Recs if you like The Outside...

a collection of autistic coded characters in fiction [ recommendations welcome! ]

Adult books written by autistic authors that include autistic characters, usually as the protagonists of the story. You know they'll get the representation right!

Sci fi, fantasy, and science fantasy books featuring protagonists who are dealing with mental health issues, and/or are neurodiverse in some way - maybe on the autism spectrum, or having ADHD, schizophrenia, OCD, synesthesia, bipolar disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, etc. Suggestions very welcome!

Scifi/Fantasy/Speculative fiction featuring women in STEM* careers (*the M can stand for magic if the worldbuilding presents magic like a STEM field)

this is my favorite niche. all of my favorite books are this. if you like gays and sci fi you might find some new favorites too (constantly updating as I find more btw)

Books I saved from my TikTok feed that were labelled as Science Fiction!

gays in space (or I guess sometimes dealing with space shit on earth), with a tending toward optimistic futures. this list will continue to grow and change over time. this list includes trans folks, queercore, and graphic novels.

if a book is part of a series, I'm only listing the first book just so the list doesn't get overrun.

Middle grade, YA and Adult fictional books with canon autistic main characters

queer fiction books with prominent autistic characters!!!! (all cannon, in text, or confirmed by author)

Sapphic books (of all genres) with autistic or autistic-coded characters.

Feel free to comment any that aren’t on the list. 🧡🤍🩷

Books that feature fictional religions of some kind!! I find these all to be fascinating but that doesn’t mean they all place the same amount of emphasis on the religious structures of their worldbuilding as others. If you have any recs lmk!!

canon and coded autistic characters

Do you feel like you've read everything there is to read? Or get annoyed that the same books are on all the rec lists? Well, here are some more obscure masterpieces!

Some of the covers are terrible - especially among the older or self-pubbed books; there's a few YA in here; and some that are science fantasy rather than 'pure' sci fi. But trust me: they're all EXCELLENT. (And if you already love a bunch of these, let's be friends!)

These are books I've read that have settings that feel wild and beautiful and wholly original.

Finally some good character work!! Books across all genres with thoughtfully written characters that I genuinely think exist in real life. 🤗🤗

Sci-fi & queer. And with spaceships, too!

Speculative fiction books with autistic characters, or by openly autistic identifying authors, as put together by Ada Hoffmann from 2011 to 2023 - plus Hoffmann herself, who's also autistic. For books I couldn't find, see comments! If you can add books to GR to add them here, you're welcome to do so (and tell me so I add them to this list)!

These are books I’ve read and enjoyed that I don’t see talked about much and think are criminally underrated! Most are under 5000 ratings on goodreads, with a few exceptions

Books focused on human/AI relationships whether that be romantic, parental, friendly, or otherwise