I first encountered the concept of asexuality in a book. For many, asexual characters reach us before our fellow asexual people ever do. I was eleven years old when I found Sandry in Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic series. Sandry was loyal and driven and full to bursting with the magical ability to manipulate the world around her with thread. Sandry was a fully formed person with dreams and friends and a world to save. She made me want to save it right back. She made me love stories about people like me. She was also asexual.
The reality is that the asexual experience isn’t just one thing. Yes, at its core, asexuality is the spectrum of identities that experience little to no sexual attraction, but it’s also a vast array of experiences that, in my opinion, are often best captured by fiction.
The catalog of asexual science fiction and fantasy keeps growing every year. I feel at once utterly spoiled by the variety we now have and desperately hungry for more. In recent years, I’ve seen asexual characters solve mysteries, rule empires, traverse galaxies, and fall in love. Our stories can be magical and mighty—full of adventure, intrigue, murder, and more. Our stories are important.
It’s asexual awareness week, so here are five young adult science fiction and fantasy books starring asexual characters you don’t want to miss!
The Kindred by Alechia Dow
Dow puts the “ace” in “space” in this achingly romantic story of soulmates whose intergalactic love transcends divisions of class, a murderous plot, and an adventure among the stars. The Kindred follows demisexual Joy Abara who shares a telepathic link with Duke Felix Hamdi as his Kindred, a sort of queerplatonic assigned soulmate. When they are framed for the murder of Felix’s family, they must go on the run while navigating the new parameters of their relationship as partners in crime and love. This character driven space opera explores love in all its forms and is, pardon the pun, joyful to the core.
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
Once upon a time, the daughter of death and fortune was a teenage girl and she was the worst. Little Thieves is, as the dedication says, for the gremlin girls, never has there been a more gremlin girl than Vanja Schmidt. A brilliant and brazen swindler, Vanja could give Kaz Brekker a run for his money. But Vanja has bigger fish to fry. As her body rapidly turns into the gemstones she craves, Vanja must put things right and face her greed head on all while juggling her engagement to a terrible margrave, an investigator with his own magic, and the princess whose face she stole. Vanja’s relationship with junior prefect Emeric could not be more demisexual if it tried, with both sides of the romance experiencing asexual spectrum existence in different and complimentary ways. One part Germanic fairytale, one part ensemble heist, Little Thieves is an unhinged romp of a book.
Silver in the Mist by Emily Victoria
Silver in the Mist puts spies before guys. Asexual Devlin has grown up in the shadow of her mother’s impressive spy network—and the shadow of the kingdom, too. A magical mist is eating away at their borders, weakening their magic and making them vulnerable to attacks. Devlin is tasked with infiltrating the royal court of the wealthier neighboring kingdom, but when she befriends their most powerful magic wielder, she discovers an ancient mystery that may hold the key to defeating the mists for good. Victoria prioritizes strong friendships between queer characters and an examination of wealth disparity in this fantasy full of twists and turns.
Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl
Pohl serves up a veritable smorgasbord of queer fairytale goodies in Grimrose Girls. This tale as old as time follows four students at the prestigious boarding school Grimrose Academy—Ella, Yuki, Rory, and newcomer Nani. When the former three’s best friend dies, all four girls are swept up in a dark and twisted mystery full of old fairytale magic. They must work together to unravel the secrets between them and break an ancient curse that dooms them to a fairytale ending (and not the fun kind). Yuki’s aromantic asexual identity is explored in her relationship to expectations, beauty, and friendship throughout the novel. Readers can get excited for the upcoming sequel The Wicked Remain releasing November 1st.
What We Devour by Linsey Miller
Get in losers, we’re eating the rich. In what is arguably Miller’s darkest fantasy thus far, asexual Lorena Adler is a wielder of both types of magic granted by the banished gods: the Noble and the Vile. She’d rather live a quiet life as an undertaker and marry her best friend than broadcast her powers, but when her betrothed’s father is arrested, she trades his freedom for her service to crown and its notorious Vile heir, Alistair. Brilliantly anticapitalist, What We Devour pulls no punches when it comes to putting wealth and class on trial, and Lorena’s asexuality is explored within her relationships, her magic, and herself.
