Round out Neurodiversity Month with must-listen audiobooks by autistic authors

When it comes to meaningful autistic representation in romance, Helen Hoang changed the game with her 2018 hit, The Kiss Quotient. Hoang, a lifelong romance reader, had recently been diagnosed with autism when she decided to write her first book. She set out to create a dynamic, multifaceted autistic protagonist with agency over her romantic life in a genre where autistic characters—if present at all—are too often infantilized or one-dimensional. The Kiss Quotient stars Stella, a mathematician who believes she's behind in the romance department. Stella hires a male escort to help her practice things like dating and kissing. But as Stella and the hunky Michael get to know each other, these educational sessions start to become something very real. It's a sexy, fun listen where a brilliant autistic protagonist gets to choose her happy ending, narrated with humor and heart by Carly Robins.

Talia Hibbert's Brown Sisters trilogy is incredibly funny, sharp, and steamy. And if you're looking for autistic representation, there's no shame in skipping right to the final audiobook, Act Your Age, Eve Brown, delightfully narrated by actress Ione Butler. Both protagonists of this romance experience Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but it impacts their lives in very different ways. Eve is a lovably chaotic hot mess, while Jacob likes everything to be perfectly in order. They're complete opposites, but those differences makes them fit together just right. Hibbert drew on her own experiences with ASD while writing the book, but she also interviewed many autistic friends and loved ones to better showcase the broad diversity of autistic folks.

Writer, activist, and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha has written and edited a variety of books that thoughtfully examine their experiences as a Brown, nonbinary, disabled, and autistic person. Their author-narrated essay collection Care Work contains thoughtful, action-oriented writing about building a disability justice movement that centers queer and BIPOC disabled people. While not the sole focus of their essays, neurodivergence is an important part of Piepzna-Samarasinha's argument for increasing accessibility and combating ableism.

Two YA love stories in one audiobook, co-narrated by brilliant voice actors Cat Gould and Sarah Mollo-Christensen, all set at a convention for fans? Sign me up! Queens of Geek takes place at SupaCon, where actors, vloggers, and fans meet to celebrate all things geek culture. One plot line follows bisexual actress and vlogger Charlie as she encounters her internet crush in person. The second is a friends-to-lovers romance for Taylor, who is autistic and anxious but decides to go out of her comfort zone for a contest for her favorite fandom. Author Jen Wilde's personal experiences with autism and anxiety bring a lot of nuance and relatability to Taylor's character. If you enjoy Wilde's style, you can find more autistic representation in her YA mystery/thriller audiobook This Is the Way the World Ends.

As our awareness of autism grows, more and more adults are being diagnosed and finding a better understanding of themselves and how they relate to the world around them. That was the case for Katherine May, who, at age 38, was struggling to grasp why motherhood and everyday life were so overwhelming for her when she received an autism diagnosis. The Electricity of Every Living Thing begins with her eye-opening diagnosis, then uses her walk across the 630-mile South West Coast Path as a way to reinterpret her life and connection with nature through this new lens. Listen to May narrate her journey with the original memoir, or enjoy this dramatized Audible Original edition, made all the more vivid with a full cast and immersive sound effects.

Author Kacen Callender was diagnosed with ADHD in high school and later self-diagnosed with autism—two neurodivergences that frequently overlap. Lark, the protagonist in Callender's YA contemporary romance novel Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution, is also nonbinary and neurodivergent. Lark may not have specific labels or diagnoses, but they know they're different. They also dream of being an author and think becoming a social media influencer can get them there. When Lark's ex-best friend Kasim accidentally posts a love poem to a secret crush on Lark's Twitter, it goes viral. To protect Kasim from getting found out, Lark pretends the poem is theirs—with no idea of the ramifications. It's an endearing audiobook about a teen embracing what makes them unique, narrated by trans activist and award-winning voice actor Qamar Yochanan.

If you're looking for dynamic autistic characters in sci-fi, The Outside trilogy by Ada Hoffmann should absolutely be on your list, especially thanks to their nuanced narration by the incredible Nancy Wu. The series stars Yasira Shien, an autistic scientist who discovers a potentially universe-changing energy drive. But when she activates it, an entire space station is destroyed. Yasira expects to be executed, but the AI Gods offer her a surprising path to redemption—finding her old teacher who is wanted for crimes against humanity. Hoffmann, who was diagnosed with autism at 13, includes an array of autistic characters in their work and also writes a review series that discusses autism representation in speculative fiction, Autistic Book Party.

Besides helping you better understand yourself, being diagnosed with autism can change the way you look at history and culture. A Kind of Spark is a middle-grade novel about Addie, an 11-year-old autistic girl in Scotland who finds resonance in the way she's been bullied and othered when she learns about witch trials that occurred centuries prior in her hometown. Addie feels immense sympathy for the women put to death for accusations of witchcraft because they were misunderstood and maligned, so she starts campaigning for a memorial to ensure their lives are never forgotten. The audiobook is narrated wonderfully by Scottish actress Katy Townsend. Author Elle McNicoll writes multifaceted autistic young characters with insight from her own lived experiences with neurodivergence. Keep an eye out for her YA debut, Some Like It Cold, later this year.

Rivers Solomon is one of today's most creative speculative fiction writers, with groundbreaking sci-fi/fantasy/horror novels like The Deep and Sorrowland earning multiple awards. Don't miss Solomon's debut audiobook, which stars an autistic protagonist. Narrated by the incredible Cherise Boothe, An Unkindness of Ghosts is set aboard a spaceship that draws sharp racial and class divides. A dark-skinned and odd-mannered scientist, Aster keeps quiet about being treated as subhuman—but her deceased mother's journals just might hold the key to her escape. Queerness, Blackness, and neurodivergence are huge themes in Solomon's work, brought to life through wonderfully nuanced characters and fantastical worlds that draw thought-provoking parallels to the real world.

Get lost in a magical world featuring autistic representation in Dragon Mage. Aram Raythe has only ever wanted to fit in, but he's always felt like an outsider in his small fishing village. Then Aram discovers he's so much more than ordinary—he holds ancient magic that, with training, could one day make him an elite dragon rider. Aram lives with ASD, as does author ML Spencer, who has said in interviews that her experiences with autism greatly shaped how she wrote Aram's story. It's a fantastical, fast-paced audiobook, enthusiastically performed by narrator Ben Farrow.