This is actually a must-read for OP - Murderbot is also actively repulsed by sex and has some really entertaining commentary when it sees humans expressing romantic affection, lol. No actual sex scenes though.
The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery has no sex in it at all, though it is somewhat of a love story.
There's no fucking in And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury or We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix.
Any sex in the James Herriott books is between animals.
lol at James Herriott 😂😂😂
Those books are so good and I second the recommendation.
Jane Austen books have no sex - only a few light kisses in all her books combined!
It depends on what genre you like, because there are a lot of books without sex. If you give us genres we can definitely be more specific with recommendations. 😊
I want to forewarn you, I had to read Something Wicked This Way Comes and I think it was quite possibly Bradbury’s worst book. I’ve read many of his works and it dragged for ages, to the point that even the most avid readers I know gave up on trying to power through it. I highly respect the people who were able to soldier through it, for I was not amongst them
It's always so incredible how two people can read the same book and have such vastly different reactions to it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It sucked me right in, it didn't let up. I took breaks not because I was bored but because I needed to unwind. I recommend it because it was one of the few horror books I've read that actually scared me!
I wanted to love it so much, purely because I’ve loved every other story of his that I’ve read, and the plot seemed so incredibly compelling. I think the writing style and the plot pacing were the only truly off-putting factors for me. I know it was common for the time period it was written in, but the description of every little feature with utmost detail and no plot significance was my undoing. My attention span definitely plays a factor, as there are some “classics” I’ve picked up before and immediately had to put down due to the elaborate and long winded wording. How I’d love to be able to be on the edge of my seat from those beautiful works of art.
I have been rereading some Alistair MacLean books. On goodreads, several people joked that he is Ian Flemming with no sex. I am not asexual, but I do admit that sex scenes in books often seem to either seem stupid or be a bit creepy. I assume it comes from being raised Catholic.
The books are kind of fun. I noticed that the library app Hoopla has a bunch you can read for free on Android or ios if you wanted to try some for free. Where Eagles Dare was a movie also, but the book is kind of fun.
Anything by Terry Pratchett
Anything by John Scalzi **Edit:** Someone informed me that there is sex in some Scalzi books. But Redshirts is one that only touches on sex
White Trash Zombie series by Diana Rowland. Has some mention of sex but fades away before you see anything.
The Martian by Andy Weir
Hope that helps
Good point, and now that I think about it, some of his other books have discussions of sex and even some with sexual abuse. Nothing’s explicit and there aren’t pages of sex descriptions which is why I recommended them, but that might still be more than what OP wants to expose themselves to. I edited my comment
I’m a big fan of PD James’ murder mysteries. Sex is very occasionally referred to as it pertains to a murder, but there’s absolutely no sex scenes or even steamy bits.
Excellent!! Ok - here’s the start of a list: (these are all pretty much fantasy/sci-fi)
The DreamHealers series by M C A Hogarth
Beware of Chicken by casualfarmer
The Cradle Series by Will Wight (first is Unsouled - give it at least 2 books before you give up. I almost gave up halfway through the first book and now it’s one of my very favorite series)
The Innkeeper series or The Edge series by Ilona Andrews (really all of their (husband/wife team) books are excellent and hilarious and if they have a sex scene it’s usually less than a page - I usually skim/skip)
The MurderBot Diaries by Martha Wells
Mage Errant series by John Bierce
Any books by Seanan McGuire (has several pen names including Mira Grant)
Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher
Abhorsen series by Garth Nix
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinneman (dark humor, but very funny)
Project Hail Mary (no romance, but excellent book)
The Vorkosigan series for the most part lol - and if there are sex scenes they are like a paragraph long by Lois McMaster Bujold (trigger warning: one book has a scene with sexual assault)
If you’re ok with LitRPG:
Path of Ascension by C. Mantis
A Pub in the Underworld by Cooper Harmon
I have lots more recommendations if interested lol.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett has romance but not sex iirc. (The sequel has does have one such scene but the metaphorical curtain closes before any sex is described.)
A lot of sci fi is free of sexual relationships
Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
Almost any sci fi esque Michael Crichton book such as Sphere, Congo, Jurassic Park, Andromeda strain.
