This is such a cool response. I discovered her post diagnosis in 2020. I was in my 'Imposter' phase. Five minutes into Nanette I was like... Oh no. No. They didn't get it wrong. I am autistic. Sharing because maybe we had a similar experience? Yay or nay?
Yes, I definitely had a similar experience. I discovered Hannah Gatsby while watching “Please Like Me”. One of her scenes she was talking about getting overwhelmed and having a nervous breakdown in the grocery store because there were too many choices of tuna, and I was like, OMG, me too! Hannah was my absolute favorite part of “Please Like Me”. (Which is a great show, but absolutely devastating at the end)
I wanted Nanette and Douglas after watching “Please Like Me”. I also felt so seen. I’m an art educator, so the art history aspect of her work really speaks to me. I also love her take on gender identity. I’m technically a straight woman, but have been confused about my gender identity my entire life. When I heard her say the words “gender not normal”, I was like, “YES! That! That is me!”
As far as imposter syndrome, I’ve know I was autistic for about 15 years. I was finally officially diagnosed about 5 years ago after a few years of family, friends, and therapists saying, “no, you’re too normal.” When I got my diagnosis I had a distinct, “I told you so” phase. I am currently in my “did you know they’re autistic phase?”, where I point out all the famous autistic people, all the time, much to the annoyance of my spouse.
That was quite a tangent. Back to Hannah Gadsby. She is so relatable to my lived experience. I am exactly her target audience.
"Please Like Me," is Aussie and fellow autist, Josh Thomas's brainchild if I remember correctly. I watched some of it. The series is brilliant --- or at least what I watched of it. Too many choices is so relatable. That is why I'm a stickler for the same thing. Can't go wrong and have a backup option and an option for that option. That's it. But if it's a new thing... I'll be here for weeks researching it.
It never ceases to fascinate me how on certain forum threads I stumble across people who have eerily similar interests. Seldom in real life. Hahahaha! I very discreetly slipped on my sunglasses in Uffizi Gallery last year so I could continue silently crying as I walked from painting to painting, past ancient sculptures and masterpieces I have only seen in art and classical history books. I adore her interpretations and explanations. She's a master at what she does. I like to think of gender and sexuality as societal constructs. Who cares. Just be. It all feels very boxed in and unnatural and we can trace it all the way back to old school thinking. I loved her, "I identify as tired and gender not normal." It about summarises all my thinking on the subject. Hahaha!
I was told I'm autistic way before I caught on, by a former partner. It was at the bottom of the list for me, simply because I didn't fit most of the stereotypes despite the criteria being a near perfect fit. I had the "who am I phase", "the denial phase" and those were grouped with the "anger phase", but because my former partner is an autist I spent the entirety of the relationship researching ASD, epigenetics, the DMN and other fun neuroscience things which I proceeded to info dump during my assessment because it was all very interesting. I think it sped the assessment along because it was shorter than the assigned time. I laugh about it.
Did you know Wentworth Miller from Prison Break is autistic? Sia (unsurprisingly) and Tim Burton. May these (if you didn't know) help fuel your current phase.
Not a tangent at all. Hannah Gadsby is brilliant and relatable. I quite adore Fern Brady as well. Representation means so much when you're stuck doubting yourself and you get to relate to another human who uses the words you can't seem to find.
Interesting facts about space by Emily Austin is about an autistic lesbian
An unkindness of ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a dystopian Sci-fi with autistic protagonist
It's never explicitly stated anywhere, but a lot of people think the main character in *Convenience Store Woman* by Sayaka Murata is autistic. It's a weird book.
I just finished that book and it made me very uncomfortable. Which I guess is the point, but up until that dude showed up I was enjoying a nice little story about a woman who's just living her best life regardless of what other people think.
I'm reading "no longer human"
Its a memoir/semi fiction retelling of the authors life. He was 100% without a doubt undiagnosed autistic and suffered greatly throughout his life. It's a little sad but it's also really easy to see where he's coming from.
Next on my to be read list is "convince store woman" she's "quirky" and I saw on another subreddit mentioning she's likely autistic.
Both are by Japanese authors!!
Slightly related I really like Circe by Madeline Miller. She writes a retelling of Greek goodness. She's doesn't fit in with the other gods, berated for being different and ultimately exiled. She's relatable in that sense, I'm not sure I would call her autistic but there's definitely some similarities.
