Asexuality and Asexual Characters in Books & Comics - a Collection

[Scylactic]

My upcoming graphic novel has two MCs who are romantic ace-spec: one is biromantic demisexual, and the other is homoromantic gray-ace.

[Aiv]

[Includes minor spoilery things*, but not details. And since it is about one of my favorite book series of all time--the Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo--yes it is a super long post. I hope this is the right place to put this!]

Rereading parts of Crooked Kingdom two days ago, I came across this quote and it struck me:

“There was no mystery to bodies in the Barrel. […] The other boys in the Dregs talked constantly about their conquests. Kaz said nothing. Fortunately, he said nothing about everything, so he had consistency working in his favor. But he knew what he was expected to say, the things he was supposed to want. He did want those things, in moments, in flashes--a girl crossing the street in a cobalt dress that slid from her shoulder, a dancer moving like flames in a show on East Stave”

 Is Kaz Brekker on the ace spectrum??!!!! 😮

Interpreting this description of ‘flashes’ or ‘moments’ as a fleeting/infrequent experience of sexual attraction seems to be perfectly logical, and would make him greysexual. And yet somehow, in four years and as many readings (not including rereading a chapter or section every so often), and being deeply obsessed with the series and the character (in fact having a ginormous squish on him!), I never stopped and considered the potentials of that sentence. I’m sure, on an unconscious level, the sentence preceding it—“he knew what he was expected to say, the things he was supposed to want”—has always resonated with me, with knowing what one is assumed to feel and experience by their society/peers but not truly fitting within that assumption, and as a result being a sort of outsider even amongst friends. Among the many, many reasons I love Kaz and Inej and their relationship is the its ace-ish-ness (though somehow never thought of it in that way before), which makes it so much more powerful, and which I suppose leaves me as a reader feeling at least a little less out of my element than usual with depictions of romantic relationships in books. [Spoiler alert] Kaz is strongly touch averse.  As a result their simply touching, such as holding hands, is so much of a big deal it would be practically outlandish to ever go there at any point, and what he wants and feels he can’t have with her is always sensual things: hugging, being close to her. There is so much more focus on the emotional side of things, how they protect, trust, and rely on each other, less nonsense about "chemistry" and a much slower pace. I don’t know why it didn’t ever click for me that this could count as ace/grey ace representation. It could be interpreted in other ways, but why not this way? It seems obvious now and I'm a little embarrassed to have missed it .  Somehow I just figured he was allosexual even though at the same time he was one of two (already super incredible!) characters where, for once, that wasn’t part of the conversation, given their backstories and just in general. In my defense, the “he did want” part really shuts down the possibility of him being ace, and given the fact that for the first three years of my loving this story I wasn’t clear on or fully aware of what asexuality meant, never mind greysexuality and split attraction, and didn’t have the information to understand it wasn’t one or the other, aroace or 'allo-allo,' me or “everyone else.” Furthermore, this brief mention of ‘flashes’ of desire was nested in a chunk of backstory within a separate discussion, and toward the end of the book right before the climax gets going, which makes it relatively easy to miss. Yet throughout both books you can say he’s effectively ace! (And Inej as well?? Haven’t gotten to sort through that yet. I can’t say that this fully has sunk in for me.) Additionally: as someone who often finds romantic stuff in books a huge drag, I highly recommend this series for writing it in a way that doesn’t feel forced or over-emphasized for drama, and overall just doesn’t bother me. In fact, all the layers of dynamics between all the protagonists, their friendships, and their transformation as a group is one of the main things that leave me in such admiration of Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom 🥰.

*at least, I consider it one because I know he'd prefer to be mysterious...

[Monke Jimmy]

How have we gotten this far and not mentioned that they haven't found evidence of Jesus ever having a partner? Or having anything to do with a partner?

[Scylactic]

1 hour ago, Monke Ilahi said:

How have we gotten this far and not mentioned that they haven't found evidence of Jesus ever having a partner? Or having anything to do with a partner?

Oh yeah, didn't he say something in the Bible like, "if people cannot control themselves, then don't look"? IDK, I haven't had a Bible study in years.

[Monke Jimmy]

49 minutes ago, Scylactic said:

Oh yeah, didn't he say something in the Bible like, "if people cannot control themselves, then don't look"? IDK, I haven't had a Bible study in years.

