Dexter meets Victoria Schwab in this dark and compelling fantasy about a girl who is determined to take down the black market once and for all in the conclusion to the trilogy that started with the critically acclaimed Not Even Bones.
Nita finally has Fabricio, the boy who betrayed her to the black market, within her grasp. But when proof that Kovit’s a zannie—a monster who eats pain in order to survive—is leaked to the world, Nita must reevalute her plans.
With enemies closing in on all sides, the only way out is for Nita and Kovit to take on the most dangerous man in the world: Fabricio’s father. He protects the secrets of the monsters who run the black market. Stealing those secrets could be the one thing that stands between Nita and Kovit and certain death in the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy that began with the critically acclaimed Not Even Bones.
Representation Includes
- Latina asexual and aromantic main character (Nita)
- Thai asexual and aromantic main character (Kovit)
Content Warnings
graphic violence, emotional abusive parent, torture and mutilation, gore, kidnapping, dissection, murder, cannibalism, druggingReviews
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Common Bonds is an anthology of speculative short stories and poetry featuring aromantic characters. At the heart of this collection are the bonds that impact our lives from beginning to end: platonic relationships. Within this anthology, a cursed seamstress finds comfort in the presence of a witch, teams of demon hunters work with their rival to save one of their own, a peculiar scholar gets attached to those he was meant to study, and queerplatonic shopkeepers guide their pupil as they explore their relationship needs and desires. Through nineteen stories and poems, Common Bonds explores the ways platonic relationships enrich our lives.
Representation Includes
- Aromantic protagonists of various identities
Content Warnings
Content warnings for each story listed in the front of the book. Additionally, “Draconmōt Council of Human Study Report compiled by Usander Greystart” replicates some anti-Native American stereotypes; “Fishing Over the Bones of the Dragon” has discussions of dubiously-consensual sexual coercion or rape.Reviews
Where to Find
Details
- Edited by Claudie Arseneault, RoAnna Sylver, C. T. Callahan, and B. R. Sanders
- Featured Authors
- Published 2021 by The Kraken Collective
- Paperback ISBN-13: 9781775312970
After seven years working as partners, Kai and Ilsa are the best professional finders in the business. There’s nothing they can’t track down, no matter how unfamiliar the star system or hazardous the path. When a new client insists on accompanying the search for his daughter, Ilsa and Kai reluctantly agree. How can they refuse when Eleazar Dantes is desperate enough to pay double their usual fee?
But a high-stakes investigation is no time for distractions. Even more troublesome, when Kai realizes his true feelings for Ilsa, his timing couldn’t be worse. Never mind that she doesn’t seem to reciprocate: heartbreak is the least of their problems as the trail they’re following grows dangerous.
With every step forward, Kai and Ilsa are more certain they won’t find Eleazar’s missing daughter alive.
Representation Includes
- Aromantic asexual woman protagonist
Content Warnings
Non-consensual kissing; aroace character deals with unrequited romantic feelings from her partner; anti-ace and anti-aro sentiments expressed by characters; gun violence; kidnapping; on-page murder; claustrophobic atmosphereReviews
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Details
- Originally published published March 16th 2016 by Less Than Three Press
- Re-released self-published in 2020
- ISBN13: 9781946316141
Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.
In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons.
Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.
Representation Includes
- Aromantic asexual protagonist
- Non-binary and gay supporting characters, including m/m couple side romance plot
Content Warnings
Internalized ace- and aro-phobia; references to slavery and torture; battle scenes and violence; loss of parents (in the past)Reviews
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Details
- Published February 2nd 2021 by Inkyard Press
- Hardcover ISBN13: 9781335080271
Wasp’s job is simple. Hunt ghosts. And every year she has to fight to remain Archivist. Desperate and alone, she strikes a bargain with the ghost of a supersoldier. She will go with him on his underworld hunt for the long-lost ghost of his partner and in exchange she will find out more about his pre-apocalyptic world than any Archivist before her. And there is much to know. After all, Archivists are marked from birth to do the holy work of a goddess. They’re chosen. They’re special. Or so they’ve been told for four hundred years.
Archivist Wasp fears she is not the chosen one, that she won’t survive the trip to the underworld, that the brutal life she has escaped might be better than where she is going. There is only one way to find out.
Representation Includes
- Aro-ace protagonist
Content Warnings
Scene where protagonist forces herself to vomit; contemplates suicide multiple times; child abuse; suffocation; dog death; tortureAwards
- Locus Award nominee
- Andre Norton Award finalist
Reviews
- Quartzen’s review
- The Illustrated Page’s review
- Liz Bourke’s review
- Christine Sandquist’s review
- Aentee’s review
Where to Find
Details
- Published May 5th 2015 by Big Mouth House (first published April 13th 2015)
- Paperback ISBN13: 9781618730978
Integrating both Maori myth and New Zealand reality, The Bone People became the most successful novel in New Zealand publishing history when it appeared in 1984.