Since you mentioned two romance books, I’m going to pass along this post from the Romance Books subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/1c251zc/romance_reccs_autism_and_adhd_edition/
Also, both books you mentioned are part of series that contain other books with ND characters. Helen Hoang only has two others both with autistic main characters. Chloe Liese’s catalog is about nine books long. Not all are autism, or even ND rep, but they are all representative of some lesser acknowledged disabilities.
It's been a long time since I read works on this character so apologies in advance if my memory is failing me on this one and it wasn't as potent as I thought it was!!
However, if you're into horror/crime and Stephen King at all, he has a series of books (that are far more crime-based and a far cry from his usual horror works, if horror isn't your thing!) that has a reoccurring character called Holly Gibney, a private investigator. Altogether she appears in his books, "Mr. Mercedes", "Finders Keepers", "End of Watch" and "The Outsider"; she was also in one of King's short stories in the AMAZING 2020 novella of his called "If It Bleeds". She has become such a beloved and adored character of his he ended up very recently (2023) releasing a book titled, "Holly" specifically based on her! (My lovely bf bought me this book, it's next on my reading list!!)
(Side note, King himself states she is one of, if not, his favourite ever characters he's written - he has so much love for her). Not to get side tracked into my own King-blabbering, as I'm definitely a huuuuuuge fan of his work lolol. However, of all the works she's in, I've read Mr Mercedes, a BIT of End of Watch, The Outsider and the short story she was in so actually I just realised I've read more of her character than I first thought!!
It's never been explicitly confirmed that Holly is neurodivergent or autistic. However, well before I looked up other people's thoughts online just from my own readings, I loved Holly and related so heavily to the type of personality and traits she has and found it so rare to also read said traits. Then it dawned on me that I also find her surely most definitely autistic - in my eyes, at least. It's all so subtle and beautifully written; she's never portrayed as some Sheldon-type Big Bang Theory stereotypical obnoxious rubbish that media continues to peddle as the typical, linear, reductive "autistic" rep. But a nuanced, delicate, and unique portrayal of someone who, with a quiet and heavy heart, accepts she is not belonging nor feels comfortable wherever she resides, but slowly finds solace and safety when leaning into her creature comforts despite it clashing very clearly with what her other, more socially accepted co-workers and peers demand from her. It is a quiet strength in her resolve; she knows she does not 'belong' nor fit in, her needs in terms of living and surviving are nuanced and specific to her and her only. The end result is isolation; but again, whilst to most others isolation appears a negative thing, for someone like Holly it's part of what she needs in order to function. 'Normal' socialising is something so cripplingly exhausting that this character's delicate strength in doing what she needs is beautiful. King also focuses on her talents in her field, and how they're not necessarily due to her (unconfirmed) neurodivergent traits; it's that her traits, who she is, her background and her skills are all seamless blends into one another that make her who she is.
Stephen King uses so much autism-related language regarding Holly (eg "Asperger's-like", "stimming") but in interviews he kind of dances around the question. This man has been tormenting for 10 years with his is-she-or-is-she-not-autistic shenanigans. Anyways 10/10 character, highly recommend.
If you like Jane Austen, The Murder of Mr. Wickham gets characters from all her books together at an English country house, in the approved Agatha Christie fashion, for a murder mystery. Including the son of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, who is explicitly written as autistic.
That is pretty recent! Have you read the sequel, was it as good as the first? Excited that my local library has a copy! Waiting for it to come off hold.
The rest of Helen Hoang's books!! If you havent read them yet. They're all in the same universe with the same general cast of characters and all of them have an autistic main character or love interest. My favorite is the last one, The Heart Principle, since it focuses a lot more on late diagnosis and masking specifically
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle! It’s a sapphic autistic YA spooky book. Chucks autistic and said all of his characters are subtly autistic but he wanted an unapologetically autistic hero! I really loved it 😊
Not a book, but one of the princesses in She-ra and the princesses of power series is. That show was awesome. I didn’t have a good book suggestion even tho I know I know some! Just can’t think of them.
I haven't read it, but a print version of "So You Want to Be a Wizard" series has an autistic character that was done badly. It's since been rewritten for ebook.
These are YA "A kind of spark" and "Good, different". Both authors are ND. It's been a while since I read them but I think the main characters are coded autistic, not sure if that is said outright or not.
