Autism Rep by Autistic Authors | Adult Books
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!
created by amalgama
last updated June, 2026
Comments
A couple notes on this list:
-All picks are based on my own research, so both corrections and recommendations are very welcome (although I'm trying to be thorough so I'm hoping no corrections wil be necessary!)
-I have only included one book per author, but quite often authors will have more than one book with autistic rep! I highly recommend you go check out other books by the authors featured
-I have tried to include books from different genres so that everyone can find something they'd like to try
-This list will be under construction for a while as I keep researching and finding new authors to add, so I encourage you to check back in every now and then for new recommendations!
-Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire are actually the same author writing under a pen name, so I decided to include both author names in the list for clarity
-A YA version of this list can be found here
Thank you for taking the time to check this list out, I hope you'll find some new favourite authors!
I believe Matt Haig is autistic but I have only read one of his books so I don’t know if his books have autistic characters or not. Might be worth looking into!
amalgamaOP
Oh, I had no idea! I'll do some research and see if any of his books fit the list, thank you!
amalgamaOP
Hello again, after looking into it Matt Haig is indeed autistic and some of his books (especially The Humans according to other readers) do include autistic-coded characters. However, they are not explicitely identified as autistic, so I think I won't include his books for now to keep the list consistent, but I'll keep an eye on his new releases
ahh this is such a good list!! I'd recommend Hazelthorn by C.G. Drews, I believe the author has mentioned being autistic and using their own experience to write about their characters!
amalgamaOP
Thank you for the rec! So far I have only been including books that have explicit autistic representation, but seeing @soitently's rec as well, maybe I should split this list in two 🤔 One focused on autistic rep by autistic authors, and another one collecting works by autistic authors in general, even if they don't include "explicit" rep so to speak 🤔 What do you think?
Hazelthorn's main character, Evander, is explicitly autistic! C.G. Drews even mentions in the author's note this book being "a story of queer and autistic rage". And I'm always down for lists with autistic representation 🙂↕️
Ok, thank you! I noticed it's a YA book, so I'll actually add it to a list I'm preparing with the same theme that focuses on YA books instead 😊
I think I'm also going to start collecting options for "books by autistic authors" in one of my shelves and if the shelf starts diverging enough from this list then I'll make a separate list for autistic authors in general, too 🙂↕️
ETA: Here's the YA list!
I ended up DNFing the book for unrelated reasons but Ada Hoffmann is autistic and The Outside has autistic rep! (sci-fi)
amalgamaOP
I looked her up and I have actually seen her latest release going around (it also has an autistic MC), but I didn't know this book. I will add it, thank you!
