books @aroaessidhe - Tumblr Blog

Hello, I’m Laya!

@layaart is my art blog

@layahimalaya is my “main” but I’m not very active there

storygraph (won't accept friend req's of people I don't know usually)

DATABASES & OTHER BOOKISH STUFF

my aro & ace book database / tinyurl.com/aspecbooks / tumblr post > find specific aspec book list posts at: #aspec books / masterpost > no-romance book database / tinyurl.com/norombooks book character description database / tinyurl.com/bookdesc / tag I co-run @diversebookfanart, where we collect art for bipoc/queer/disability books! archivist wasp: tweetbot (rip), discord server!

COSPLAY

general tag (does not have everything, just highlights!) / instagram archivist wasp / artemisia / lirael / blue / red / tihylttw

READING TAGS 📚

2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 ['23 faves], 2024 ['24 faves], 2025 ['25 faves], 2026 monthly wrapups

MISC TAGS

#aroace books / #aromantic books / #asexual books / #no romance #aspec books (lists) / #recent aspec books (casual wrapups) #book list (other miscellaneous specific book lists) #laya talks / #bookmark collection / #art / #my art,

#(blank blogs are assumed spam and blocked)

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izzi-illustrates

working on a Sabriel/Touchstone illustration

#abhorsen #art #<3

sophieburnham

they're a 10 but...

#sargassa

aro & ace books: fat/plus size characters

some of these are based off memory and I can't remember if it's something that's explored much in the book, or just offhand description/the cover! Feel free to correct or remind me of others

Baker Thief & Painted Flock - urban fantasy, aroallo genderfluid & demi-aroace woman MCs (various other aspec MCs)

Two Dark Moons - YA fantasy, aroallo girl MC (1/3)

Someone You Can Build A Nest In - fantasy/horror, ace woman LI (& MC)

Hallowed Be Her Flesh - horror/romance, sex-favorable ace woman MC

The Thread That Binds - urban fantasy, grey-ace agender MC, aroallo SC

The Chronicles of Nerezia - fantasy, aroace agender MC (1/4, most are aspec)

Her Own Happiness - contemporary, ace man MC (1/2)

Beneath The Citadel - YA fantasy, ace girl MC (1/5)

The Sound of Stars - YA sci-fi, demisexual girl MC

A Song of Salvation - YA sci-fi, 3 demi-coded MCs (2xM 1xF)

Love Letters for Joy - YA contemporary, ace girl MC (1/2)

City of Spires - high fantasy, aroace MC (various other aspec MCs)

Here Goes Nothing - YA contemporary, ace girl MC

Goddess of the Hunt - poetry collection, aroace

The Witch King - YA fantasy, ace girl SC

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

info included here is brief! please see my database for full details of the books. 15/6/26

#aspec books #characters mentioned in the notes being the fat ones. many of these have other aspec MCs that aren't #aroace #fat representation #asexual #Someone You Can Build A Nest In #two dark moons #the sound of stars #baker thief #painted flock #i know there's some I've forgotten bc the characters aren't on the cover and it's been ages or whatever #beneath the citadel #i'm also going to be adding the last-updated date at the end of these posts too. will go back through the others at some point

andiedraws

Tired and gay

Tired gays of Parijatdvipa. Just wanted to paint Priya and Malini in a tender moment because hurt/comfort is my jam 😝 also wanted to draw Malini in her light mail armor from Lotus Empire!

#the jasmine throne #art

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layaart

Here's the cover I designed/illustrated for Common Bonds 3! The crowdfund campaign for this starts soon ❄

#it's so close to funded!

battyaboutbooksreviews

Queer Palestinian Books for Pride Month

theoplum

very excited to announce I signed with a literary agent :) I’m now represented by Maeve Maclysaght at ACM, and we’ll be working together to pitch my previous graphic novels to publishers, starting with Blade of the Fane

#blade of the fane #ladies of the living princess #yessss #art

bones-clouds

books i read in 2026:

"the space between worlds"

micaiah johnson

"human beings are unknowable. you can never know a single person fully, not even yourself. even if you think you know yourself in your safe glass castle, you don’t know yourself in the dirt. even if you hustle and make in the rough, you have no idea if you would thrive or die in the light of real riches, if your cleverness would outlive your desperation."

#the space between worlds

aroaessidhe

i need to transform some of this energy bitching about people badly recommending aspec books into my own posts where I do try to add at least a little context of what people should expect, unfortunately im so busy and it's a lot of work Making Posts

aroaessidhe

also if i do ever have a post where how i portrayed the aro/ace-ness is different from what's in the book, idm people letting me know their opinion.... i def go back and edit my posts/database bc I've changed my mind or seen how someone else has discussed it. sometimes i just have a bad memory about things or assume that people have seen my 5 other posts about the book or whatever

#sometimes it does just come down to different interpretations of course

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wormsinthecheese

"a mindless thing subject to the mindless processes of life"

sharing the sketch because I really love it!!!