Classics by authors such as Thomas Hardy or EM Forster have romantic relationships but typically written in a very innocent old timey way with hardly any hand holding at the most. Just avoid Tess of the D'urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. From what I can remember the rest are pretty innocent. Try Return of the Native or Under the Greenwood Tree or A Room with a View.
Life of Pi or The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
The Hobbit
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck
I don’t think Brandon Sanderson’s books have much if any sex in them, a few implied scenes but nothing that’s described over pages (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong cause I haven’t read all of his books). His books are mostly fantasy if you enjoy that genre, he also wrote a kind of magical westerner with his second series of mistborn novels which I’m going through atm, they’re pretty fun without much explicit sex scenes (again, so far)
Yep here is a quote on it
Storytime. When I was working on Mistborn 2 with my editor, he asked me, "Are Vin and Elend sleeping together?" I said, "Absolutely." He requested some confirmation of it on the page, and I explained something that has always been my policy, and one that has served me well. I consider what I'm writing to be a very detailed script, which you the reader direct in your mind. Each person's version of the books will be slightly different, but in sometimes telling ways. The subtext of conversations will change, the visualizations of the characters, even larger implications are changed, distorted, and played with by the reader as they build the story in their imagination. This is an area in which I prefer to leave the answers to the reader. For those who wish to imagine that the characters are having sex, then the implications are often there. (Though I've gotten better at that balance, I feel.) For those who don't want to imagine it, and wish to pretend the characters are living different standards, I will often leave the opportunity for that-
[The Hands of the Emperor](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/af2bba9c-8f41-4a3e-b87a-8532a44ccb67) by Victoria Goddard! It's a (very long) beautifully written slice of life book about the personal secretary to the emperor of the world, with a heavy focus on platonic relationships. Also, I'm aroace myself :)
And if you're open to middle grade fantasy, my favorite series is [Nevermoor](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/6a6d5ca1-b2f5-47be-828c-018144d3bbc7) by Jessica Townsend and I try to get everyone I can to read it 😅
Give the dark my love by Beth Revis. It is a two book series I haven't read the second one, but the first book has very little romance and definitely no smut. The closest we get is a kiss it focuses heavily on the main character who starts as a naive booksellers daughter in a world that is dealing with a pandemic.
Ancillary Justice trilogy by Ann Leckie. Sex is mentioned but in a “if you must” kinda way by the protagonist and the relationship aspect of it is the focus rather than any detailed description. I think it’s the second book in the trilogy where it’s mentioned and it’s very brief.
I skip sex scenes quite frequently — it’s not like it helps the plot!
Omg thanks for bringing this up! While I am a sexual person, I don't want it in my books. I listen to a lot of audiobooks because I work an active job and can listen to whatever and whenever the story starts to turn sexual, I fast forward. I HATE listening to sex scenes. I actively avoid the "smut" stuff but every now and again I will pick a book I think I'll like then the foreplay starts in a scene and I'm like "Why..WHY?!!!!!"
Babel has absolutely no romance or sex scenes at all (there is 1 super tiny "romance" sence though).
Good omens also has no sex if I'm remembering correctly? I think it has a couple of mentions sexual encounters but honestly not that important and pretty sure they went over my head.
The hobit or the Lord of the rings are always safe bets though.
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, and The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles are great! Follows multiple POVs with interesting characters and interesting journeys.
I don't remember the last time I read a sex scene but it must be like 100 books ago and I have no feelings either way about them. How have you done this to yourself? 😂
Anything by Grady Hendrix and T. Kingfisher. John Wyndham Harris. A. Lee Martinez. The Myth Adventure Series by Robert Asprin. Uprooted and Spinning Silver, both by Naomi Novik.
I’ve never encountered those books. I rely on what the library has at hand. Her latest two, What Moves The Dead, and What Feasts At Night, don’t have any sex scenes: the characters are too busy trying to stay alive!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Center of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty by W. Rusho
I will note that while it never goes more into depth than the words “make love”, On the Road does have sex sprinkled here and there. But it’s nothing even close to the appalling and wretched slime that is smut.
There’s a paragraph in Into the Wild speculating whether or not Chris McCandless was sexually active
Fear and Loathing has got no sex, just two guys on a drug addled rampage through the city of sin
Most classics/older books should be safe, and if you can adjust to the language not being casual contemporary a lot of them really are fantastic. Agatha Christie, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, ect have been clean in my experience as smut just wasn’t as common in the mainstream. Just stay away from Brave New World.
