Asexual Visibility and Education Network: New YA Novel With Openly Asexual Character - Asexual Visibility and Education Network

Jump to content

4
  • (2 Pages)
  • +
  • 1
  • 2
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

New YA Novel With Openly Asexual Character I mean, there's a freaking coming-out scene

#1 User is offline   Sciatrix 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,696
  • Joined: 19-July 08
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:University of Georgia

Posted 16 April 2010 - 03:08 AM

So yeah, I recently purchased Karen Healey's new YA novel Guardian of the Dead, on the theory that I had heard that there might be some asexual representation in it and also it had been compared to Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which is one of my most favorite novels ever. And it got in to my mailbox today, so I curled up on a couch and read it.

I was not actually expecting one of the supporting characters, Kevin, to come out to his best friend as asexual within the first couple of chapters. As in, I think this may be the second explicit "I identify as asexual" character in media that I've ever heard of. And the scene is done wonderfully--the main character has a lesbian older sister and it is implied that her parents reacted uncomfortably, so she makes a point of not questioning his experiences or telling him he's wrong or anything else.

The asexuality isn't really connected to the main plot of the story, mind. I find it interesting that the story is set in New Zealand and written by a New Zealander--I wonder if the author saw Short Street at some point? And the character's orientation becomes very much tangential about midway through the book, when the circumstances surrounding the main character change somewhat and Kevin sort of gets left behind a little. I'm not saying this is the Great Asexual Novel or anything, but it's really refreshing to actually see a character treat asexuality like a real orientation and not a "X is uniquely odd in this way" sort of thing.

And the novel itself is really good, too. (The Gaiman comparison is pretty apt towards the end, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes myths, particularly Maori myths, which are mostly what the author is drawing from.) If you're a fan of YA urban fantasy, I'd give it a shot.

#2 User is offline   Tanzaria?! 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,942
  • Joined: 26-June 09
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Land of the long White Cloud.

Posted 16 April 2010 - 03:12 AM

New Zealand novel. American Gods similarities. Asexual character.

TO THE BOOKSHOP
Posted Image

#3 User is offline   Defenestration 

  • Mega Mitosis
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 287
  • Joined: 27-March 10
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Mother Earth

Posted 16 April 2010 - 04:21 AM

Logging on my library site right now. Thanks for sharing :]
Posted Image "Kissing on the mouth is far from sanitary and can lead to all sorts of bacterial transferals!" -The Professor, Gilligan's Island
Posted Image "When I did eventually hear 'the facts' of life at eighteen from a school friend, I stared in astonishment and disbelief. Was that what all the love stories I hard read been about? What an extraordinary thing for people to want to do!" -Daphne du Maurier

Spoiler

Etsy ♥ Twitter ♥ Facebook ♥ Blog ♥ Ace blog ♥ Listography

#4 User is offline   Ily 

  • AVENistor
  • Group: Project Team
  • Posts: 4,077
  • Joined: 27-November 05
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Redwood City, California

Posted 16 April 2010 - 04:51 AM

Very cool find, thanks for sharing! :cake:
asexy beast, the blog--> http://theonepercentclub.blogspot.com

"I was chaste to the point of rudeness."--Hippolytus

#5 User is offline   ExeCUTE 

  • Mitosis to the Max
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 349
  • Joined: 02-July 09
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Bude, Cornwall, UK

Posted 16 April 2010 - 07:36 AM

TO AMAZON!
(My bookshop doesn't stock stuff like that, and Amazon is cheaper. Yeah, I know I should shop local. *hangs head*)
AKA ExeCUTE or Ecu ^_^
Mah Asexy Blog
~Posted Image

#6 User is online   Herr Joseph von Löthing 

  • The Atrix Has You
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,165
  • Joined: 22-November 09
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:Bristol, UK

Posted 16 April 2010 - 06:52 PM

View PostExeCUTE, on 16 April 2010 - 08:36 AM, said:

TO AMAZON!
(My bookshop doesn't stock stuff like that, and Amazon is cheaper. Yeah, I know I should shop local. *hangs head*)


If they don't stock it its their loss :P
To ease typing my name, you are permitted to refer to me as HJvL, or any name beginning with the letters 'jo', excluding the name Jo, because I hate that name.

Jicragg said:

There's something weirder about doing with Europeans.

