I don’t know if the author is intending to write this character as asexual/demisexual or not but I downloaded a book today from one of my favorite authors in one of my favorite universes, and I felt SEEN af. Here’s the character describing his attraction in comparison to his twin sisters (they’re 16 year old werewolves for reference):
“I might *be* gay. Bisexual at least. All I know is that I’m not attracted to people the way Kate is, where you see someone and think, They’re hot, and I’d like to make out with them. There’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes I wish I did feel like that. At least it’d be normal. But I can’t imagine wanting the make out with a random guy or girl. I want to spend time with them first, decide whether I’d like more.
Again, idk if it’s the author’s intention or not to write the character as being ace-spec but dam does it read that way. He goes on to decribe having almost gotten to that point twice with a female friend and a male friend, but not feeling like the attraction was enough to act on it. This quote seemed really demisexual coded to me “I need the emotional with the physical, and I haven’t met someone worth the time or effort”.
This author has written werewolf characters before who didn’t really feel any kind of attraction until they felt like they’d met their “mate” (a little bit of a cringey concept in werewolf fiction, but she does it better than some), so that COULD be the angle she’s going for here, I’m not far enough in to say, but I still think that has some demisexual/demiromantic energy.
Either way I almost cried when I read the him thinking about not seeing people and immediately wanting to makeout with them, and then did tear up when he expressed not feeling like he was *normal*.
(The book is “Wolf’s Bane” by Kelley Armstrong, it’s in her Otherworld series universe, and could potentially stand alone though it references characters and events from other books in the same universe, but ultimately doesn’t rely on the reader knowing that. It DOES have spoilery aspects if you did want to read the whole series. The first book is “Bitten” and you can find a chronological order to read the books and short stories in on Kelley’s website. It also references two other connected trilogies that take place in the same universe but with separate storylines and characters.)
Edit: Logan’s roommate at the camp later asks if he’s ace and he says he doesn’t think so but he doesn’t know. So Kelley is aware enough of asexuality to use a slang term for it in the story. It’s probably the mate angle, then, but it still has some demisexual vibes.