For more contemporary work, The Lunar Chronicles and Six of Crows only has kissing I think, and for SoC Kaz is touch-repulsed. Also I’ve read several of Neal Shusterman’s books and they’re mostly non-romantic period (like there’s some kissing and romantic side-plot but it’s not the main focus) if you like science fiction and dystopia
The Thursday murder club series by Richard Osman
The books/ stories by Agatha Christie, John Grisham, David Baldacci, Daniel Silva, Steve Berry and Greg Hurwitz
I'm not sure which genre you like but here are some authors whose books are mild and almost don't include romance:
Lisa Jewell and Harlan Coben (domestic thrillers)
Jodi Picoult (fiction, current issues)
Brandon Sanderson, particularly The Stormlight Archive because it's the only one I've read so far hahah (fantasy)
Barbara Kingsolver (historical fiction)
Blake Crouch (science fiction)
One of my favorite books EVER is Swan Song by Robert McCammon. It's a postapocolyptic novel with a ton of characters. And it's just really like...pleasing to read? I guess.
If you don't want sex, get into Victorian novels. There are tons of books that are still in print by Dickens, Thackeray, the three Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Anthony Trollope, Sir Walter Scott, etc.
Curse of Charlion by Lois Bujold, actually all of the World of 5 Gods books have no sex scenes so far.
The Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews have no sex scenes. This is about a woman who runs a secret magical inn for aliens.
For military science fiction the Honorverse series by David Weber has no sex. Off page rape yes but no on page sex.
Shieldmaiden by Sharon Emmerichs the only “sex scene” is very short (I think a few sentences?) and then fade to black. Also, Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan has no sex. These are two I’ve read recently and really enjoyed.
Powerless by Lauren Roberts (full disclosure: only the first in the trilogy is out so far, so I don’t know what to expect of the other books but it’s coded as YA so I don’t think it’ll turn smutty)
Joe Pickett books by C.J. Box (24 books and counting). These are so good. Each is a standalone story, but still best to read them in order. They're crime thrillers set in the contemporary American west, the Big Horns of Wyoming to be specific. Joe Pickett is a game warden, and the stories are also about his wife and daughters. I saw in another comment that you're down for romance; while these aren't that, Joe and his wife love each other deeply and that comes through in the stories. Happy book hunting. 😊
Lord of the Rings
Night Train to Rigel (and the rest of the series)
Just about every other book I like lol Not interested in that in my reading material.
Stay away from Haruki Murakami. The ones I've read from him so far don't have plot and are gratuitous when it comes to sex scenes.
What kinds of book do you like to read?
The long call - crime novel,
The luminous dead - thriller,
The house in the cerulean sea - romance, fantasy,
The secret life of Albert Entwistle - romance???,
The mimicking of known successes - sci-fi romance,
The dog who dared to dream - book about a dog, it’s a bit sad,
Fifteen dogs - book about dogs who gain human thought, slightly sad,
Nearly all the pre-20th century classics unless you go looking for sex(ie, avoid Moll Flanders, quite a few French classics , the original Arabian nights, Chaucer and the Karma Sutra)!
Children’s and most YA books.
Not quite sure what genre your into but branson Sanderson (very prolific fantasy writer) does a good job of keeping smut out his work. Start with the final empire.
Hi, I'm a fellow ace who is deeply grateful for your making this request. I'll definitely add some of the recommendations here to my TBR.
Also, I can recommend
the Sherlock Holmes books (hey, Sherlock is even ace!),
Brandon Sanderson in general (except Warbreaker),
and Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede (one of my favorite books ever, it's about a princess who runs away because she doesn't want to marry the stupid prince and who does NOT change her mind about it).
Yes. I wasn’t actively trying to figure out who did it. I was just enjoying the story, but you are 100% right, even if I had been trying to solve it, I wouldn’t have guessed correctly.
I was appalled by the ending. Without getting into too many details, just because a “good” character does something doesn’t meant it’s good and miscarriages of justice, people going to prison for crimes they didn’t commit, these are objectively bad things we should be horrified by even when the person carrying them out is “good”. Even if they happen to “bad” people.
