Books With Autistic Characters For Autism Acceptance Month

Mazzy Eddings is a neurodivergent author who crafted this sweet YA debut love story between two neurodivergent teens.

In an interview for Nerd Daily, she shared her motivation for writing this story:

"Growing up, I didn't see a lot of media with autistic and/or ADHD characters, and what was out there often villainized and infantilized those characters.

I wanted to create a story of unfettered neurodivergent joy. I wanted to show special interests, hyperfocus, inattention, and stimming on the page in a beautiful light. "

Eddings achieved what she was after as so many teens have found Tilly, a girl with ADHD, and Oliver, a boy on the autism spectrum, relatable in this young adult romance story.

If you want to share this with your teen reader, the recommended reading age for this novel is 13-18 years old.

Schillace shared her autism diagnosis with the world in 2021 and penned an article for Scientific America about the process she went through to explain the unexpected coming out process to readers.

After writing nonfiction, the writer moved into cozy mystery featuring an autistic editor who unexpectedly inherits a dilapidated English estate. 

When a valuable family portrait goes missing and a body is discovered, she finds herself propelled into a murder investigation, unraveling secrets and deception hidden within the estate's walls.

The author has shared in past interviews that being on the spectrum gives her main character, Jo Jones, an edge in solving the book's mystery. 

She feels like many of our favorite mystery solvers are on the spectrum because they notice the details others don't. 

Related- The Remarkable Murder Mystery That Changed Everything

Helen Hoang received her autism diagnosis in 2016, and her journey inspired this steamy romance book.

A surprising detail I uncovered is that this novel's depiction inspired other published romance novelists to begin writing romances with autistic characters, including another book featured on today's list.

In this reverse Pretty Woman story, Stella is autistic and feels pressured by her parents to get married. Lacking knowledge about dating, she prefers to dedicate her free time to her work developing algorithms rather than love.

So she hires Michael Phan, a professional escort who can guide her through a lesson plan that teaches her everything from kissing to beyond in this open-door romance.

Before long, Stella has overcome her intimacy issues, but the professional relationship starts blurring into a real one as they catch feelings for each other.

This novel won the GoodReads Choice Romance Award for 2018.

If you fall in love with this book, you can continue the Kiss Quotient Series with The Bride Test (Book #2) and The Heart Principle (Book #3).

The author of this popular time travel book, Holly Smale, did not receive her autism diagnosis until the age of 39.

This revelation led her to create the character of Cassie—an undiagnosed autistic woman who uses time travel to navigate her struggles with connection and self-acceptance. 

After a breakup, a job loss, and a banana muffin shortage, Cassandra discovers an extraordinary power—to rewind time on this frustrating day.

As she embraces the chance to rewrite her fate, she learns that altering the past doesn't guarantee a smooth future in this charming blend of romance, time travel, and mythos.

Related- Best Time Loop Books

As someone who is part of the autistic community, Hibbert shared in past interviews that "autism informs everything I write."

The third book in the Brown Sisters series offers a unique slow-burn romance plot while hitting the romance beats readers have come to love and expect.

In this steamy story, Jacob is a white man who has an autism diagnosis, and Eve, a Black woman without one, both navigate a world that fails to understand them.

Eve Brown, the youngest in her family, drifts between jobs, living off her family trust fund until her parents issue a harsh ultimatum: hold down a job for a year and find a place, or lose financial support.

Landing at a charming B&B with a vacancy, she encounters a boss who's both attractive and exasperatingly grumpy. As you can imagine, shenanigans do ensue.

Hibbert has shared that she wanted to explore the contrast between these characters where Jacob's struggles are acknowledged, but Eve's can be overlooked.

Readers may be surprised that Liese pursued her autism diagnosis after reading Helen Hoang's #OwnVoices romance The Kiss Quotient.

In a statement posted on Instagram, she described the experience of writing and publishing her first autistic characters as "a pride & a vulnerability—it's not just gazing at my bandaged place but inviting you to gaze there, too."

In this second book in the Bergman Brothers series, a love story develops between an autistic woman battling arthritis and chronic pain and a man navigating the challenges of toxic masculinity in professional sports.

As they embrace who they are, they discover the power of found family and healing in finally being seen.

The Bergman Brothers series consists of interconnected standalone novels, allowing readers to enjoy them in any order.

However, reading out of sequence may reveal minor spoilers about previous couples' stories.

While this is the third book in the Dangerous Damsels series, it can be read as a standalone, with some small overlapping characters.

I chose book 3 for you because Alice Dearlove is one of India Holton's most beloved characters.

In a statement on Instagram, she shared, "I am exceedingly fond of Alice Dearlove. Although she and I experience autism in different ways, I can relate to her on some levels - primary amongst them being an appreciation of books and Daniel Bixby!

I especially enjoyed how her confusion around sarcasm, idiom, and innuendo allowed me to play with irony and other literary elements, mainly for my own amusement. For example, I don't employ innuendo as just innuendo.

For me, it's a joke about how language can mean anything or nothing, and about how perception changes reality - which is a running theme of all the books."

Alice, known as Agent A, is a top spy in a secret government agency.

When rumors of an assassination plot arise, she's paired with her rival, Agent B (Daniel), to go undercover as a married couple.