#7 User is offline   No_Celery 

  • AVENator
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 3,513
  • Joined: 29-July 08
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Nottingham // London

Posted 16 April 2010 - 11:24 PM

Wow. FTW. I'm getting that. :D
Because all the cool kids have one:
Posted Image

"Whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger."

"Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
-- Douglas Adams

#8 User is offline   Mnemosyne 

  • Amoeba Colony
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 117
  • Joined: 03-April 10
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:somewhere in the universe

Posted 17 April 2010 - 03:32 PM

Must be mine!!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Friends and enemies are like music and noise, which are distinguished only by harmony or a lack thereof. Harmony is therefore the basis of friendship. With harmony, slight things grow to greatness. With discord, great things shrivel and fail. (Matteo Ricci, On Friendship)

#10 User is offline   tk218 

  • Amoeba Colony
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 145
  • Joined: 15-April 09
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Myrtle Beach S.C.

Posted 17 April 2010 - 07:40 PM

Sounds like a good read to me. :)
Freedom!!!

#11 User is offline   Cicero 

  • The Atrix Has You
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,065
  • Joined: 15-February 07
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Northern England

Posted 18 April 2010 - 06:11 PM

Somehow New Zealand just became even cooler in my estimation. AVEN field trip anyone? ;)

#12 User is offline   Pugnacioun 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,807
  • Joined: 10-December 09
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:KY

Posted 20 April 2010 - 02:55 AM

View PostCicero, on 18 April 2010 - 02:11 PM, said:

Somehow New Zealand just became even cooler in my estimation. AVEN field trip anyone? ;)


I am in support of this.
Now, to find parental support, both general and financial, for me to organize a trip across the Pacific ocean with a bunch of strangers from the internet... hmm.

Euonym said:

Pugnacioun! Pugnacioun! He's got a great big axe!
Pugnacioun! Pugnacioun! He feasts on bivouacs!

Come read my brain! (Asexual Adolescence)

#13 User is offline   Salem the Ace of Hearts 

  • Mega Mitosis
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 209
  • Joined: 01-April 10
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:il

Posted 20 April 2010 - 04:45 AM

I will definitely have to read this. I saw it at Borders the other day but unfortunately didn't have the money to get it
Posted Image

#14 User is offline   Tanzaria?! 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,942
  • Joined: 26-June 09
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Land of the long White Cloud.

Posted 20 April 2010 - 04:51 AM

View PostPugnacioun, on 20 April 2010 - 03:55 PM, said:

View PostCicero, on 18 April 2010 - 02:11 PM, said:

Somehow New Zealand just became even cooler in my estimation. AVEN field trip anyone? ;)


I am in support of this.
Now, to find parental support, both general and financial, for me to organize a trip across the Pacific ocean with a bunch of strangers from the internet... hmm.


Everyone can come and stay with me! You can hide under the bed when Dad walks past my room. :P
Posted Image

#15 User is offline   Jicragg 

  • Aeros Incarnate
  • Group: Moderators
  • Posts: 2,272
  • Joined: 04-May 09
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:Wherever I'm standing, sitting, dancing, lying or crouching

Posted 20 April 2010 - 08:13 AM

View PostTanzaria, on 20 April 2010 - 05:51 AM, said:

View PostPugnacioun, on 20 April 2010 - 03:55 PM, said:

View PostCicero, on 18 April 2010 - 02:11 PM, said:

Somehow New Zealand just became even cooler in my estimation. AVEN field trip anyone? ;)


I am in support of this.
Now, to find parental support, both general and financial, for me to organize a trip across the Pacific ocean with a bunch of strangers from the internet... hmm.


Everyone can come and stay with me! You can hide under the bed when Dad walks past my room. :P

I am going to hold you to that.
I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
Someday you will be loved.
-Death Cab For Cutie
Posted Image I was blessed with a baby born from my darling Ecu.

#16 User is offline   Tanzaria?! 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,942
  • Joined: 26-June 09
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Land of the long White Cloud.

Posted 20 April 2010 - 08:16 AM

View PostJicragg, on 20 April 2010 - 09:13 PM, said:

I am going to hold you to that.


And I am taking that as permission to try to jam you under there. :P
Posted Image

#17 User is offline   Jicragg 

  • Aeros Incarnate
  • Group: Moderators
  • Posts: 2,272
  • Joined: 04-May 09
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:Wherever I'm standing, sitting, dancing, lying or crouching

Posted 20 April 2010 - 10:06 AM

View PostTanzaria, on 20 April 2010 - 09:16 AM, said:

View PostJicragg, on 20 April 2010 - 09:13 PM, said:

I am going to hold you to that.


