say that TOH is amazing with queer representation in-spite of the restrictions from Disney. I highly doubt that Lilith’s sexuality not being shown at all within the show was done out of malice since I can understand why it would be a challenge to depict asexuality on a kids’ show but like- surely her aromanticism could’ve been hinted to once. Just once. Maybe through a badge or subtle hints. Again though I do understand why TOH may have been unable to do this since it was cancelled. However, it is nice that Lilith was explicitly stated as aro ace and that part is better than what has happened with Alastor on one aspect so maybe my rating here is a bit harsh. I’m not salty or anything, just disappointed. One good thing to note though is that she does have some struggles common with other aspec people aka the need to excel in fields such as academic/economic ones since she doesn’t have romance on the table if that makes sense? Plus she was shown to be multifaceted and cool so it’s not like they just chucked the aro ace label onto some random background character as she was pretty important to the plot. Also also she was shown to have close relationships to characters such as Hooty, Luz and King (later on, obviously part of her character development involved abandoning the emperor’s coven in favour of Eda so yeah). Also I did see that clip from a stream where her VA did a short sample of what getting a closer look at her aro identity and it was really nice. I don’t remember the specifics but it was really well done. Basically, I think Lilith is complicated and depending on what you value most in aro ace rep she could either be seen as disappointing or a good go at it.
The Doctor. Ok this one is interesting. I’m just gonna focus on ten first and then 9 in the next paragraph so hehehe. Obviously you have to consider that ten’s run was from 2005 to 2010 so it’s not like there was anything outright said. Plus he’s an alien but I’d say that’s not really that big of a factor since timelords are very similar to humans in that they look the same so ehhhhhhh I’m not gonna go into that side. The part where you would get a sense of him being asexual from is David Tennant saying that:
So what you can get from that is he can at the very least be interpreted as being on the ace spectrum. And then in terms of him being on the aro spectrum uhhhhh I won’t lie I don’t have much of a reason for this but there’s definitely a lot of value especially in series 4 placed on a purely platonic/sibling relationship with Donna and then a found family in series 2 with Rose and Jackie (and Mickey I think). And then there’s the sort of blurred line between romance and friendship between Rose and Ten which I personally like to view as a QPR so you know… fun…
And one sides TenMartha. Ugh Martha my beloved she deserved better but Ten was also getting over losing Rose so I think that storyline was so deliciously complicated but also served us with the really sweet “Martha you’re a star” and just general genuine respect between the two that was mixed up with the Doctor lingering on the past and that slowly tearing Martha between her unrequited love for him and her family and ughhhhh. Basically the relationships in Ten’s time felt very aspec. I know it’s unlikely that it was intended as such but eh semantics. Pretty good going though in terms of an aspec comfort character. Also appreciation for Ten’s rizz at the same time: “You can kiss me later. You too, Frank”. Or his exasperated “57 academics just punched the air” or his obliviousness “oh- oh- oh-“. 10 out of 10 I’m biased.
Ok. Now 9. 9 my beloved I can’t believe I didn’t properly clock you until that Pinterest post that led me to your audio drama.
Look how the Doctor Dances. I mean we already know he’s clearly queer. He’s clearly supportive. He’s clearly not straight. And he’s definitely got a really interesting dynamic with Rose where he gets to recover from the guilt of the time war. His jadedness is pealed away by Rose as she shows him a different way of living as does he to her where they enjoy life. Rose escapes the mundane and the Doctor sees the joy of the mundane. Again there’s very blurred lines between a friendship and a relationship which leads me to headcanon NineRose as a QPR. Obviously he got less content due to only getting one series- AGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHY WHY WHY NOOOOOOO. Ahem, so that’s where I feel like there’s some lose undertones sneaking into his narrative through his relationships and his openness to queer topics. But then- then we get some of the best aro representation I’ve ever seen in his audio drama with the matchmaker. I haven’t watched the full thing cus I still need to uh buy it… so search it up on tumblr and enjoy the brilliant writing. (Also side note haha it’s beautiful that nine, ten and eleven are all confirmed to have at least something to do with asexuality and aromanticism in spite of Steven Moffat being part of the writing of their series- oh the sweet sweet justice is too good). Essentially nine has definitely secured his place in aro (and ace probably) culture. Dare I say 10 out of 10. I’m biased but I don’t care.
I’m not gonna go into 11 because I haven’t finished his series yet so *sigh* I’m sorry 11 fans. But respect to Matt Smith for basing 11 off the ace community. That’s very cool. And also makes lots of sense.
Viktor from Arcane. My god we were in the trenches with him. By season 2 Jayvik was skyrocketing and then they confirmed that Viktor was ace so he couldn’t be with Jayce. Uhm… right so a quick google search could’ve told them that that’s Aroace… god they messed it up… I mean this was so clearly shoved on as an excuse to stop a ship that they didn’t like which just brought hate to us instead of giving us anything valuable but you know… we still love Viktor himself. I’m just not impressed with how we got this but ehhhhh I guess it’s good that we have more representation?…. Ehhhhhhhhhhh…. It’s just disappointing because it’s another example of aspec characters having their identities sidelined or just handled poorly whilst much more thought and time is put into allo ones. Not nice. But hopefully fanwork is giving us what Arcane didn’t.