I adore this quote/paragraph and the whole chapter (Deep Canyon from Act 3); it's like the cherry on top that drives all the bad themes home haha--agh. ugh. agh. *takes bad poison damage*

(THIS SONG AND THIS BOOK EVERYONE!!!! I'm vibing hard with it and you should too, it's really uncanny and goofy at the same time I love it)

#the works of vermin #art #ooohh

i need to transform some of this energy bitching about people badly recommending aspec books into my own posts where I do try to add at least a little context of what people should expect, unfortunately im so busy and it's a lot of work Making Posts

#laya talks #am i being too mean am i at level 20 aspec book recommending while everyone else is at level 2 & therefore overthinking things #way more than the average person does and nobody else cares. i cant tell

on a similar note, I've seen a psalm for the wild-built mentioned as having aroace representation numerous times now....... where?

are they talking about mosscap? the robot? whose existence is fundamentally inhuman, so any lack of attraction is not in the human sexuality kind of way (which can be explored interestingly, hello murderbot, but this is not what's happening here) - and tbh it's been a minute but I simply don't remember any implications there anyway, and I would have noticed

or are they somehow thinking dex being agender = aroace....... which, I don't know where to start. also read book 2,

(or is it the dreaded 'this book doesn't have a romance therefore it's aroace')

#laya talks #laya complains about aspec stuff #if someone can make a compelling argument for mosscap with quotes I'll listen. but. i love mosscap. i don't think this is representation #something to analyse and discuss maybe but not put on an aroace rec list with no context please.

aroaessidhe

Whenever a woman without children loved an animal or a cause or anything else – anything else besides that which she ought to love most in the world, that which she ought to spend all her days trying and longing for – it was thought to be a substitute for what she did not have. No matter that all three of us had looked upon the Creature with pride and joy; I alone was not its creator, or its artist, or its inventor, but merely a mother, most qualified to care for it not due to any intelligence or observation on my part, but due to the perversion of some natural urge.

Our Hideous Progeny, C.E. McGill

#our hideous progeny #i reread this in the last couple days:)#have something small on the fanart backburner tho idk if/when i'll get to it

bigcats-birds-and-books

Books of 2026: THE WATER OUTLAWS by S. L. Huang.

Am I daisychaining my way through Huang's catalogue? MAYBE SO, listen I REALLY liked BURNING ROSES okay

I also preordered this, which came out in 2023, and it's been sitting on my shelf since then, unread, because of Who I Am As A Person. Oops.

It's a retelling of the 14th-ish century Chinese novel Water Margin, which is about mountain/marsh bandits and imperial corruption, except Huang's version is hella genderbent and queer (like casually queer characters, not like That's The Plot--my speed!). It's martial artsy, it's epic fantasy/magic/sorcery, it's wuxia, it's smash the patriarchy, it's so very much longer than the other books of Huang's I've read.

The pacing in the front half was slower as Huang laid a lot of character groundwork, and then the action picked up in the second half A Lot (ouch, my bedtimes). I appreciated that we followed two women on very different character arcs: Lin Chong, an expert arms instructor for the Empire, as loyal as they come, and Lu Junyi, who starts borderline-seditionist and becomes [SPOILERS REDACTED]. Very intimate perspectives for both of them, and for our beloved Lu Da and also our Big Bad Antag--good stuff all around.

I also enjoyed being able to see Huang's areas of expertise on page: the author bio says, "Huang is a Hollywood stunt performer, firearms expert, and Hugo Award winner with a math degree from MIT and credits in productions like Battlestar Galactica and Top Shot." The fight scenes were peak, the magic scenes did read like they were straight out of a movie, and the weaponry was delightful! (I just think Huang is a supremely cool person, and Huang's author bio--totally pronounless, btw, Give Us Nothing <3--gets me every time haha.)

Overall, I enjoyed this! It took me a little bit to get into, but I'm glad I stuck with it and I may or may not have binged the last 200 pages this evening. Huang does provide fairly comprehensive content warnings at the front of the book (and the bit about cannibalism was NOT fucking around, holy shit), but if none of those send you screaming toward the marsh and you vibe with feminist epic fantasy wuxia, check this out!

#the water outlaws #yes i liked this book!!

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leo-lenti

Keema of the Daware Tribe, an Oathbearer.

My boys are done! Now time to draw them both suffering >:)

#the spear cuts through water #art #yay!

myxinidaes

holy shit the portugese covers for the imperial radch trilogy are so cool... the colours! the style!! the way the edges of the covers form a pattern together!!!

#imperial radch #ancillary justice #fuck which one is my tag #anyway these SLAP

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