Books that you think aros would enjoy

[Holmbo]

We've had some threads discussing books without romance and books with aro characters. Perhaps it would be fun to also have a more general book recommendation thread. Recommend any book you want. The only rule is that you must write at least a few sentences on why you think this book might appeal to aros.

[Skittles87]

I recommend anything by Zadie Smith. She writes brilliantly about friendship and also writes very honestly about sex, but I've never read anything of hers that really focuses on romantic love. In one of her short pieces, she admits to having no interest in writing conventional love stories.

 

My two favourites are:

 

The novel NW (focuses on a friendship between two women who grow up together but take different paths in life).

The short story Sentimental Education (a coming-of-age type story that shows she can write male friendship just as well as female friendship).

 

[Maximus]

So my favorite book series is "the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" by Michael Scott. There isn't any romance in it at all. (or if there is it was not a big enough deal for me to notice it) The series is about twin teenagers who get caught up in a magical world by complete accident or so they think. I would recommend it anyone, but especially arospec people, because of the lack of romance and the focus on platonic relationships. (both familial relationships and friendships) 

[Holmbo]

On 3/20/2020 at 11:27 PM, Maximus said:

So my favorite book series is "the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" by Michael Scott. There isn't any romance in it at all. (or if there is it was not a big enough deal for me to notice it) The series is about twin teenagers who get caught up in a magical world by complete accident or so they think. I would recommend it anyone, but especially arospec people, because of the lack of romance and the focus on platonic relationships. (both familial relationships and friendships) 

Before reading your comment I've never considered that Nicholas Flamel was a real historical person. I've never seen his name mentioned outside of Harry Potter

[Skittles87]

I just finished The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers and found it very aro-friendly.

It's basically a space opera, focusing on a multi-species crew who fly around creating wormholes. There's a real found-family dynamic amongst the crew, with a couple of particularly strong male-female friendships. There are a few romantic relationships but none are boring or cheesy.

SPOILERS

Interestingly, one is an f/f relationship between a human woman and an alien whose species doesn't have any drive to pair up. The alien (Sissix) could easily be read as aromantic and/or polyamorous.

 

[Jedi]

Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie.

This is science fiction, the main character is a ship-AI, and ships do not desire the same types of relationships as most humans do. There is love, described in an undeniable manner, while still not being what we think of as romantic love. Very real, and still non-romamtic. I really connected to that, from an aromantic perspective.

The book is more known for how the big empire (that the main character is from) don't really have gender. Everyone is referred to with she/her pronouns and the opinion there is that if you have complete gender equality anyway there is no reason to note the differences. This means that you just don't have a known gender for a number of major characters, and I thought that was really interesting. But I have also read that to some transpeople this sounds like constant misgendering, so just thought I let you know in case you think you'd be bothered by it. Also, grief and imperialism are themes, so while it is a grand adventure, it is not especially lightweight. It really struck a chord with me. After I read it I though "This might straight up be my favourite book now" so I recommend it to everyone.

 

Another, older favourite of mine, and I apologies if this has come up in all those previous threads that were mentioned (I've just gotten back to this forum, I don't know what has already been covered), is The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. A fantasy about a woman who joins a mercenary company. Her lack of interest in sex and romance is brought up once in a while, but it is not a focus. Even before I knew I was aromantic myself, I found it really nice to read about a woman where it was all about the things she did, and romance was just not a factor in her life. Read it for cool woman in fantasy military.

On 4/12/2020 at 5:22 PM, Skittles87 said:

It's basically a space opera, focusing on a multi-species crew who fly around creating wormholes. There's a real found-family dynamic amongst the crew, with a couple of particularly strong male-female friendships. There are a few romantic relationships but none are boring or cheesy.

That sounds really interesting, I'm gonna check that out!