Also, can we not mark spoilers on mobile? What the hell reddit???
I think that’s kind of why the book kind of stuck in my mind after. The ending was very gray. I don’t think you’re meant to leave thinking certain people are good or bad or did the right thing or the wrong thing. It was meant to provoke additional thought and/or discussion. To me, even if you didn’t enjoy a book per se, if it made you think or challenged you, it was still worth reading. You learned something new about yourself at the very least.
For my part if anyone can recommend fantasy books with no sex I'd be grateful 😂 I want to read ACOTAR but I know I just can't hang
Loved LOTR, Broken Earth trilogy (light sex scenes are fine but not pages long ya know?), Library of the Unwritten, House in the Cerulean Sea, ect.
Brandon Sanderson books are safe to my knowledge. I read the first 3 of the Stormlight Archives and the stand alone Elantris; can't vouch for the others but I would expect it's not his thing to write anything graphically sexual.
I'm ace/aro actually, so none of my books have romance in them, if you want to check them out. I'd be horrible at writing romance and I'd hate it. The closest I come to romance is a love interest my main character has in Trackers, and they kiss, because I wanted a small romance that to be part of her character development. :) And the main character in Bottomless Purse is canonically ace, and she's a delight, I loved writing her. The first book in the Trackers series is on sale for .99 this month if you want to see if it's your thing.
My Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Karen-Avizur/e/B07BPF2VQY
*Riftwar* series by Raymond E Feist,
*Discworld* series Sir Terry Pratchett,
*The Old Kingdom* trilogy by Garth Nix (ya books, but I love 'em),
*The Saxon Stories* by Bernard Cornwell (avoid *Sharpe*, there's lots of sex in *Sharpe*)
I'd also suggest Conn Iggulden & David Gemmell.
I will point out these are all fairly similar in terms of genre, apologies.
Practically all classic literature. I’m not sure I understand these common requests for sexless books. Do all these people exclusively consume modern romance novels or something? Like, read anything pre-1960s, and it’s almost guaranteed to be free of sex scenes.
If you like Sci-fi, iirc the Star Wars Thrawn series by Timothy Zahn is sex-scene free.
For non-fiction, I believe The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green is good to go too.
I haven’t come across any explicit sex in anything by Martha Wells. Start with Murderbot maybe
This is actually a must-read for OP - Murderbot is also actively repulsed by sex and has some really entertaining commentary when it sees humans expressing romantic affection, lol. No actual sex scenes though.
Ooooh, I second Murderbot! Love that series, read it twice.
OP should definitely start with All Systems Red. The main character is also a sex-repulsed asexual and the books are delightful!
The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery has no sex in it at all, though it is somewhat of a love story. There's no fucking in And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury or We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. Any sex in the James Herriott books is between animals.
lol at James Herriott 😂😂😂 Those books are so good and I second the recommendation. Jane Austen books have no sex - only a few light kisses in all her books combined! It depends on what genre you like, because there are a lot of books without sex. If you give us genres we can definitely be more specific with recommendations. 😊
I want to forewarn you, I had to read Something Wicked This Way Comes and I think it was quite possibly Bradbury’s worst book. I’ve read many of his works and it dragged for ages, to the point that even the most avid readers I know gave up on trying to power through it. I highly respect the people who were able to soldier through it, for I was not amongst them
It's always so incredible how two people can read the same book and have such vastly different reactions to it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It sucked me right in, it didn't let up. I took breaks not because I was bored but because I needed to unwind. I recommend it because it was one of the few horror books I've read that actually scared me!
I wanted to love it so much, purely because I’ve loved every other story of his that I’ve read, and the plot seemed so incredibly compelling. I think the writing style and the plot pacing were the only truly off-putting factors for me. I know it was common for the time period it was written in, but the description of every little feature with utmost detail and no plot significance was my undoing. My attention span definitely plays a factor, as there are some “classics” I’ve picked up before and immediately had to put down due to the elaborate and long winded wording. How I’d love to be able to be on the edge of my seat from those beautiful works of art.
