A review by naps
Gender Identity, Sexuality and Autism: Voices from Across the Spectrum by Meredith R. Maroney, Eva A. Mendes

informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

As a queer and potentially autistic person, I enjoyed this book. It starts you off with an introduction that defines key terms (both terms related to autism and LGBTQIA+ terms). Then it gives a few narratives by autistic LGBTQIA+ people. And at the end, it finishes with a quick analysis on the narratives along with a few themes found in research and through the authors' work experience. 

I'm glad the authors came up with this idea (or heard it from somewhere, wherever that might be). There need to be more books like this. I found the narratives enjoyable to read and a few of them relatable. I think every person interviewed in this book had something interesting to add about autism and gender/sexuality, and I think there are some really nice quotes in here from those people. 

Although I did enjoy this book overall, I guess nothing really stood out to me. The narratives in the middle were possibly the best part in my opinion, meaning the analysis didn't add much to the book for me. (Maybe it's because I wasn't surprised by much of the common themes and information in there? I'm not sure if there was a lot of new stuff in there that one couldn't assume from reading about these topics online. But I can see it being important to have professionals comment on these themes as well.) I also disagreed on how the definition section defined some terms, such as bisexuality being the attraction "toward people of two genders." I'm not sure if that's worth mentioning, though.

I guess, as someone who doesn't usually rate books, I'm not really sure how to rate this. Was it good? Yes. Did it blow me away? No, not really. Could it be better? I think so, but I'm not sure what could be better and how to improve those things. Also, this book is supposed to be more informative, personal, and reflective (I think?). I don't think it was meant to blow anyone away, but I could be wrong. There are some books out there that accomplish their purpose, or add to our knowledge, but don't really stand out. Overall, though, they're still important. 

I guess that's where this one stands for me: I enjoyed it, but maybe if the analysis part was more interesting to me, I would've rated it higher.