Alli the Book Giraffe

Hello readers! It’s time to talk about books with mental health representation. I’m super excited for this one! I’m going to tell you guys about three books with autism representation.

I believe that autistic people are WILDLY misunderstood. And, these books can help allistic people understand them better along with understanding how they are treated by others.

If you’ve never heard of Book Blogger Hop, it is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addict. Each week a discussion topic is given and many book bloggers post based on that topic. New topics start on Friday and end the following Thursday. I personally always post my answers on Sundays.

Prompt: 10th-16th – May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Are there any books with themes or characters dealing with issues related to mental health that you have found to be enlightening or comforting?

Good Different is a middle grade book following an autistic girl named Selah. She has all these rules for acting “normal” to follow. She’s really good at hiding it all until she hits another student, and is villainized by everyone.

This is the most accurate representation of masking that I’ve ever read. It was almost painful to read. Masking autistic people have to actively think about everything from their body language to facial expressions to their tone of voice. What comes natural to some is a struggle for others.

Stephen King was the author who got me into reading, so it makes me extra happy that he would write a book with autism rep, AND that it would be amazing representation.

Holly is a character in the Bill Hodges trilogy, but she also appears in The Outsider, If It Bleeds, and most recently Holly.

Holly faces what many autistic people face. She is constantly infantilized by her own family when they treat her as if she can’t do anything on her own. When Bill comes along and treats her as an equal, she really starts to see how much she is capable of on her own.

Most of King’s fans that I’ve seen who hate this character are non-autistic people, which says a lot to me personally.

Mistborn era 2 has this character called Steris, who is very different from everyone else. She has a lot of interests and loves to talk about them a lot. And, this really annoys other people. And, that is exactly how autistic people are treated.

Then Wax comes along and lets her speak about her interest without making her feel like she is a burden.

This representation and Holly really show how autistic people are treated by those around them. I hope when allistic people read these books, they can see how not to treat autistic people. I hope they might be able to empathize with Steris and Holly, and learn that autistic people are people, too.

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This post was created by Allison Wolfe for www.allithebookgiraffe.com and is not permitted to be posted anywhere else.

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