Asexual
2025 curated booklist
Aces Wild: A Heist
Amanda Dewitt
What happens in Vegas when an all-asexual online friend group attempts to break into a high-stakes gambling club? Shenanigans ensue.
Some people join chess club, some people play football. Jack Shannon runs a secret blackjack ring in his private school’s basement. What else is the son of a Las Vegas casino mogul supposed to do?
Everything starts falling apart when Jack’s mom is arrested for their family’s ties to organized crime. His sister Beth thinks this is the Shannon family’s chance to finally go straight, but Jack knows that something’s not right. His mom was sold out, and he knows by who. Peter Carlevaro- rival casino owner, mobster, and jilted lover. Gross.
Jack hatches a plan to break into Carlevaro’s inner sanctum and find what he’s holding over his mom’s head, but Jack’s going to need help. He recruits his closest friends, his online asexual support group, to form his team. All he needs to do is infiltrate a secret high stakes gambling club, save his mom, and dodge any dark secrets about his family he’d rather not know, while hopelessly navigating what it means to be in love while asexual. Easy, right?
Category: Young Adult, Mystery
Representation: Asexual, non-binary
Content Warnings: Ableism, abuse, violence, substance use/abuse
ISBN: 9781682636237
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Moth to a Flame
Finn Longman
Isabel Ryans has fled Espera, leaving behind her identity as teen assassin the Moth. Now she’s trying to adjust to the reality of the outside world. But her grief and trauma are catching up with her, and surrounded by civilians who will never understand what life is like in the walled city, she feels more alone than ever.
When a journalist is murdered nearby, suspicion automatically falls on Isabel. And inside Espera’s walls, the abolitionist movement is gaining strength. When Isabel’s search for the killer leads to an unexpected reunion, she’s forced to decide whether she can really leave the city behind, and what part the Moth might have to play in the uprising.
Is Isabel Ryans the city’s saviour . . . or its scapegoat.
Category: Young Adult, fantasy, series
Representation: Asexual, diverse sexualities
Content Warnings: Violence, substance use/abuse, mental illness, sexual activity.
ISBN: 9781398523425
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Being Ace: An Anthology of Queer, Trans, Femme, and Disabled Stories of Asexual Love and Connection
Ed. Madeline Dyer
From a wheelchair user racing to save her kidnapped girlfriend and a little mermaid who loves her sisters more than suitors, to a slayer whose virgin blood keeps attracting monsters, the stories of this anthology are anything but conventional.
Whether adventuring through space, outsmarting a vengeful water spirit, or surviving haunted cemeteries, no two aces are the same in these 14 unique works that highlight asexual romance, aromantic love, and identities across the asexual spectrum.
Category: Young Adult, short stories
Representation: Asexual, transgender
Content Warnings: Sexual violence, substance use/abuse, mental illness, transphobia, ableism, eating disorder/ disordered eating, violence, abuse
ISBN: 9781645679561
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet
Jen Ferguson
Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She’ll be working in her family’s ice-cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend—whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort—and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago without a word.
But when she gets a letter from her biological father—a man she hoped would stay behind bars for the rest of his life—Lou immediately knows that she cannot meet him, no matter how much he insists.
While King’s friendship makes Lou feel safer and warmer than she would have thought possible, when her family’s business comes under threat, she soon realizes that she can’t ignore her father forever.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Asexual, bisexual, indigiqueer
Content Warnings: Sexual violence, substance use/abuse, mental illness, violence, abuse, self harm
ISBN: 9780063086180
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Every Heart a Doorway
Seanan McGuire
Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests
Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else.
But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.
Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.
But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of things.
No matter the cost.
Category: Young Adult, horror, series
Representation: Asexual, transgender
Content Warnings: Violence, character death, gore, transphobia
ISBN: 9780765385505
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Tash Hearts Tolstoy
Kathryn Ormsbee
After a shout-out from one of the internet’s superstar vloggers, Natasha “Tash” Zelenka suddenly finds herself and her obscure, amateur web series, Unhappy Families, thrust in the limelight: She’s gone viral.
Her show is a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina—written by Tash’s literary love Count Lev Nikolayevich “Leo” Tolstoy. Tash is a fan of the 40,000 new subscribers, their gushing tweets, and flashy Tumblr gifs. Not so much the pressure to deliver the best web series ever.
And when Unhappy Families is nominated for a Golden Tuba award, Tash’s cyber-flirtation with a fellow award nominee suddenly has the potential to become something IRL—if she can figure out how to tell said crush that she’s romantic asexual.
Tash wants to enjoy her newfound fame, but will she lose her friends in her rise to the top? What would Tolstoy do?