As she infiltrates a pirate party to stop the threat, they must also navigate their growing attraction while keeping their mission on track.

Will they succeed in saving the day, or will their feelings get in the way? You must read to find out!

Today's book list is inspired by our incredible Book Gang podcast guest, Kennedy Ryan.

She is the proud mother of an autistic child. Ryan hosts the Lift 4 Autism fundraiser, which brings the romance community together to raise funds for support therapy, services, and medical expenses for the community every year.

While she is a seasoned author, this is the first time she has encompassed her parenting journey through her second book in the Skyland series.

To showcase how different this experience can look even between families, she crafted identical teenage twins who face different challenges.

Although she had much personal experience to garner from, she interviewed the autism community to encompass other's experiences. She also included an autistic editor in the process to read her story line by line to ensure that she captured this experience as authentically as possible.

This story is a slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance, but I marveled at her authentic depiction of our daily lives, which I had never seen in my literature before.

Rimmer embeds an autism story in the modern timeline of this moving historical fiction novel that made my best books of the year list. 

The author has two autistic nephews and wanted to enhance this viewpoint with more research for her book. She spent a week with a friend who had undertaken her postgrad degree in autism studies to craft a well-developed viewpoint from the mother. 

In this dual timeline story, Alina has known she would marry her best friend Tomaz since the tender age of nine.

At fifteen, she is engaged as planned and unconcerned about the reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing that they are her neighbors and not a threat. 

She could never know, though, how the Nazi occupation would take over her rural village and how it had the power to destroy her relationship with her one true love.

Presently, Alice is navigating the daily challenges of parenting with an autistic child, a husband who doesn't get the work that goes into keeping their family floating, and a grandmother in the hospital. 

When her grandmother begs her to return to her childhood hometown, Alice begins to realize there is more to her grandmother's story than meets the eye.  

Related- 53 Historical Fiction Books to Check Out

Katherine Heiny is a consistently quirky storyteller who brings together a hilarious family raising their autistic son together.

Graham divorced his first wife to marry his girlfriend, Audra. Audra is a hilarious, chatty busybody whom Graham has found challenging as a more private introvert. 

He is often forced to be social because of unusual gatherings between Audra's mismatched circles—neighbors, friends, and his son's origami club participants. 

When Audra decides to befriend his ex-wife, Graham's world is rocked. This relationship brings to the forefront the contrasts between the two women he has loved as he contemplates why he let his first wife go.

While there isn't much plot in this story, you'll feel pulled into the dinner table with this family, mainly as Audra builds an unlikely family among everyone in her life.

Their son's origami club is one you'll want to be part of.

Related- Found Family Trope Books

Benjamin Ludgwig's debut novel was inspired by his role as a foster parent of an autistic teenager and enhanced through the stories of fellow parents of autistic children.

Ginny's removal from her home stemmed from her neglectful mother, but she now feels she has found her forever family.

As their family expands with a new baby, she begins to worry that she has placed too much strain on her foster parents.

So, when Ginny's birth mother starts creeping back into her life, she will stop at nothing to get back to where she believes she belongs. But the reader will uncover a rather surprising reason why.

Ludwig's novel beautifully showcases the challenges of finding teen adoptive families while taking readers on a heartwarming turn with an unforgettable character. I adored Ginny!

Graves created a tagline for her novels describing them as "contemporary fiction with a happily-ever-after."

This 5-star neurodiverse love story follows Annika, an English major at the University of Illinois. She struggles to make sense of social situations, so navigating her early college days is an incredibly challenging time.

When she joins the chess club, she immediately beats Jonathan, who can't help but adore Annika.

They begin a beautiful relationship, but an unforeseen tragedy forces them apart and ends their relationship.

Annika and Jonathan reunite one decade later when they discover they live in the same town. The two begin rekindling what was lost but must also address why they lost each other in the first place.

I loved the supportive characters that helped Anika navigate the world. As Kirkus Reviews aptly describes, "Graves creates a believable love affair in which Annika is not infantilized..."

In past interviews, Graves expressed her commitment to highlighting Annika's strengths and challenges, emphasizing the importance of giving her character a voice and conveying the complexities of autism.

Greenwood's novel might take a minute to sink your teeth into her character Gentry's magical voice, but I promise that your efforts will pay off in this unlikely love story.

Zee is navigating life with chronic pain after a motorcycle accident. She is immediately intrigued when she encounters Gentry at her physical therapist's office- a man fascinated with medieval culture, which shapes how he engages with his world.

A 24-year-old autistic man, he is guided by the voices of Gawen, Hildegard, and the Witch, whom he affectionately dubs "Hag, Nag, and Douchebag" on what to do in life.

As he feels called to all things knightly, he quickly realizes all his chivalrous training might be to champion and protect Zee from harm.

As the two navigate life's challenges, including Zee's sister's abduction, Gentry's unique perspective and unwavering loyalty are brought to life through pitch-perfect narration.

Somehow, Greenwood effortlessly navigates nine different narrators with their distinctive voices. In past interviews, she described sharing the same fascinations as Gentry and said she shares space with many in the autistic community. Gentry's voice, in that way, came quite naturally.

The Middle English brings unique charm and a fairytale quality to this grit-lit selection that I wish more people would read.