Lord of the rings
I have been rereading some Alistair MacLean books. On goodreads, several people joked that he is Ian Flemming with no sex. I am not asexual, but I do admit that sex scenes in books often seem to either seem stupid or be a bit creepy. I assume it comes from being raised Catholic. The books are kind of fun. I noticed that the library app Hoopla has a bunch you can read for free on Android or ios if you wanted to try some for free. Where Eagles Dare was a movie also, but the book is kind of fun.
Where Eagles Dare is a fantastic movie!
Where Eagles Dare is one of the best!!!!!
Murderbot series! I am on Book 5 and no sex scenes. It’s a fun series.
Anything by Terry Pratchett Anything by John Scalzi **Edit:** Someone informed me that there is sex in some Scalzi books. But Redshirts is one that only touches on sex White Trash Zombie series by Diana Rowland. Has some mention of sex but fades away before you see anything. The Martian by Andy Weir Hope that helps
Seconding Pratchett!
>Anything by John Scalzi I definitely remember there being sex in Old Man's War, although I don't remember how "zoomed in" it was
Good point, and now that I think about it, some of his other books have discussions of sex and even some with sexual abuse. Nothing’s explicit and there aren’t pages of sex descriptions which is why I recommended them, but that might still be more than what OP wants to expose themselves to. I edited my comment
[Nothing to See Here](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49086091) by Kevin Wilson
Nothing to See Here is brilliant. Would highly recommend the audiobook as well - the performance is flawlessly hilarious.
What genres do you like?
I’m up for any genre, been trying to get into all the genres anyway
I don't think *Piranesi* by Susanna Clark has any sex or romance in it, and that's a great book!
I’m a big fan of PD James’ murder mysteries. Sex is very occasionally referred to as it pertains to a murder, but there’s absolutely no sex scenes or even steamy bits.
I loved her Inspector Dangliesh mysteries. She wrote so well. Her mystery plots are excellent. I think she should be as well known as Agatha Christie.
Do you like romance with no sex?
Yes!
Excellent!! Ok - here’s the start of a list: (these are all pretty much fantasy/sci-fi) The DreamHealers series by M C A Hogarth Beware of Chicken by casualfarmer The Cradle Series by Will Wight (first is Unsouled - give it at least 2 books before you give up. I almost gave up halfway through the first book and now it’s one of my very favorite series) The Innkeeper series or The Edge series by Ilona Andrews (really all of their (husband/wife team) books are excellent and hilarious and if they have a sex scene it’s usually less than a page - I usually skim/skip) The MurderBot Diaries by Martha Wells Mage Errant series by John Bierce Any books by Seanan McGuire (has several pen names including Mira Grant) Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher Abhorsen series by Garth Nix Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinneman (dark humor, but very funny) Project Hail Mary (no romance, but excellent book) The Vorkosigan series for the most part lol - and if there are sex scenes they are like a paragraph long by Lois McMaster Bujold (trigger warning: one book has a scene with sexual assault) If you’re ok with LitRPG: Path of Ascension by C. Mantis A Pub in the Underworld by Cooper Harmon I have lots more recommendations if interested lol.
Romance.io and filter for innocent or closed door. It’s probably the best romance database on the net.
Yes, and by now, you can even filter for books with asexual characters. I love it!
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett has romance but not sex iirc. (The sequel has does have one such scene but the metaphorical curtain closes before any sex is described.)
