Happy Monday, bibliophiles!
It’s July again, which means—though it’s too often overlooked—that it’s Disability Pride Month here in the U.S.! Even as intersectional as feminism and diversity efforts have become in recent years, the disabled community has been left out of the picture more often than not. YA books are no exception—even now, it’s difficult to find good, solid disability rep, and even harder to find books from disabled authors. So uplifting disabled voices is always important, as with uplifting all kinds of marginalized voices.
I’ve talked a little about good and bad disability rep on this blog, but I haven’t talked about how it affects me—I did put it in my bio a few months ago offhandedly, but I’m disabled as well. I have sensory processing disorder (SPD), a neurological disability that causes me to over-respond to sensory input, mainly sound; My nervous system doesn’t translate stimulus like a neurotypical brain would, making me over-respond to certain sensory input. Big crowds, loud noises (fire alarms, stopping buses, and almost anything that you can find in a city) are major causes of anxiety and discomfort for me, and often cause me to go into a fight-or-flight position or overload entirely.
As a result, being in situations with lots of sensory stimuli, such as school or social gatherings, can be exhausting, what with trying to juggle keeping my cool with said stimuli and participating fully in an activity. It also affects how I go about ordinary tasks as well—driving, for instance, has been a struggle, what with my hypersensitivity combined with my iffy-at-best motor coordination. (Part of SPD is that the nervous system doesn’t fully integrate all of my senses, which is why tasks like these are difficult for me.) SPD makes me feel everything—sound especially—far more intensely than a neurotypical person might, which often overloads my system.
Here’s the thing: although I’ve seen other parts of my identity—bisexuality, being mixed race, or even just personalities like mine—represented in books, I’ve never seen SPD represented in a book. Not on TV, movies, or any other kind of media, either. Never. I’ve been looking for years, but most of the time, what comes up when I search for books with characters that have SPD usually ends up being help books for parents with SPD kids. (Not to dismiss the value of those books—just not what I’m looking for.) There have been a few, but even then, they haven’t been available at the library. (I’ve got one on hold though—let’s hope Not If I Can Help It is good) I could always be missing something (PLS IF ANYBODY KNOWS ANY KIND OF MEDIA WITH GOOD SPD REP DROP SOME IN THE COMMENTS BEGGING YOU), but it’s been frustrating going to google and getting something that decidedly wasn’t what you were going for.
Even though I’ve seen myself represented in other ways, it’s frustrating to not have book characters—even side characters—that have similar experiences to me. Growing up, I had my fair share of not-so-subtle teasing for expressing some of my symptoms, and in that respect, I had no role models, no fictional characters to really look up to in that respect. That’s part of why I’m writing books with protagonists that have SPD—there’s always a kid out there who just needs a fictional character to look up to when they have nobody else. This is why representation matters—for those who never saw themselves represented growing up, and for those to come who may have the chance to feel represented.
So here are my disability pride month recs for 2022—not all of them are from disabled authors, but I’ve done my best to compile a list from a variety of genres, a variety of backgrounds (POC, queer, etc.), and a variety of disabilities.
(for my list from 2021, click here!)
Let’s begin, shall we?
YA BOOKS FOR DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH
GENRES: Historical fiction, retellings
REP: MC with POTS (disabled author)
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Three Musketeers retelling featuring a swordfighting, chronically ill protagonist!
The Reckless Kind, Carly Heath
GENRES: Historical fiction, romance, LGBTQ+
REP: MC with Waardenburg syndrome, MC with Brown-Séquard syndrome, MC with anxiety, side characters with post-concussion syndrome (disabled author)
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’ll be reviewing this one soon—a beautiful and tender tale of a disabled, queerplatonic triad in 1900’s Norway!
The Weight of Our Sky, Hanna Alkaf
GENRES: Historical fiction
REP: MC has OCD
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A harrowing story of a girl with OCD in the Philippines searching for her mother during the race riots of 1969.
The Night When No One Had Sex, Kalena Miller
GENRES: Contemporary/realistic fiction, romance, LGBTQ+
REP: Multiple POVs; one MC has Lupus (chronic illness)
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
A diverse and funny story of four pairs of teenagers on prom night and a humorously failed sex pact.
The Boy Who Steals Houses, C.G. Drews
GENRES: Contemporary/realistic fiction, romance
REP: MC has anxiety, autistic side character (disabled author)
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
A messy and emotional story of a boy and his brother making their own in a world that turns its back on them.
A Quiet Kind of Thunder, Sara Barnard
GENRES: Contemporary/realistic fiction, romance
REP: MC is selectively mute, Deaf love interest
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
A tender, sweet romance with disability front and center!
GENRES: Paranormal, fantasy
REP: MC is mute and uses sign language to communicate
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Though this wasn’t my favorite V.E. Schwab book, I loved its paranormal atmosphere!
GENRES: Magical realism, fantasy, fiction, LGBTQ+
REP: MC with ADHD, MC with dyslexia (disabled author)
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Lakelore is one of the most intersectional pieces of magical realism or fantasy that I’ve ever read—both protagonists are nonbinary, Latinx, and neurodivergent!
Meet Me in Outer Space, Melinda Grace
GENRES: Contemporary/realistic fiction, romance
REP: MC has Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) (disabled author)
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Although I wasn’t as big of a fan of the romance, I loved how Meet Me in Outer Space explored navigating disability in college!
On the Edge of Gone, Corinne Duyvis
GENRES: Science fiction, survival, post-apocalyptic
REP: Autistic MC (disabled author)
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
A gripping post-apocalyptic book featuring a determined, Autistic protagonist!
TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! Have you read any of these books, and if so, what did you think of them? What are your favorite YA books with disability rep? And please, does anybody have any recs for media with good SPD rep? Kinda desperate over here…
(I can only go with my headcanon that Jean Grey from X-Men has SPD for so long, folks, please…)
Today’s song:
That’s it for this post! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!
The Bookish Mutant 