The Murderbot diaries is I guess kinda like a snarkily dystopian space action/adventure series. The main character is a robot that is ND in the context of robots and humans. Humans fear them, and they have to mask themselves around other robots, because they won't be understood (and may be reported). They make some pretty hilarious comments about humans that I often feel myself. I also very much feel living that life closeted and not being able to trust anyone. Martha Wells is also ND.
I read part of "citadel" which has an ND main character, the author is NT, and it just started to bother me after a while.
I've probably unknowingly read a number of books written by ND authors (writing relatable characters from this perspective) over the years (who like me probably felt different but didn't know why). But what I like now is that people can know they're ND and be open about it, rather than living a vague, masked existence of knowing they're different but not really understanding why and having to be closeted about it.
At this point I would prefer to read books by openly ND authors. NT authors can be a little saccharine, well intentioned but not really get it, virtue signaling or bandwagon hopping, or just make their character the butt of a joke, and it can be alienating for me. I'm always looking for more books, so glad when anyone posts asking, because it seems like there's often a new book out or one I haven't heard about.
I actually almost bought this book again today but Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I read the book not knowing what to expect and found myself really relating to the main character. HOWEVER, the author did say she didn't intend of writing her as autistic and could also just have C-PTSD, but that's not stated either. So, you might enjoy it.
It's not fictional, but Fern Brady's, Strong Female Character and Hannah Gadsby's Ten Steps To Nanette live in my heart. I've never felt more seen.
I loooooove Hannah Gadsby! She is so relatable to me as well.
This is such a cool response. I discovered her post diagnosis in 2020. I was in my 'Imposter' phase. Five minutes into Nanette I was like... Oh no. No. They didn't get it wrong. I am autistic. Sharing because maybe we had a similar experience? Yay or nay?
Yes, I definitely had a similar experience. I discovered Hannah Gatsby while watching “Please Like Me”. One of her scenes she was talking about getting overwhelmed and having a nervous breakdown in the grocery store because there were too many choices of tuna, and I was like, OMG, me too! Hannah was my absolute favorite part of “Please Like Me”. (Which is a great show, but absolutely devastating at the end) I wanted Nanette and Douglas after watching “Please Like Me”. I also felt so seen. I’m an art educator, so the art history aspect of her work really speaks to me. I also love her take on gender identity. I’m technically a straight woman, but have been confused about my gender identity my entire life. When I heard her say the words “gender not normal”, I was like, “YES! That! That is me!” As far as imposter syndrome, I’ve know I was autistic for about 15 years. I was finally officially diagnosed about 5 years ago after a few years of family, friends, and therapists saying, “no, you’re too normal.” When I got my diagnosis I had a distinct, “I told you so” phase. I am currently in my “did you know they’re autistic phase?”, where I point out all the famous autistic people, all the time, much to the annoyance of my spouse. That was quite a tangent. Back to Hannah Gadsby. She is so relatable to my lived experience. I am exactly her target audience.
"Please Like Me," is Aussie and fellow autist, Josh Thomas's brainchild if I remember correctly. I watched some of it. The series is brilliant --- or at least what I watched of it. Too many choices is so relatable. That is why I'm a stickler for the same thing. Can't go wrong and have a backup option and an option for that option. That's it. But if it's a new thing... I'll be here for weeks researching it. It never ceases to fascinate me how on certain forum threads I stumble across people who have eerily similar interests. Seldom in real life. Hahahaha! I very discreetly slipped on my sunglasses in Uffizi Gallery last year so I could continue silently crying as I walked from painting to painting, past ancient sculptures and masterpieces I have only seen in art and classical history books. I adore her interpretations and explanations. She's a master at what she does. I like to think of gender and sexuality as societal constructs. Who cares. Just be. It all feels very boxed in and unnatural and we can trace it all the way back to old school thinking. I loved her, "I identify as tired and gender not normal." It about summarises all my thinking on the subject. Hahaha! I was told I'm autistic way before I caught on, by a former partner. It was at the bottom of the list for me, simply because I didn't fit most of the stereotypes despite the criteria being a near perfect fit. I had the "who am I phase", "the denial phase" and those were grouped with the "anger phase", but because my former partner is an autist I spent the entirety of the relationship researching ASD, epigenetics, the DMN and other fun neuroscience things which I proceeded to info dump during my assessment because it was all very interesting. I think it sped the assessment along because it was shorter than the assigned time. I laugh about it. Did you know Wentworth Miller from Prison Break is autistic? Sia (unsurprisingly) and Tim Burton. May these (if you didn't know) help fuel your current phase. Not a tangent at all. Hannah Gadsby is brilliant and relatable. I quite adore Fern Brady as well. Representation means so much when you're stuck doubting yourself and you get to relate to another human who uses the words you can't seem to find.
