#being ace

It has a dozen fiction stories with ace characters all over the spectrum and in so many genres. Im talking ghost stories, supernatural, drama, sci-fi, you name it. I've literally cried three times while reading it I feel so seen

This is the representation ace people need. In every category. We need full length novels dedicated to the ace experience because this would've SAVED me as a kid.

Hey! We're doing an open call for submissions for Being Aro, which released from Page Street Publishing next summer. Submission guidelines here!

Books of 2026: BEING ACE edited by Madeline Dyer.

I remember when the call for submissions went out for this one! Specifically, I remember which trail I was hiking at the time, and how many possibilities I churned (badly) through before realizing: yeah okay I write pretty much exclusively (aro)ace characters, but also I put pretty much None Of That into the story because I'm just...not interested lol. It does not occur to me to pair my flavor of "no, thanks," asexuality with, say, birdnapped lab experiments, or heisting from your foster brother's employer to clear his name, or monster-filled liminal spaces, because we are Busy™, apparently.

But!: I was still hugely excited for this, and finally got around to reading it now that BEING ARO is coming for us. The book itself is very pretty (love the gradient on the boards!), and it's got a general content warning list at the front, which is nice, especially for YA.

The fourteen stories covered a wide range of genres, and lots of those were spec! There was a spread of Explicitness of Aceness, too--some stories talked about it using the word, some stories talked around it, and some stories didn't mention it at all (I was low-key surprised by this lattermost category, tbh, but Pleasantly: that's how I tend to think about my own aceness, too).

The ones that used the words were ultimately heavy on affirmation ("there's nothing wrong with you, you're not broken, you're great the way you are"), which I vibe with in YA especially--we love good reassurance to teen readers which is what I needed lol. The ones that didn't use the words were more focused on a variety of platonic relationships, which I liked, too, in a more subtle way.

Coming off a couple recent anthologies I've read, I was also pleasantly surprised by the overall quality here--almost all of these were well-written (more hits than misses!). My favorites were:

"Give up the Ghost" by Linsey Miler

"Smells like Teen Virgin" by SE Anderson

"The Third Star" by RoAnna Sylver

"No Cure for Doubt" by Jas Brown

ace & aro books: ace flags on the cover!

excluding nonfiction, obviously. books with purple/green covers

Is Love The Answer? - manga, aroace MC

Shapes of Love - YA contemporary, aroace MC

Rick - MG contemporary, questioning ace MC

Being Ace - YA speculative anthology

Being Aro - YA anthology

The Loudest Silence - YA contemporary, aroace-coded MC (1/2)

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

For The Plot - contemporary romance, demisexual MC [have not read]

For Never & Always - contemporary romance, demisexual LI? [have not read]

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

This week, make sure you're aware of your local ace characters! I love all of my ace children equally, but y'all are allowed to play favorites.

Do you like reading about ace girls who choose to be kind when the world isn't? Ace girls who decide to hurt those in power as much as they've been hurt? Ace girls who use assumptions about aceness to their advantage?

And if none of these stories are right for you, please check out some other ace books this week, like Fire Becomes Her, Aces Wild, Beyond the Black Door, Silver in the Mist, Elatsoe, The Last Eight, ACE, The Sound of Stars, or So Let Them Burn.