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A review by emilyexmas
Upside Down by N.R. Walker
4.0
I don’t normally write reviews, but I’ve read a lot of books recently with asexual representation in them. Quite often it’s just presented to the reader by way of a character being told ‘this is what asexuality is’ and then everyone is like, “oh, ok, cool!” It’s usually a bland textbook explanation, which always reads like it’s a speech in a high school health class.
This book explored it slightly differently- it had the questioning, the ‘wtf does any of this mean,’ the fear of being other, etc. plus it did a great job of explaining the difference between sexuality and romanticism. This is very much a romance, and it is a successful one, even without any sex whatsoever. Any time there needed to be a more encyclopedic explanation of some facet of asexuality the author managed to slot it in as a part of the support meetings, so it really never felt out of place.
In hindsight after reading it I’m not sure this book had the amount of character development and plot I would normally like in a novel, but the fabulous ace rep alone made it worthwhile. Also, I haven’t read much that had poly representation, so I found that interesting. It’s not something for ever be open to, but knowing a friend being in a poly relationaship I found it an interesting potential insight.
This book explored it slightly differently- it had the questioning, the ‘wtf does any of this mean,’ the fear of being other, etc. plus it did a great job of explaining the difference between sexuality and romanticism. This is very much a romance, and it is a successful one, even without any sex whatsoever. Any time there needed to be a more encyclopedic explanation of some facet of asexuality the author managed to slot it in as a part of the support meetings, so it really never felt out of place.
In hindsight after reading it I’m not sure this book had the amount of character development and plot I would normally like in a novel, but the fabulous ace rep alone made it worthwhile. Also, I haven’t read much that had poly representation, so I found that interesting. It’s not something for ever be open to, but knowing a friend being in a poly relationaship I found it an interesting potential insight.