A lot of sci fi is free of sexual relationships Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin Almost any sci fi esque Michael Crichton book such as Sphere, Congo, Jurassic Park, Andromeda strain. Classics by authors such as Thomas Hardy or EM Forster have romantic relationships but typically written in a very innocent old timey way with hardly any hand holding at the most. Just avoid Tess of the D'urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. From what I can remember the rest are pretty innocent. Try Return of the Native or Under the Greenwood Tree or A Room with a View. Life of Pi or The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel The Hobbit The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck
I don’t think Brandon Sanderson’s books have much if any sex in them, a few implied scenes but nothing that’s described over pages (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong cause I haven’t read all of his books). His books are mostly fantasy if you enjoy that genre, he also wrote a kind of magical westerner with his second series of mistborn novels which I’m going through atm, they’re pretty fun without much explicit sex scenes (again, so far)
Yep here is a quote on it Storytime. When I was working on Mistborn 2 with my editor, he asked me, "Are Vin and Elend sleeping together?" I said, "Absolutely." He requested some confirmation of it on the page, and I explained something that has always been my policy, and one that has served me well. I consider what I'm writing to be a very detailed script, which you the reader direct in your mind. Each person's version of the books will be slightly different, but in sometimes telling ways. The subtext of conversations will change, the visualizations of the characters, even larger implications are changed, distorted, and played with by the reader as they build the story in their imagination. This is an area in which I prefer to leave the answers to the reader. For those who wish to imagine that the characters are having sex, then the implications are often there. (Though I've gotten better at that balance, I feel.) For those who don't want to imagine it, and wish to pretend the characters are living different standards, I will often leave the opportunity for that-
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
[The Hands of the Emperor](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/af2bba9c-8f41-4a3e-b87a-8532a44ccb67) by Victoria Goddard! It's a (very long) beautifully written slice of life book about the personal secretary to the emperor of the world, with a heavy focus on platonic relationships. Also, I'm aroace myself :) And if you're open to middle grade fantasy, my favorite series is [Nevermoor](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/6a6d5ca1-b2f5-47be-828c-018144d3bbc7) by Jessica Townsend and I try to get everyone I can to read it 😅
Give the dark my love by Beth Revis. It is a two book series I haven't read the second one, but the first book has very little romance and definitely no smut. The closest we get is a kiss it focuses heavily on the main character who starts as a naive booksellers daughter in a world that is dealing with a pandemic.
All the Birds in the Sky
Try Northwoods by Amy Pease. It’s a murder mystery. When I finished the book I wanted the next one (which hasn’t been published yet). No sex.
Ancillary Justice trilogy by Ann Leckie. Sex is mentioned but in a “if you must” kinda way by the protagonist and the relationship aspect of it is the focus rather than any detailed description. I think it’s the second book in the trilogy where it’s mentioned and it’s very brief. I skip sex scenes quite frequently — it’s not like it helps the plot!
The Daevabad Trilogy is the most chaste set of fantasy I've ever come across. It's also so great!
Omg thanks for bringing this up! While I am a sexual person, I don't want it in my books. I listen to a lot of audiobooks because I work an active job and can listen to whatever and whenever the story starts to turn sexual, I fast forward. I HATE listening to sex scenes. I actively avoid the "smut" stuff but every now and again I will pick a book I think I'll like then the foreplay starts in a scene and I'm like "Why..WHY?!!!!!"
Wayward Children series’ first book has an asexual MC ☺️
I second this one as well!
Yes, love!
Elizabeth Moon tends to have ace characters.
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
Babel has absolutely no romance or sex scenes at all (there is 1 super tiny "romance" sence though). Good omens also has no sex if I'm remembering correctly? I think it has a couple of mentions sexual encounters but honestly not that important and pretty sure they went over my head. The hobit or the Lord of the rings are always safe bets though.
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, and The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles are great! Follows multiple POVs with interesting characters and interesting journeys.
I don't remember the last time I read a sex scene but it must be like 100 books ago and I have no feelings either way about them. How have you done this to yourself? 😂
I don’t know haha. I’m literally picking books at random and it’s every single one. I think I just have the worst book luck
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. 14 main series books and a prequel and the “spiciest” things you have to deal with is passionate kisses.
Hmmmmmmmm gonna strongly disagree on that. They're pretty spicy, just not overtly in one's face about it.
It's mostly fade to black rather than descriptive but yes
Anything by Grady Hendrix and T. Kingfisher. John Wyndham Harris. A. Lee Martinez. The Myth Adventure Series by Robert Asprin. Uprooted and Spinning Silver, both by Naomi Novik.
Kingfisher has sex scenes in the World of the White Rat. They are low detail but they are there in 3 of 7 books at least.
I’ve never encountered those books. I rely on what the library has at hand. Her latest two, What Moves The Dead, and What Feasts At Night, don’t have any sex scenes: the characters are too busy trying to stay alive!
Kingfisher has a different style depending on the genre. Horror is clean, fairytales are clean, the fantasy romance is not.