I have no idea. I went to a summer camp once when I was like 7 when I was an agnostic. After that I realized I'm just an athiest lol. I could ask my roommate though. 

A quick google of "bible asexual" gives some... interesting results. 

I think I heard that Jesus was supposed to have a wife and it's just in some text that hasn't been found yet. But I think that until they find it, there is no reason to believe that Jesus had anything to do with sex at all.

[Frac]

Do subtler or potential examples count? Because if so, in the webcomic Dr. McNinja,

Spoiler

the eponymous character is implied to be a virgin at the end of one storyline, despite clearly  being old enough to have finished medical school, and having had one relationship in the past. As such, it's fun to headcanon him as possibly ace, although the truth of the matter is left intentionally vague.

 

 

[Just Someone]

can... I add Jasnah Kholin from The Stormlight Archive? She has been confirmed by the author to be asexual, not sure about aromantic though

[coolshades]

On 4/2/2022 at 3:44 PM, Monke Ilahi said:

How have we gotten this far and not mentioned that they haven't found evidence of Jesus ever having a partner? Or having anything to do with a partner?

It depends on the religion, I think.  My religion has always taught that Jesus never had a sexual partner.

[superqwat2]

Erin Solstice, the main character of The Wandering Inn (a webnovel) has some hints of being asexual. Though it was not confirmed yet. 

 

The wiki of the series says:

"She is also somewhat prudish and uncomfortable with any form of sex-talk. While she is open to the idea of romance, she finds it difficult to connect with anyone romantically and has avoided topics of romance (or outright rejected) with several suitors, including Olesm, Palt and Earl Altestial. "

 

The novel does feature sex for the other characters of the series, so it seems to be deliberate from the author.

[JaiBee]

DC's Connor Hawke (Oliver Queen/Green Arrow's son) will be confirmed as asexual in the upcoming 2022 DC Pride anthology.

[Passer]

I read Upside Down by N.R. Walker this week. Really enjoyed it, it was nice to read a proper romance novel with two ace characters. 

 

 

I came across an Instagram post that recommended it, along with The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun (a favourite of mine!! I thoroughly enjoyed that one!), Loveless by Alice Oseman, How to be a normal person by T.J. Klune, Let's talk about love by Claire Kann, and Never been kissed by Timothy Janovsky.

I have most of 'm already on my ereader, ready to go

 

Any reading tips if I liked Upside Down and The Charm Offensive?  

[coolshades]

The Book Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor has a character named Charlotte who says early in the book that she's only interested in platonic love.

[JaiBee]

For fantasy fans, A.M. Strickland's novel Beyond the Black Door has an ace main character, and asexuality is a recurring theme in the book, along with a nice scene where the characters discuss different forms of attraction.

[coolshades]

22 hours ago, coolshades said:

The Book Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor has a character named Charlotte who says early in the book that she's only interested in platonic love.

Quoting myself here, sorry.  Also, by the end of the book, two other characters have entered into a QPR, and one of them (Alex Castille) is ace.

[Blueberry Pie]

I don’t believe this has been mentioned yet. It was published in November 2021.
 

The other day at my library I found a YA graphic novel, titled Nightmare in Savannah, by Lela Gwenn.
 

It has a confirmed ace character that I believe is named Chloe.

 

I read the graphic novel in a couple of hours. It’s about a group of high school girls (which includes Chloe) who find out they’re changelings, and they spread a lot of dark mischief at school.

 

It’s honestly not so great—the plot is all over the place and the characters are 2-dimensional. The art and colors are very nice, though. 
 

Chloe tells the main protagonist, Alexa, to keep her “allosexual issues” to herself after Alexa vents to Chloe about crushes.

 

Alexa then searches the definition for “allosexual” soon afterwards.

 

I’ve never seen the word “allosexual” used outside of the Internet, so this was cool.

 

That being said, I don’t like the ace representation here. 
 

I have had romantic crushes as someone who is not aromantic. Yet, Chloe equates crushes with sex and acts disgusted? In my opinion, it would have been more appropriate if she said “alloromantic” and been confirmed as aromantic.

 

I think the author is confusing aromantic and asexual?

 

The character is very flat, gets no character development, and, in the end, … (spoiler below)

Spoiler

Gets killed off.