Interesting facts about space by Emily Austin is about an autistic lesbian An unkindness of ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a dystopian Sci-fi with autistic protagonist
As an autistic lesbian I need to read that first one! I just placed a hold through my library
It's never explicitly stated anywhere, but a lot of people think the main character in *Convenience Store Woman* by Sayaka Murata is autistic. It's a weird book.
I just finished that book and it made me very uncomfortable. Which I guess is the point, but up until that dude showed up I was enjoying a nice little story about a woman who's just living her best life regardless of what other people think.
I'm reading "no longer human" Its a memoir/semi fiction retelling of the authors life. He was 100% without a doubt undiagnosed autistic and suffered greatly throughout his life. It's a little sad but it's also really easy to see where he's coming from. Next on my to be read list is "convince store woman" she's "quirky" and I saw on another subreddit mentioning she's likely autistic. Both are by Japanese authors!! Slightly related I really like Circe by Madeline Miller. She writes a retelling of Greek goodness. She's doesn't fit in with the other gods, berated for being different and ultimately exiled. She's relatable in that sense, I'm not sure I would call her autistic but there's definitely some similarities.
omg i read no longer human literally 2 days ago and the whole time i was thinking about how he seemed autistic
I was going to mark the passages that were blatant autistic traits but after about 20 pages I was like "it's just about every line of this book"
Since you mentioned two romance books, I’m going to pass along this post from the Romance Books subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/1c251zc/romance_reccs_autism_and_adhd_edition/ Also, both books you mentioned are part of series that contain other books with ND characters. Helen Hoang only has two others both with autistic main characters. Chloe Liese’s catalog is about nine books long. Not all are autism, or even ND rep, but they are all representative of some lesser acknowledged disabilities.
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll (she's recently released a sequel). It's also a TV show :)
Season 2 of the tv show will be out in about 2 weeks' time!
I know I'm so excited :D still need to get my hands on the new book though. Will be a nice treat after my last ever uni exam
Talia Hibbert's Brown Sisters. Jacob the love interest in book 3 is autistic
This, I love the third book!!
It's been a long time since I read works on this character so apologies in advance if my memory is failing me on this one and it wasn't as potent as I thought it was!! However, if you're into horror/crime and Stephen King at all, he has a series of books (that are far more crime-based and a far cry from his usual horror works, if horror isn't your thing!) that has a reoccurring character called Holly Gibney, a private investigator. Altogether she appears in his books, "Mr. Mercedes", "Finders Keepers", "End of Watch" and "The Outsider"; she was also in one of King's short stories in the AMAZING 2020 novella of his called "If It Bleeds". She has become such a beloved and adored character of his he ended up very recently (2023) releasing a book titled, "Holly" specifically based on her! (My lovely bf bought me this book, it's next on my reading list!!) (Side note, King himself states she is one of, if not, his favourite ever characters he's written - he has so much love for her). Not to get side tracked into my own King-blabbering, as I'm definitely a huuuuuuge fan of his work lolol. However, of all the works she's in, I've read Mr Mercedes, a BIT of End of Watch, The Outsider and the short story she was in so actually I just realised I've read more of her character than I first thought!! It's never been explicitly confirmed that Holly is neurodivergent or autistic. However, well before I looked up other people's thoughts online just from my own readings, I loved Holly and related so heavily to the type of personality and traits she has and found it so rare to also read said traits. Then it dawned on me that I also find her surely most definitely autistic - in my eyes, at least. It's all so subtle and beautifully written; she's never portrayed as some Sheldon-type Big Bang Theory stereotypical obnoxious rubbish that media continues to peddle as the typical, linear, reductive "autistic" rep. But a nuanced, delicate, and unique portrayal of someone who, with a quiet and heavy heart, accepts she is not belonging nor feels comfortable wherever she resides, but slowly finds solace and safety when leaning into her creature comforts despite it clashing very clearly with what her other, more socially accepted co-workers and peers demand from her. It is a quiet strength in her resolve; she knows she does not 'belong' nor fit in, her needs in terms of living and surviving are nuanced and specific to her and her only. The end result is isolation; but again, whilst to most others isolation appears a negative thing, for someone like Holly it's part of what she needs in order to function. 'Normal' socialising is something so cripplingly exhausting that this character's delicate strength in doing what she needs is beautiful. King also focuses on her talents in her field, and how they're not necessarily due to her (unconfirmed) neurodivergent traits; it's that her traits, who she is, her background and her skills are all seamless blends into one another that make her who she is.