Rosiee Thor began their career as a storyteller by demanding to tell their mother bedtime stories instead of the other way around. They spent their childhood reading by flashlight in the closet until they came out as queer. They live in Oregon with a dog, two cats, and an abundance of plants. They are the author of Young Adult novels Tarnished Are The Stars and Fire Becomes Her and the picture book The Meaning of Pride.
Useful post! I’d like to add an older book few may have heard of. Tori, in R.J.Anderson’s science fantasy Quicksilver, is ace. It’s a very well-thought-out book; perhaps my favorite of hers, and the first time I’d read a teen book with an explicitly ace protagonist.
It’s the second in a duology, and the first book Ultraviolet, is worth a look as well. It features a young protagonist with synaesthesia.
Seconding Quicksilver! I also recommend:
–Mackenzi Lee’s A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, historical fiction with a dash of fantasy in which Felicity Montague would like to attend university and learn useful things and hunt sea serpents and why is everyone so obsessed with kissing anyway?
–Mercedes Lackey’s Eye Spy, in which Abi can train her magical Talent, travel the land of Valdemar, and live a happy life while being very very aro-ace; and
—Elatsoe by Darcy Little Badger, in which the heroine’s asexuality is mentioned, acknowledged, and accepted with all the fanfare required, which is to say, none at all.
Oh, gosh, I loved Elatsoe. That book is awesome!
Is Sandry asexual?
There wasn’t a *strong* romantic/sexual component to her narrative, but I thought it was more because she played into Tamora Pierce’s avowed interest in young woman/old man relationships (such as Diane the wildmage and her ~20+ teacher), that Sandry was uninterested in *boys* but did appreciate the sense of style of men like Niko, the confidence of men like Frostpine. Just muted because the original four books were more childrens fantasy than YA.
And in the last circle novel, the will of the empress, she spends most of it flirting/dating with the bevy of eligible men her cousin, the empress berenene, is trying to hitch her too. I think their might be some snogging in a corner but Im not sure on that.
But I will admit, the first novel of ‘the circle opens,’ is probably my least read of the 9, and it’s also the most likely place where this would have come up. In addition, this series in particular was the site of the largest/reconning/past insertion, regarding daja/lark/rosethorn.
I am also ace, and I’d never really considered whether Sandry was.
On a related note, the first lady knight I enjoyed, who set the bar for me in many respects, was Sor Mary de Coursey of ‘A Point of Honor’ (1998) by Dorothy J Heydt, a really interesting author who passed away recently. Her work has been republished in ebook form on her website, and is definitely worth a look.
She also collected a lot of short stories featuring a Grecian witch, which have a strong ‘Circe’ by Madeline Miller vibe.
@4–I don’t believe Sandry ever says it herself in the books, but Tamora Pierce has stated that Sandry is ace. In The Will of the Empress, she knows that the Empress wants to marry her off to any of those eligible men, and I read her reactions as that she might be willing to do it in order to protect her friends/family/the servants who would be threatened without her protection (and also because it’s a cultural expectation), but not out of any romantic or sexual interest.
Representation is good. I’m glad these books exist (along with Seanan McGuire’s “Every Heart a Doorway”).
But they’re all women. I have yet to see specificaly asexual male protagonists.
There are plenty of male protagonists who seem not to have any time for any relationships, but that’s not the same because they don’t show attraction either.
I’d like to see an asexual man as a lead character, who is acknowledged as asexual. Has anyone found one of those?
@james Mendur:
Not a huge list, but working on it:
The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore – homoromantic asexual
The Painted Crown by Megan Derr – homoromantic asexual
Royal Rescue by A. Alex Logan – a very vocal aromantic asexual
RE: Tamora Pierce – I’d say Keladry of her series Protector of the Small is an even better representation of an asexual character. The series is set in the same universe as the Alana and Immortals books. Keladry, who wants to be a knight, joins the training program, fighting her way through bullies and bad adults to reach her goal. Though she has a bit of a squish on her best friend during their training, she finds there are far more important and interesting things to do with her time, esp. as she gets older.