Anyway, here are pictures I took of the scenes mentioning “allosexual.” I would give you page numbers, but there were interestingly none to be found in the paperback edition.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Kazbe]

I hope a bit of self promotion is okay here. My novelette, "Tesato's Code" is out today. It's a futuristic thriller with elements of horror. The main character, Lily, is a heteroromantic asexual, for anyone who is looking for a story with an ace character. It is currently only on Kindle, but hard copies will be available in a couple of weeks. I often have ace characters in my stories and there is also a couple of characters who are ace in my steampunk novel "Fortitude".

https://readerlinks.com/l/2538800

[Luftschlosseule]

Cackle by Rachel Harris: Women moves to a new town and befriends the local witch. Local witch is aro ace. The terms are not used but she makes it clear that's what she means.

[LizCat]

Hey all. So obviously Ace and Aro representation in media right now is scarce. But I was curious if anyone has found any representation in adult fiction books.

I've only been able to find YA novels with Aro and/or Ace characters (which is fantastic and I love reading those too). However, as someone in my late 20s, I'd like to read about adult experiences as well. Especially since I discovered my own sexual/romantic identity in adulthood.

Thanks!

[LeChat]

@LizCat (Below is an official, green, mod message.)

 

Hi! Welcome to AVEN! I'm just letting you know I've merged your thread in the Older Asexuals forum to this one in World Watch because it's AVEN's main thread for ace book representation recommendations (which can be found in the first few posts).

 

I hope this helps!

 

LeChat,

Welcome Lounge, Announcements, and Alternate Language moderator

[Luftschlosseule]

Not Good for Maidens by T. Bovalino is about a teenager who always knew that her family is keeping secrets, but when her cousin disappears, she forces them to tell her and it turns out that the goblinmarket is real and a huge problem.
Protagonist is ace, maybe aro. Ace is used, aro not.

[Tunhope]

@LizCat, may or may not be what you like to read. Not sure, but I'll describe the tales anyway... I recently published the final story in my 8 book County Durham Quad series. The protagonists are all well into their thirties, a couple of them early forties. I introduced Nick Seabrooke in the third of the tales and spent #4,5,6,7 and 8 working out his relationship with the Quad. He's ace (homoromantic); they're sexual. I've got the tales and the relationships to a point that pleases me so no point in continuing the series. The relationships are always worked out on the back of a crime/ mystery, a murder in this case. I can't offer a direct link to the books as they're published on Amazon and  AVEN doesn't allow it, but I can give you a link to a non-profit site where you can read about the last book, The Refuge Bid. The link is https://shepherd.com/best-books/featuring-the-lives-of-coal-miners 

 

The Refuge Bid isn't about coal miners! Authors on shepherd.com suggest 5 themed books , thats all! I know it's book 8, but I think it could still make sense even if the previous books were unread. Hope so anyway.

 

 

[Cicero]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:01 PM, LizCat said:

Hey all. So obviously Ace and Aro representation in media right now is scarce. But I was curious if anyone has found any representation in adult fiction books.

I've only been able to find YA novels with Aro and/or Ace characters (which is fantastic and I love reading those too). However, as someone in my late 20s, I'd like to read about adult experiences as well. Especially since I discovered my own sexual/romantic identity in adulthood.

Thanks!

You could try The Bone People by Keri Hulme, which won the Booker Prize in 1985. The author (who died last year) was asexual and the main character is somewhat based on herself. While it's not strictly about asexuality, it's explored (although not in the kind of terms we'd use today given it was written in the 80s). It's not for everyone though - the writing style is very poetical and takes a while to get used to, and some of the themes are quite dark e.g. child abuse.

[leeluvssquids]

Been looking for some good asexual reads. My thoughts regarding my asexuality have been so jumbled lately, so I just wanna read something that's maybe validating?

 

I was looking into Refusing Compulsary Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown. Does anyone know if that's any good?

 

I started reading Loveless by Alice Oseman a while back, but I'm more interested in an asexual focus rather than an aromantic one, but recs about aromanticism or include aspects of it are welcome! Thanks guys!

[LeChat]

@leeluvssquids (Below is an official, green, mod message.)