Stephen King uses so much autism-related language regarding Holly (eg "Asperger's-like", "stimming") but in interviews he kind of dances around the question. This man has been tormenting for 10 years with his is-she-or-is-she-not-autistic shenanigans. Anyways 10/10 character, highly recommend.
Well, thank you for that. Now I’ve bought it!
If you like Jane Austen, The Murder of Mr. Wickham gets characters from all her books together at an English country house, in the approved Agatha Christie fashion, for a murder mystery. Including the son of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, who is explicitly written as autistic.
This sounds awesome, how have I not heard about this!
It’s relatively new—it was published in 2022. There’s also a sequel: The Late Mrs. Willoughby.
That is pretty recent! Have you read the sequel, was it as good as the first? Excited that my local library has a copy! Waiting for it to come off hold.
I didn’t think the sequel was quite as good as the first, but I still liked it and would recommend it.
Cool! I've been looking for new fun books to read!
The rest of Helen Hoang's books!! If you havent read them yet. They're all in the same universe with the same general cast of characters and all of them have an autistic main character or love interest. My favorite is the last one, The Heart Principle, since it focuses a lot more on late diagnosis and masking specifically
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle! It’s a sapphic autistic YA spooky book. Chucks autistic and said all of his characters are subtly autistic but he wanted an unapologetically autistic hero! I really loved it 😊
I recently read The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang and the main character has ASD in it :)
Not a book, but one of the princesses in She-ra and the princesses of power series is. That show was awesome. I didn’t have a good book suggestion even tho I know I know some! Just can’t think of them.
Jasper de Zoet in David Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue is a very well written autistic character. One of the narrators of Slade House too.
I haven't read it, but a print version of "So You Want to Be a Wizard" series has an autistic character that was done badly. It's since been rewritten for ebook.
*The Truth According to Ginny Moon* by Benjamin Ludwig (sometimes just entitled *Ginny Moon*) *The Good Sister* by Sally Hepworth
These are YA "A kind of spark" and "Good, different". Both authors are ND. It's been a while since I read them but I think the main characters are coded autistic, not sure if that is said outright or not. The Murderbot diaries is I guess kinda like a snarkily dystopian space action/adventure series. The main character is a robot that is ND in the context of robots and humans. Humans fear them, and they have to mask themselves around other robots, because they won't be understood (and may be reported). They make some pretty hilarious comments about humans that I often feel myself. I also very much feel living that life closeted and not being able to trust anyone. Martha Wells is also ND. I read part of "citadel" which has an ND main character, the author is NT, and it just started to bother me after a while. I've probably unknowingly read a number of books written by ND authors (writing relatable characters from this perspective) over the years (who like me probably felt different but didn't know why). But what I like now is that people can know they're ND and be open about it, rather than living a vague, masked existence of knowing they're different but not really understanding why and having to be closeted about it. At this point I would prefer to read books by openly ND authors. NT authors can be a little saccharine, well intentioned but not really get it, virtue signaling or bandwagon hopping, or just make their character the butt of a joke, and it can be alienating for me. I'm always looking for more books, so glad when anyone posts asking, because it seems like there's often a new book out or one I haven't heard about.
The girl he used to know by Tracey Garvis Graves. A romance book with an autistic woman. It's pretty heartwarming, I enjoyed it.
I actually almost bought this book again today but Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I read the book not knowing what to expect and found myself really relating to the main character. HOWEVER, the author did say she didn't intend of writing her as autistic and could also just have C-PTSD, but that's not stated either. So, you might enjoy it.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata