Laura’s answer to “Is Nita Prose on the spectrum? I'm trying to avoid books about neuro-divergent main characters wher…” > Likes and Comments
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Thank you for sharing! I think you're right on point about authors/editors/publishers avoiding diagnosing characters to avoid certain scrutiny. If you know of a good book with a neuro-divergent main character written by someone who is on the spectrum, please share.
The one I'm aware of right now is Helen Hoang https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
She's #actuallyautistic and has written several romance novels with an autistic main character, where the character's autism becomes part of the story in a positive and informative way. They are on the more explicit end of the romance scale, though - just a heads up, lol.
I'm not sure about Kate Quinn, but her recent book The Rose Code is about 3 women who were part of the Bletchley Park code breakers during WWII; one of the women is more classically autistic, but I believe all 3 have autistic traits, so that is a really good one for authentic autistic characters.
I just finished this collection, which was wonderful! The short stories were a little hit or miss, but it gave me a LOT to think about and some new names to explore. There's a whole series of under-represented peoples Destroy-ing sci-fi and fantasy. Well worth a look if you're looking for ownvoices authors.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Thank you so much for the recommendations, I really appreciate them!
Absolutely agree. An author refusing to give a ND character an actual diagnosis is a huge red flag for me, for exactly that reason.
I have to agree with Laura above; Helen Hoang is great at writing a fully fleshed out autistic character. There's definitely more steam in her books, but the characters are beautifully written.
See, that's the thing, though. In many of the stories, the autistic behavior predates the trauma. The parent is abusive at least in part because they don't approve of autistic behavior. The kid is a "weirdo" so the parent/teacher/other adult punishes them, they end up traumatized and still autistic. The whole idea that there "were no autistics" before the 80s or whenever is total BS. I maintain that a lot of the "grumpy old man" characters are #actuallyautistic. Ove had been a "grumpy old man" since he was a teenager. Honestly, at this point I can't remember exactly what was said about Eleanor's childhood before the fire, but it struck me as a case of an autistic child being traumatized for being autistic, and her behavior throughout was consistently autistic. You are correct that she was never once referred to as autistic. My point is that perhaps if she (and others) had been, autistic behavior could be normalized and accepted.
Also, to the original question about autistic authors, Failure to Communicate by Kaia Sonderby is WONDERFUL! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
All of this, yes!! When Honeyman said Eleanor was definitively not autistic, I yelled "Well how do YOU know?!"
Something to consider, CPTSD and autism have many overlapping traits. I read Eleanor Oliphant before I was diagnosed and resonated a lot with her character, but I think there are things about her that, to me, are clearly CPTSD rather than autism. Given the character's backstory, to me, CPTSD makes sense and reflects how she engages with others, the world around her, and herself.
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Emma
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Jan 25, 2022 12:35PM
Thank you for sharing! I think you're right on point about authors/editors/publishers avoiding diagnosing characters to avoid certain scrutiny. If you know of a good book with a neuro-divergent main character written by someone who is on the spectrum, please share.
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The one I'm aware of right now is Helen Hoang https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...She's #actuallyautistic and has written several romance novels with an autistic main character, where the character's autism becomes part of the story in a positive and informative way. They are on the more explicit end of the romance scale, though - just a heads up, lol.
I'm not sure about Kate Quinn, but her recent book The Rose Code is about 3 women who were part of the Bletchley Park code breakers during WWII; one of the women is more classically autistic, but I believe all 3 have autistic traits, so that is a really good one for authentic autistic characters.
I just finished this collection, which was wonderful! The short stories were a little hit or miss, but it gave me a LOT to think about and some new names to explore. There's a whole series of under-represented peoples Destroy-ing sci-fi and fantasy. Well worth a look if you're looking for ownvoices authors.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Thank you so much for the recommendations, I really appreciate them!
Absolutely agree. An author refusing to give a ND character an actual diagnosis is a huge red flag for me, for exactly that reason.
I have to agree with Laura above; Helen Hoang is great at writing a fully fleshed out autistic character. There's definitely more steam in her books, but the characters are beautifully written.
See, that's the thing, though. In many of the stories, the autistic behavior predates the trauma. The parent is abusive at least in part because they don't approve of autistic behavior. The kid is a "weirdo" so the parent/teacher/other adult punishes them, they end up traumatized and still autistic. The whole idea that there "were no autistics" before the 80s or whenever is total BS. I maintain that a lot of the "grumpy old man" characters are #actuallyautistic. Ove had been a "grumpy old man" since he was a teenager. Honestly, at this point I can't remember exactly what was said about Eleanor's childhood before the fire, but it struck me as a case of an autistic child being traumatized for being autistic, and her behavior throughout was consistently autistic. You are correct that she was never once referred to as autistic. My point is that perhaps if she (and others) had been, autistic behavior could be normalized and accepted. Also, to the original question about autistic authors, Failure to Communicate by Kaia Sonderby is WONDERFUL! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
All of this, yes!! When Honeyman said Eleanor was definitively not autistic, I yelled "Well how do YOU know?!"
Something to consider, CPTSD and autism have many overlapping traits. I read Eleanor Oliphant before I was diagnosed and resonated a lot with her character, but I think there are things about her that, to me, are clearly CPTSD rather than autism. Given the character's backstory, to me, CPTSD makes sense and reflects how she engages with others, the world around her, and herself.