A duology I recommend is Dread Nation by Justinae Ireland. Both Jane and Katherine are on the ace spectrum, though it’s more background since these ladies are fighting shamblers (zombies) across the US as they look for a place of safety.
Happenstance and Bron by R.L. King features an asexual character in Bron, a witch who owns a bookshop and lives in an haunted apartment.
Not YA, but Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.
@6 – Definitely does seem less common and I’d like to find more too. Two that come to my mind are: The First Sister by Linden A Lewis, has a main panromantic asexual character and in Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe the main male character is asexual and alloromantic.
@fuzzipueo – I was coming down here to mention Dread Nation! I disagree about Jane being on the ace spectrum, though, unless I very much missed something. She expresses and engages in both physical and romantic attraction to multiple characters, and she discusses multiple past relationships she’s had. Katherine, though, is quite explicitly both ace and aro.
Any book by Nicole Kornher-Stace (Archivist Wasp, Latchkey, Firebreak). She’s not well enough known, and her books are all brilliant. She herself identifies as Ace, and all three of her YA novels celebrate friendship wonderfully, with no romantic interest.
@RobNobody – RE: Jane – you’re more than likely correct. However, I got the sense that her relationships aren’t truly that important to her. Yes, she engages in such relationships, but that doesn’t necessarily make her allo per-se. She is definitely queer, however. Or it just could be me. I am aro-ace and don’t always get the nuances between characters right away.
There are quite a few ace characters in the City of Spires fantasy series by Claudie Arseneault!
James –
Nathaniel in Rosiee Thor’s Tarnished Are the Stars is ace and aro. I haven’t read this book so I can’t speak about it otherwise.
Also, Sal, of Carlos Hernandez’ Sal and Gabi Break the Universe MG series, is -heavily- hinted at being aro… though the author hasn’t confirmed one way or another since the character’s still at an age where he’s figuring things out (and only winked when I asked him directly…) I suppose that also means there’s a chance that Sal might be ace as well, but it’s just not going to come up in a MG book.
While not technically a YA, or SF/F, it was confirmed in recent years that Jughead Jones from the Archie comics is ace, even if his Riverdale live-action counterpart isn’t.
You’re right that books (of any ages) with male or male-identifying ace characters (lead or secondary) are pretty far and few between compared to those with female, female-identifying, or non-binary characters. I hope that changes, if just to help give more readers a chance to see themselves represented in fiction and pop culture…
(Lists consulted as part of my quick research into the matter:
https://therealkspecks.wordpress.com/2021/01/25/books-with-great-asexual-representation/)
https://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2019/04/08/booklist-asexuality-aromanticism-young-adult-fiction/
http://queerbooksforteens.com/best-of-lists/books-with-asexual-characters/ )
@james Mendur: Aces Wild is a heist story with a main character who is male and ace as well as other ace characters of various genders.
I’ve got to include “A Snake Falls to Earth” by Darcie Little Badger because it’s become one of my favorite books of all time. It’s an extremely cozy, found-family type of fantasy book, and one of the main characters is aro-ace.
@fuzzipueo – I didn’t really get the sense that romantic/sexual relationships weren’t that important to Jane, more like that in the current horrendous circumstances she’s making survival and/or vengeance a higher priority. Even so, though, she still spends most of the first book wrestling with unresolved feelings and attraction for her ex. But yes, she is quite explicitly queer, and it’s delightful.
(Not sure why I’m suddenly showing a different screen name, but this is still RobNobody.)
Tarma in Mercedes Lackey’s Vows and Honor series
I’m occasionally perturbed by the fact that the great majority of asexual characters in contemporary genre fiction, including all 5 of these examples, are (based on the pronouns used to describe them) female. However, I will look into some of the examples listed in the comments. I am curious about how they are depicted.
Nancy from Every Heart is a Doorway by Seanan McGuire seems an obvious pick and bit surprised not to see her – as she says she is expressly asexual.
On the genderfiuid side, how about Alex Fiero from Rick Riodan’s Magnus Chase books. .
James Mendur @6: There is a deep, asexual love story between two men (albeit of different species) at the heart of M.C.A. Hogarth’s Dreamhealers series. I’m currently on my umpteenth comfort re-read.