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Asexual, gay
Content Warnings: Discrimination, character death
ISBN: 9781481489348
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Solitaire
Alice Oseman
Tori Spring isn’t sure how to be happy again. Then she meets Michael Holden, and they try to unmask the mysterious Solitaire (and survive high school) in Alice Oseman’s stunning, unflinching honest debut novel, which first introduced her fan-favorite Heartstopper characters Nick and Charlie.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Asexual, pansexual, gay, bisexual
Content Warnings: Suicide, mental illness, self-harm, disordered eating/eating disorders
ISBN: 9781338863420
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Butterfly Assassin
Finn Longman
Trained and traumatised by a secret assassin programme for minors, Isabel Ryans wants nothing more than to be a normal civilian. After running away from home, she has a new name, a new life and a new friend, Emma, and for the first time, things are looking up.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Asexual
Content Warnings: Character death, substance use/abuse, gore, mental illness, abuse
ISBN: 9781398507340
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Before I Let Go
Best friends Corey and Kyra were inseparable in their snow-covered town of Lost Creek, Alaska. When Corey moves away, she makes Kyra promise to stay strong during the long, dark winter, and wait for her return.
Just days before Corey is to return home to visit, Kyra dies. Corey is devastated―and confused. The entire Lost community speaks in hushed tones about the town’s lost daughter, saying her death was meant to be. And they push Corey away like she’s a stranger.
Category: Young Adult, Mystery
Representation: Asexual, pansexual
Content Warnings: Mental illness, suicide, violence, character death, bullying, ableism
ISBN: 9781492668077
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Never Been Kissed
Timothy Janovsky
Dear (never-been-quite-over-you) Crush,
It’s been a few years since we were together,
but I can’t stop thinking about the time we almost…
Wren Roland has never been kissed, but he wants that movie-perfect ending more than anything. Feeling nostalgic on the eve of his birthday, he sends emails to all the boys he (ahem) loved before he came out. Morning brings the inevitable Oh God What Did I Do?, but he brushes that panic aside. Why stress about it? None of his could-have-beens are actually going to read the emails, much less respond. Right?
Enter Derick Haverford, Wren’s #1 pre-coming-out-crush and his drive-in theater’s new social media intern. Everyone claims he’s coasting on cinematic good looks and his father’s connections, but Wren has always known there’s much more to Derick than meets the eye. Too bad he doesn’t feel the same way about the infamous almost-kiss that once rocked Wren’s world.
Whatever. Wren’s no longer a closeted teenager; he can survive this. But as their hazy summer becomes consumed with a special project that may just save the struggling drive-in for good, Wren and Derick are drawn ever-closer…and maybe, finally, Wren’s dream of a perfect-kiss-before-the-credits is within reach.
Category: Young Adult, Series
Representation: Asexual, gay
Content Warnings: Homophobia, substance use/abuse, character death
ISBN: 9781728250588
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Sound of Stars
Alechia Dow
Can a girl who risks her life for books and an Ilori who loves pop music work together to save humanity?
When a rebel librarian meets an Ilori commander…
Two years ago, a misunderstanding between the leaders of Earth and the invading Ilori resulted in the death of one-third of the world’s population. Today, seventeen-year-old Ellie Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. All art, books and creative expression are illegal, but Ellie breaks the rules by keeping a secret library.
When young Ilori commander Morris finds Ellie’s illegal library, he’s duty-bound to deliver her for execution. But Morris isn’t a typical Ilori…and Ellie and her books might be the key to a desperate rebellion of his own.
Category: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Representation: Asexual, non-binary
Content Warnings: Mental illness, gore, violence, racism, substance use/abuse, suicide, abuse
ISBN: 9781335406699
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
A Snake Falls to Earth
Darcie Little Badger
Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories.
Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake.
Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries.
And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.
Category: Young Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Asexual, indigiqueer
Content Warnings: Violence, character death, mental illness, abuse, racism
ISBN: 9781646140923
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Charm Offensive
Alison Cochrun
In this witty and heartwarming romantic comedy—reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue and One to Watch—an awkward tech wunderkind on a reality dating show goes off-script when sparks fly with his producer.
Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.
Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.
As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.
Category: Young Adult, Romance
Representation: Asexual, pansexual, bisexual, lesbian
Content Warnings: Mental illness, transphobia, homophobia, substance use/abuse, sexual activity, sexual violence, religion,
ISBN: 9781982170714
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Loveless
Alice Oseman
Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day.
As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, in a whole new town far from home, Georgia’s ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her ‘teenage dream’ is in sight.
But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her. With new terms thrown at her – asexual, aromantic – Georgia is more uncertain about her feelings than ever.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Asexual, aromantic, pansexual, lesbian, non-binary, diverse gender identities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Discrimination, substance use/abuse
ISBN: 9780857665843
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)