Mammon from Helluva is good since he’s ace whilst still doing non-stereotypical things. I can’t really comment much on that since I’m your stereotypical sex repulsed aro ace but from what I’ve heard from other aspec people he’s good and as I said variety is good so yay. Good stuff. Octavia… I can’t really comment on her that much either since she’s not got that much ace related stuff but you know it’s nice a younger character got the ace beam.
LOVELESS. ALICE OSEMAN YOU ARE LITERALLY FILLING UP A SHELF OF QUEER LITERATURE IN MY LOCAL LIBRARY. THAT’S NOT HYPERBOLIC I’M BEING COMPLETELY SERIOUS. HOW DARE SHE GIVE US THIS GOOD OF A BOOK. Anyways uhm Georgia from Loveless is aro ace fully canonically confirmed within the book. I mean the whole thing is dedicated to that part of her identity so duh. 10/10. I can’t fully relate though since I’ve never been THAT into romance I mean yeah I ship stuff but I normally do that if I think it’s funny or I like drawing those characters whilst Georgia from what I remember was kinda a hopeless (a)romantic which was put in the narrative nicely. I might be forgetting since it’s been a year-ish since I read it. However I can relate to thinking you have a crush on someone cus you think “uhm ye they’re nice, they look nice I guess… is this love?”. Sigh. Also more points for exploring some of the discrimination since I feel like some allos kinda need to understand that yes, we do get a lot of hate for it even if it’s not on a legal basis. Aka us being told we’re not really queer. So that was good. Again good stuff because she was written by Alice Oseman who is aro ace (I double checked on the Guardian but the article was from 2022 so I might be wrong, if so please correct me and I’ll edit this).
Tori Spring. TORI SPRING. Ok ok so I believe she’s confirmed to be on the aromantic spectrum and also ace. Yippee we getting aro spectrum representation. I relate to her arguably the most alongside 9 and Alastor (ye don’t question why I relate to the serial killer shhhh) probably cus she’s in secondary school and has a VERY similar personality to me in real life. And I know Solitaire was written before Oseman was aware of the term but I mean Tori still definitely feels aro ace coded even if it was done accidentally. I dunno I didn’t write the book but it still holds up as good representation. I can probably talk more about her presence in Heartstopper (aka the graphic novel and Netflix show) since that’s more recent. For example everyone assuming she’s with Michael is so damn relatable to me cus that’s what people in my year group to do me whenever I so much as talk to another person or am relatively close to them. So you know that’s a pretty universal aspec experience as far as I know. Uh it’s nice how she says it on the ferris wheel. I hope they go into it for the film. Looking forward to it/any future Tori stuff. 10/10 cus she’s written by an aro ace person and uh I adore her. Solitaire is insanely well written.
Isaac Henderson my beloved. My god as much as I love him I am definitely feeling let down. But firstly imma quickly clarify that I doubt this was done on purpose or anything since the show is literally written by an aro ace person so you know… I doubt there was any malice with sidelining him. I dunno what influence Netflix has over it and I get the main focus of the show is romance but it’s still sad that he got sidelined. But we got very good emotional moments with him, my only point is that I wish we got some of his process of exploring his sexuality like how Nick did since that was well executed (I dunno I’m not bi but uh from general fan reception I got the idea that it was good so I dunno maybe). Maybe we’ll get that in the film though who knows. It’s not finished so I have hope. Plus his coming out scene with Charlie and then the jellyfish. Beautiful. Nice metaphor with the jellyfish. It’s good to at least have the words aromantic asexual spoken on I guess mainstream media? Is it that mainstream? I mean it’s definitely popular I know that. At any rate good stuff, I feel like more could’ve been done but he’s my favourite Heartstopper character asides from Tori. Also just a brief shoutout to both of their actors. Amazing acting (I say, despite the fact I haven’t touched a stage since primary school). 7 or more out of 10. We’ll see once the film and any other additional media for him comes out.
Peridot from Steven Universe. I love her. Uhm I can’t say anything else really cus she was confirmed after the show and I mean fair enough it came out in *googles this stuff* oh my god 2013… yeah I’m definitely willing to cut them slack since I mean we know what Cartoon Network pulled with Ruby and Sapphire plus. Ye in general I understand the circumstances but you know at least a storyboard artist or something confirmed that so we got another aro ace child to write fanfics and comics and stuff about. Plus she still has a close relationship with Lapis and Steven so we’re good. Uh I’m not gonna rate her cus I don’t have much to say about her.
Uh I can’t think of any other examples. I might’ve talked about Sherlock but uh his whole deal is way too complicated to get into. Uhm there is another one which I’m not gonna discuss since I haven’t read the book yet but: Elatsoe. She’s asexual. Very nice book so far. There’s been one hint I’ve gotten so far. Good book, I like the writing. Read it if you wanna. Just giving another example I might evaluate if I ever come back to this.
Anyways have a nice day/night anonymous person~
Thanks for asking this since uh I like talking about this stuff. It’s very interesting.
Obviously if anyone wants to add onto this then feel free. Just don’t be aphobic or anything.
(Also just wanted to acknowledge the depressing underrepresented segment of aspec people with most of the representation we do have being cis white men and not having much for identities that fall on bits of the spectrum that aren’t just zero romantic or sexual attraction. God my grammar is dying I hope I got my point across well. Basically we need garlic bread to become a bigger part of the mainstream for several reasons. Goodbye.)