And I am taking that as permission to try to jam you under there. :P

Which still means I am going to be in New Zealand in your house in your bedroom at some point. *scribbles signature that legally allows Tanzaria to shove a pear under her bed by force*
I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
Someday you will be loved.
-Death Cab For Cutie
Posted Image I was blessed with a baby born from my darling Ecu.

#18 User is offline   Topher 

  • Mega Mitosis
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 229
  • Joined: 05-March 10
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Northern England, UK

Posted 20 April 2010 - 11:48 AM

Aw shucks! It's not out in the UK yet!

I must admit, I do find it amusing how this one post has caused ALL of us to want to buy it now.. Note to future-author-self: include an asexual character in whatever you are writing (I was really considering that anyway..) It'll sell like hot cakes on AVEN. :P

PS. Second dibs on the under-your-bed scenario... :P

View PostGlyn, on 18 June 2010 - 08:41 PM, said:

TOPHER - short for The Original Pot-noodle Herder of the European Republic!

View Postprettyeyes, on 26 April 2010 - 06:32 AM, said:

Romance. It's bad for your teeth.

#19 User is offline   Tanzaria?! 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,942
  • Joined: 26-June 09
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Land of the long White Cloud.

Posted 21 April 2010 - 04:13 AM

I have the book! It was actually really easy to find, seeing as NZ authors are a big deal and the books must be dislayed prominently when they come out.

The part that I read on the bus on the way home was pretty good, even if the main character seems to dislike my city. XD
Posted Image

#20 User is offline   JenJenkins 

  • Member
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 49
  • Joined: 29-March 05
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:London, United Kingdom

Posted 21 April 2010 - 05:51 PM

I actually work in a bookshop so I can tell my collegue who runs the children section to stock up on it and then all of you who live in the uk can come and buy it!
On a similar note I recently started an asexual bookclub in London. It's only two of us at the moment but if any one feels like joining they are more than welcome.
Have a look in the meet-up section for more details.
We already decided on next month's book ( The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith) but we could make Guardian of the Dead the book to read for june!

#21 User is offline   JenJenkins 

  • Member
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 49
  • Joined: 29-March 05
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:London, United Kingdom

Posted 21 April 2010 - 06:02 PM

Here's the link for the book club : http://www.asexualit...howtopic=48416.
Sorry for hijacking the thread.

#22 User is offline   Lucrezia 

  • The Atrix Has You
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,073
  • Joined: 16-December 09
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:Vancouver, Canada

Posted 21 April 2010 - 11:25 PM

View PostTanzaria, on 19 April 2010 - 09:51 PM, said:

Everyone can come and stay with me! You can hide under the bed when Dad walks past my room. :P

If you have a closet, I'd like to hide in there. Not ready to come out yet. *bricked for the bad pun*
Posted Image * Posted Image

I'm gunning down romance
It never did a thing for me
But heartache and misery
Ain't nothing but a tragedy

#23 User is offline   Pugnacioun 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,807
  • Joined: 10-December 09
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:KY

Posted 21 April 2010 - 11:48 PM

View PostLucrezia, on 21 April 2010 - 07:25 PM, said:

View PostTanzaria, on 19 April 2010 - 09:51 PM, said:

Everyone can come and stay with me! You can hide under the bed when Dad walks past my room. :P

If you have a closet, I'd like to hide in there. Not ready to come out yet. *bricked for the bad pun*


Nice. :lol:

Euonym said:

Pugnacioun! Pugnacioun! He's got a great big axe!
Pugnacioun! Pugnacioun! He feasts on bivouacs!

Come read my brain! (Asexual Adolescence)

#24 User is offline   Tanzaria?! 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,942
  • Joined: 26-June 09
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Land of the long White Cloud.

Posted 22 April 2010 - 04:23 AM

View PostLucrezia, on 22 April 2010 - 12:25 PM, said:

View PostTanzaria, on 19 April 2010 - 09:51 PM, said:

Everyone can come and stay with me! You can hide under the bed when Dad walks past my room. :P

If you have a closet, I'd like to hide in there. Not ready to come out yet. *bricked for the bad pun*


I do! You'll have to fight my coats and hockey stick for space though. :P

Sudden thought: Some of you could probably fit under my couch. XD
Posted Image

#25 User is offline   Milvanil 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,950
  • Joined: 06-September 06
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Wonderland

Posted 22 April 2010 - 06:37 AM

Ooooh...I must find this. The title itself looks awesome.