In a tower on the New Zealand sea lives Kerewin Holmes: part Maori, part European, asexual and aromantic, an artist estranged from her art, a woman in exile from her family. One night her solitude is disrupted by a visitor–a speechless, mercurial boy named Simon, who tries to steal from her and then repays her with his most precious possession. As Kerewin succumbs to Simon’s feral charm, she also falls under the spell of his Maori foster father Joe, who rescued the boy from a shipwreck and now treats him with an unsettling mixture of tenderness and brutality. Out of this unorthodox trinity Keri Hulme has created what is at once a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where indigenous and European New Zealand meet, clash, and sometimes merge.
Winner of both a Booker Prize and Pegasus Prize for Literature, The Bone People is a work of unfettered wordplay and mesmerizing emotional complexity.
Representation Includes
- Aromantic asexual mixed-race Maori/white protagonist
Content Warnings
Child abuse and violence against a child by a major character; child neglect; alcoholismAwards
- Booker Prize
- Pegasus Prize for Literature
- Ockham New Zealand Book Award
Reviews
- Ace Reads’s review
- Louise’s review
- redbeardace’s review and Tabitha at Asexuality in Fiction’s reply
Where to Find
Details
- First published 1984 by Spiral Press
- ISBN13: 9780140089226
Fortune favors the bold. Magic favors the liars.
Ren is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadežra with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.
But as she’s drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the City of Dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled…with Ren at their heart.
The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a dazzling and darkly magical fantasy adventure by Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, writing together as M. A. Carrick.
Representation Includes
- Bisexual aromantic main protagonist (Vargo)
- Bisexual minor protagonist (Giuna)
- Lesbian side character; trans side character
Notes on relationship status' at end of book
Vargo has a sexual but not romantic relationship with Iascat that is not officially over at the end of the book1 romantic relationship (cis female/trans-male) break up at the end: Tess/Pavlin
1 romantic relationship (cis female/cis female) remain together at end: Giuna/Sibiliat
Content Warnings
death, physical and psychological child abuse, drug use (including forced drug use), kidnapping, mental illness (caused by severe insomnia), fear of sexual violence (no incidents), police violenceReviews
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Beatrice has always struggled with motion sickness in any form of travel. That’s why she made sure that she lived on the island of Maredudd, where she only rarely needs to get anywhere using anything other than her own two feet. However, it doesn’t make it easy for her to get anywhere in a hurry.
She gets called away for urgent help healing a friend who got bitten by an unknown creature and gets surprised by an unexpected invitation to a childhood friend’s wedding. She’s almost positive she won’t be able to get there in time, or in good shape enough to be able to attend the wedding.
However, with the help of two unusual friends and a little bit of magic, she’s going to try everything in her power to get there, even if it will be an unusual journey.
Representation Includes
- Aro-ace woman protagonist with a disability that gives her extreme motion sickness
- Bisexual supporting character
- Lesbian couple minor characters
Content Warnings
Animal bite and magical treatment for it.Reviews
Where to Find
Details
- Published January 31st 2019
-
ASIN: B07MLMCPDC
She warned of the pain. She did.
But no warning can prepare you.
Nothing can.
Long, long ago, a little mermaid became intrigued by the way tall-crabs don’t act at all like the prey she’s more comfortable chasing. Her quest to understand will take her places she had never dreamed possible – onto land and beyond the endless cold.
But quests always come with a price and hers is no exception. If she cannot find love within a year, she’ll become sea foam. With only a month left and no closer to understanding ‘love’ at all, what is Maris to do? Tall-crabs – humans – are confusing and contradictory and love comes in so many forms, how can she ever know which one is right to win her life amidst friends and family on land?
Fantastical worldbuilding meets verse novels in this queerplatonic retelling of The Little Mermaid, the first story in a series of queer fairytale retellings.
Representation Includes
- Asexual main character, implied to be demiromantic, with a fantasy chronic pain condition who uses sign language (mermaid)
- Asexual, sex-repulsed, and aromantic main character (prince)
- Lesbian major character (princess)
Content Warnings
Anti-ace and anti-aro sentiments discussed in passingReviews
Where to Find
Details
- Published September 27th 2018 by The Kraken Collective (first published June 9th 2016)
A Dragon, a Phoenix, and an Opera House.
Bonds that transcend time, loyalties that defy hardship, and the magic of the places we call Home.
(Wherein a Dragon and a Phoenix make their living on earth in an Opera House.)
An Aromantic Chinese Fairytale.
Representation Includes
- Two aromantic Chinese protagonists
Content Warnings
Destruction of house in fireReviews
Where to Find
Details
- ISBN: 9781794632547
- ASIN: B07N2PCWT2