 

Hi! I'm just letting you know I've merged your thread from the Asexual Musings and Rantings forum with AVEN's main asexual book recommendation list thread in the World Watch forum. There are book recommendation lists in the first few posts and more recommendations in this thread.

 

I hope this helps!

 

LeChat,

Welcome Lounge, Announcements, and Alternate Language moderator

[Blueberry Pie]

A confirmed ace character is present in a YA sci-fi and apocalyptic novel called Any Sign of Life by Rae Carson. It was published in October 2021.

There is a direct mention of asexuality around page 170ish (maybe 176?) of the hardcover edition. I returned the book to the library a little while ago, so I can’t check the exact page number, but I know it was around there.

[Moeir]

No spoilers about any of the books, please! 

I recently got two books for Christmas that're asexual-based. 

The first one is Loveless by Alice Oseman, which I'm currently reading. So far it's really good and I relate a lot to Georgia Warr. 

The next one is "Let's talk about love" by Claire Kann, and while I haven't started it yet, I have a fear of it being one of those books being like: "She was asexual... until he came along!" 

However it was picked out by my aunt who knows me very well, and I trust her, so I'm hoping it's a good read too. 

What're some more good Asexual books (Or even Sapphic ones as I want to read more sapphic books) to read/ put on my book-list I'm making? 


Book tips: 

I'm a teenager so please no books with extremely explicit scenes!

I also really like fantasy books. 

 

[LeChat]

@Moeir (Below is an official, green, mod message.)

 

Hi. I'm just letting you know I've merged your thread from the "Asexual Musings and Rantings" forum to AVEN's main ace book list/recommendations thread. The first few posts have lists of fiction and non-fiction genres (e.g. fantasy), in case you're interested.

 

LeChat,

Welcome Lounge, Announcements, and Alternate Language moderator

[nanogretchen4]

I am reading The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin. It is the sequel to The City We Became. I have not finished it yet, but one of the POV characters in both books came out as asexual. 

 

I just finished Babel, or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang. It is set in a fantasy version of Oxford during the Victorian Empire. None of the main characters appear to have sexual relationships or talk about sexual feelings although that could be about propriety rather than orientation. Anyway, if you want to read an awesome book that barely mentions sex and has a minimal amount of romance despite the fact that the main characters are undergraduates, I highly recommend it.

[Wijan]

Hi, first time poster here. I don't know if this is the right subforum, but I'm currently in the process of questioning/trying to figure out if I may be ace.

 

The more important bit:

As a part of trying to figure out whether I'm ace or not, I though it may be beneficial if I read books on the topic and so I have come hear to ask for recommended books I should read. I already know of The Invisible Orientation and am currently waiting for my reversation from the library.

 

Boring-ish background information:

I haven't felt (or don't think I have felt) sexual attraction before in my life (currently 17), aIthough  I'm not sure if my perceived asexuality isn't just because I am a "Late bloomer". However, (somewhat contradicting to the previous statement) on occasions I have thought I might be feeling sexual attraction, but on those times it has been more of a feeling of "uncomfortability" (and I think it may just be me thinking I should feel sexual attraction in a given situation and my body then "mimicking" what it would feel like, and the uncomfortability coming from the fact that it's not real sexual attraction and me overthinking.)

Usually I only think about sex in situations where I'm questioning my sexuality. Otherwise I go through day-to-day existance as if sex "didn't exist" (as in I don't really think about it). I have had two "chrushes" so far in life. However, both have lacked a feeling of "wanting to have sex with them" and have followed a formula of:

1.) I see (or think I see) them staring at me,

2.) I start thinking about if this means they have intrest in me,
3.) I start paying more attention to them in order to "figure out" if they really are showing intrest in me,

so I don't even know if these have been "real" chrushes or just me being ackward and overthinking.

Overall I am very confused. Sorry for venting.

 

(Also sorry if my English has mistakes/is hard to understand at time, it's not my first language.)
 

[LeChat]

@Najiw (Below is an official, green mod message.)

 

Hello. Welcome to AVEN!

 

I'm just letting you know I merged your thread from the "Members Questioning" subforum of the "Questions About Asexuality" forum to AVEN's main ace book recommendation thread in the World Watch forum.

 

If it helps, the second post has a list of non-fiction asexual, book recommendations.

 

LeChat,

Welcome Lounge, Announcements, and Alternate Language moderator