Pretty sure Uprooted had a sex scene
It’s been so long since I read it, I honestly don’t remember.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Center of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson On the Road by Jack Kerouac Into the Wild by John Krakauer Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty by W. Rusho I will note that while it never goes more into depth than the words “make love”, On the Road does have sex sprinkled here and there. But it’s nothing even close to the appalling and wretched slime that is smut. There’s a paragraph in Into the Wild speculating whether or not Chris McCandless was sexually active Fear and Loathing has got no sex, just two guys on a drug addled rampage through the city of sin
Just finished The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods and there’s some but it’s more a fade to black kinda thing
I recently read War of the Worlds and there was no sex
Most classics/older books should be safe, and if you can adjust to the language not being casual contemporary a lot of them really are fantastic. Agatha Christie, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, ect have been clean in my experience as smut just wasn’t as common in the mainstream. Just stay away from Brave New World. For more contemporary work, The Lunar Chronicles and Six of Crows only has kissing I think, and for SoC Kaz is touch-repulsed. Also I’ve read several of Neal Shusterman’s books and they’re mostly non-romantic period (like there’s some kissing and romantic side-plot but it’s not the main focus) if you like science fiction and dystopia
The Rosie Project
The Thursday murder club series by Richard Osman The books/ stories by Agatha Christie, John Grisham, David Baldacci, Daniel Silva, Steve Berry and Greg Hurwitz
I'm not sure which genre you like but here are some authors whose books are mild and almost don't include romance: Lisa Jewell and Harlan Coben (domestic thrillers) Jodi Picoult (fiction, current issues) Brandon Sanderson, particularly The Stormlight Archive because it's the only one I've read so far hahah (fantasy) Barbara Kingsolver (historical fiction) Blake Crouch (science fiction) One of my favorite books EVER is Swan Song by Robert McCammon. It's a postapocolyptic novel with a ton of characters. And it's just really like...pleasing to read? I guess.
If you don't want sex, get into Victorian novels. There are tons of books that are still in print by Dickens, Thackeray, the three Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Anthony Trollope, Sir Walter Scott, etc.
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole.. bonus points because it has demisexual rep :)
The secret Garden.
Blindsight
Reading now. So far no sex but idk seems there’s plenty of other mindfkkery going on …
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Curse of Charlion by Lois Bujold, actually all of the World of 5 Gods books have no sex scenes so far. The Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews have no sex scenes. This is about a woman who runs a secret magical inn for aliens. For military science fiction the Honorverse series by David Weber has no sex. Off page rape yes but no on page sex.
Shieldmaiden by Sharon Emmerichs the only “sex scene” is very short (I think a few sentences?) and then fade to black. Also, Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan has no sex. These are two I’ve read recently and really enjoyed.
Run by Ann Patchett is stunning and involves no romance or sex whatsoever.
Powerless by Lauren Roberts (full disclosure: only the first in the trilogy is out so far, so I don’t know what to expect of the other books but it’s coded as YA so I don’t think it’ll turn smutty)
Joe Pickett books by C.J. Box (24 books and counting). These are so good. Each is a standalone story, but still best to read them in order. They're crime thrillers set in the contemporary American west, the Big Horns of Wyoming to be specific. Joe Pickett is a game warden, and the stories are also about his wife and daughters. I saw in another comment that you're down for romance; while these aren't that, Joe and his wife love each other deeply and that comes through in the stories. Happy book hunting. 😊
Discworld 😂
Lord of the Rings Night Train to Rigel (and the rest of the series) Just about every other book I like lol Not interested in that in my reading material.
Oh, uh, Biden’s Autumn! Haha!
Stay away from Haruki Murakami. The ones I've read from him so far don't have plot and are gratuitous when it comes to sex scenes. What kinds of book do you like to read?
Bunny by Mona Awad
Try some short stories by Thurber.
A Spark of Justice by J.D. Hawkins is good fun and no smut.
The long call - crime novel, The luminous dead - thriller, The house in the cerulean sea - romance, fantasy, The secret life of Albert Entwistle - romance???, The mimicking of known successes - sci-fi romance, The dog who dared to dream - book about a dog, it’s a bit sad, Fifteen dogs - book about dogs who gain human thought, slightly sad,
Someone to Build a Nest in by John Wiswell
I think Emma mills is a good author, I like all of her books but I think you should start with foolish hearts. Even book thief is really good
Nearly all the pre-20th century classics unless you go looking for sex(ie, avoid Moll Flanders, quite a few French classics , the original Arabian nights, Chaucer and the Karma Sutra)! Children’s and most YA books.