Yay!! AVEN field trip! :lol: *starts packing* Who will be the chaperones?
"The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul." - Carl Jung

"Lord, I'm glad I'm a hermit novelist." - Flannery O'Connor

"Let the battle begin! With an open heart and an empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of my uncle, 'Ale cuisine!'" - Chairman of Iron Chef America

"Being single can mean you're just taking your time to see who you wanna be with & spend your life with -(Love stories)" - Rev Run

#26 User is offline   Jicragg 

  • Aeros Incarnate
  • Group: Moderators
  • Posts: 2,272
  • Joined: 04-May 09
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:Wherever I'm standing, sitting, dancing, lying or crouching

Posted 22 April 2010 - 11:28 AM

View PostMilvanil, on 22 April 2010 - 07:37 AM, said:

Ooooh...I must find this. The title itself looks awesome.

Yay!! AVEN field trip! :lol: *starts packing* Who will be the chaperones?

Now that Tanzy has started this she's going to have to organise it. XD
Her pet doggie, Buster the hover doggie, will be chaperone.
I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
Someday you will be loved.
-Death Cab For Cutie
Posted Image I was blessed with a baby born from my darling Ecu.

#27 User is offline   Tanzaria?! 

  • A-gent
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 1,942
  • Joined: 26-June 09
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Land of the long White Cloud.

Posted 23 April 2010 - 11:48 AM

View PostJicragg, on 23 April 2010 - 12:28 AM, said:

Now that Tanzy has started this she's going to have to organise it. XD
Her pet doggie, Buster the hover doggie, will be chaperone.


Uh oh. Have you seen me try to organise anything? D:

If Buster is the chaperone we'll end up feeding him cat food while he uses Zeph the kitty as a cushion.
Posted Image

#28 User is offline   Miselle Serafine 

  • Asexy A-postle
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 569
  • Joined: 12-August 09
  • Gender:Female

Posted 23 April 2010 - 01:12 PM

Oooh! My dad goes to NZ regularly! I'm getting him to send that to me!
Learn as if you were following someone whom you could not catch up, as though it were someone you were frightened of losing - Confucius

Unless you love somebody, nothing else makes any sense - e.e. cummings

#29 User is offline   Jicragg 

  • Aeros Incarnate
  • Group: Moderators
  • Posts: 2,272
  • Joined: 04-May 09
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:Wherever I'm standing, sitting, dancing, lying or crouching

Posted 26 April 2010 - 11:54 AM

View PostTanzaria, on 23 April 2010 - 12:48 PM, said:

View PostJicragg, on 23 April 2010 - 12:28 AM, said:

Now that Tanzy has started this she's going to have to organise it. XD
Her pet doggie, Buster the hover doggie, will be chaperone.


Uh oh. Have you seen me try to organise anything? D:

If Buster is the chaperone we'll end up feeding him cat food while he uses Zeph the kitty as a cushion.

That sounds like fun.

Practise makes perfect. Get organising.
I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
Someday you will be loved.
-Death Cab For Cutie
Posted Image I was blessed with a baby born from my darling Ecu.

#30 User is offline   CowsRSkary 

  • Amoeba
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 60
  • Joined: 11-April 10
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:Surrounded by cows.

Posted 27 April 2010 - 12:14 AM

That sounds amazing. Maybe I'll search this summer.
Posted Image Posted Image Posted Image

Until Saturday morning Pacific time, I will not sleep. See the results here. Oh, the pain I put myself through for science. Seriously people, click the button! I don't wish to suffer on my own. *puppy dog eyes*

#31 User is offline   Ellie J 

  • Too Asexy for this Site
  • Group: AVEN Member
  • Posts: 649
  • Joined: 14-April 10
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:USA

Posted 18 July 2010 - 04:45 AM

I just got the book! I was happy reading the part (It's page 13, but she hints at it from the beginning)

It was cool! I'm not done with the book yet, so no review. I'm still at the beginning. I'm so glad my library has it!
Posted Image
My Blog: http://elliebuzz.tumblr.com/

Share this topic:


  • (2 Pages)
  • +
  • 1
  • 2
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users