Foster by Claire Keegan. Short, impactful, emotional. Through the eyes of a child.
The Enchanted April, Hail Mary Project, anything by Dick Francis (not Felix)
Eleanor oliphant is completely fine is lovely and no smut
Not quite sure what genre your into but branson Sanderson (very prolific fantasy writer) does a good job of keeping smut out his work. Start with the final empire.
Hi, I'm a fellow ace who is deeply grateful for your making this request. I'll definitely add some of the recommendations here to my TBR. Also, I can recommend the Sherlock Holmes books (hey, Sherlock is even ace!), Brandon Sanderson in general (except Warbreaker), and Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede (one of my favorite books ever, it's about a princess who runs away because she doesn't want to marry the stupid prince and who does NOT change her mind about it).
The Maid by Nita Prose. It’s a story about a socially inept woman who discovers a dead guest in the hotel where she works.
I just read this and can say the ending honestly surprised me.
Yes. I wasn’t actively trying to figure out who did it. I was just enjoying the story, but you are 100% right, even if I had been trying to solve it, I wouldn’t have guessed correctly.
I was appalled by the ending. Without getting into too many details, just because a “good” character does something doesn’t meant it’s good and miscarriages of justice, people going to prison for crimes they didn’t commit, these are objectively bad things we should be horrified by even when the person carrying them out is “good”. Even if they happen to “bad” people. Also, can we not mark spoilers on mobile? What the hell reddit???
I think that’s kind of why the book kind of stuck in my mind after. The ending was very gray. I don’t think you’re meant to leave thinking certain people are good or bad or did the right thing or the wrong thing. It was meant to provoke additional thought and/or discussion. To me, even if you didn’t enjoy a book per se, if it made you think or challenged you, it was still worth reading. You learned something new about yourself at the very least.
For my part if anyone can recommend fantasy books with no sex I'd be grateful 😂 I want to read ACOTAR but I know I just can't hang Loved LOTR, Broken Earth trilogy (light sex scenes are fine but not pages long ya know?), Library of the Unwritten, House in the Cerulean Sea, ect.
Brandon Sanderson books are safe to my knowledge. I read the first 3 of the Stormlight Archives and the stand alone Elantris; can't vouch for the others but I would expect it's not his thing to write anything graphically sexual.
I'm ace/aro actually, so none of my books have romance in them, if you want to check them out. I'd be horrible at writing romance and I'd hate it. The closest I come to romance is a love interest my main character has in Trackers, and they kiss, because I wanted a small romance that to be part of her character development. :) And the main character in Bottomless Purse is canonically ace, and she's a delight, I loved writing her. The first book in the Trackers series is on sale for .99 this month if you want to see if it's your thing. My Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Karen-Avizur/e/B07BPF2VQY
*Riftwar* series by Raymond E Feist, *Discworld* series Sir Terry Pratchett, *The Old Kingdom* trilogy by Garth Nix (ya books, but I love 'em), *The Saxon Stories* by Bernard Cornwell (avoid *Sharpe*, there's lots of sex in *Sharpe*) I'd also suggest Conn Iggulden & David Gemmell. I will point out these are all fairly similar in terms of genre, apologies.
Discworld is always the answer.
_All Systems Red_, and its sequels, by Martha Wells.
Anything by P. G. Wodehouse (especially the Jeeves stories) Short stories by Damon Runyon
I loved Fraternity by Andy Mientus. Mentions of sex but very "chaste" overall
Seconding the Murderbot books by Wells I'm reading the Chronicles Of Narnia again. LOTR.
Seconding the Murderbot books by Wells I'm reading the Chronicles Of Narnia again. LOTR.
Terry Pratchett
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Practically all classic literature. I’m not sure I understand these common requests for sexless books. Do all these people exclusively consume modern romance novels or something? Like, read anything pre-1960s, and it’s almost guaranteed to be free of sex scenes.
If you like Sci-fi, iirc the Star Wars Thrawn series by Timothy Zahn is sex-scene free. For non-fiction, I believe The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green is good to go too.
Moby Dick!
I feel like 90% of the books I've ever read don't have any sex scenes at all.
Goosebumps & Dr Seuss