[Apathetic Echidna]

So the book I'm going to mention here doesn't have any aro characters and it does have romantic love as the ultimate goal of the book, which is why I never mentioned it before on other threads. 'You're the One that I don't want' by Alexandra Potter is sort of a parody of the love-by-fate tropes. The two main characters keep getting stuck in situations which in a normal romance book would be very romantic but in this book the characters feeling are growing stronger in the dislike rather than the like. Ultimately though all the characters strive for romantic love as the ultimate final destination for a happily-ever-after predictable end, so it is still well within in the romantic chick-lit genre. 

I would recommend it for aros who aren't repulsed by litrarary romance or mentions of sex. It is an interesting divergence but it is still a romantic chick-lit book. A fast, possibly funny, trashy read.  

[Holmbo]

@Jedi

@Skittles87

 Two of my favorite books! The third book in the wayfarer series also have one viewpoint character who reads as aro allo.

[ScarfOfSexualPreference]

If anyone happens to see this, there's a trilogy called the Chaos Walking trilogy and it makes me cry every time. Incredible pacing, unique writing style, and just an overall good story! 

(Also there's almost no romantic subplot in the first book)

[Kat/Katya]

Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland

It's a YA fantasy novel about a girl who can look into people's souls. The main character sees a black door in every soul she visits and she decides to open it. The main character is asexual with STRONG aro vibes as well. It also features a character who realizes he is trans halfway through the book. It's dark, intriguing, and possibly the first YA fantasy novel that I've read without a romantic subplot. Highly recommend. 

[emmafriendly]

I like "Carry On" and "Wayward Son" by Rainbow Rowell. I don't recall is the character Agatha is explicitly aro (I know she isn't in the first book) but it's super heavily implied. Her character begins by dating the main character but has this coming of age when they break up and her aromanticism gets implied thereafter. She gets a ton of love and attention and character development too so it's even better! The books themselves has romantic plots but they're queer romance so it doesn't bother me too much.

[Ekaterina]

One of my strong interests are mystery novels by Agatha Christie, and a number of them are pretty good for an aro reader.

The mystery genre in general is good for aro reader I think, since the focus is on the mystery, multiple kinds of human interactions are involved equally since each could be the possible secret behind the event, rational thinking is celebrated, by definition there's usually a "don't judge the book by the cover" theme going on and therefore deconstructions of various stereotypes (including romantic ones). The protagonists in mystery novels, especially recurring ones, are often single (or if they have a LI or a spouse, that's on the background). Love subplots among other cast are often either background, not sappy, or deconstructed/cautionary tale. 

In case of Agatha Christie's books, the novel that is sometimes called the greatest mystery of all time - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - has a powerful story about fatal weakness of spirit that isn't romantic, has an interesting protagonist/narrator who isn't and wasn't in any kind of romantic relationship (the person he cares most about is his sister, who is fun and also doesn't have any love subplots by the way, and they both are middle-aged). There are two small love stories between secondary characters, one of these plot-relevant, but not that much screen time is given to them. 

(Just please don't start from watching the novel's film adaptation within the Agatha Christie's Poirot TV series, it basically butchered everything that makes the story special) 

Another novel with a very well-known title, Murder on the Orient Express, also has powerful non-romantic drama, on the themes of justice and retribution. 

Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun on the contrary have romance-related central conflicts, but it's the case of it being deconstructory and/or cautionary-tale way. Both have some fun side characters too. Watching their very worthy film adaptations with Peter Ustinov as Poirot (they aren't word-to-word loyal, but respectful to the source) actually can be more aro-friendly, since the film version of Death on the Nile omits some secondary characters who were involved in a pair-the-spares in the book, and the film version of Evil Under the Sun doesn't have, unlike the book, one of characters monologuing about how unfulfilled she feels with a career but no husband. 

The famous And Then There Were None isn't romantic, there's I guess a kind of sexual tension between two out of the ten characters, but not romantic. And it's also about retribution (and guilt and arrogance and some other things). 

The family-centered mysteries by the author tend to be deeply psychological, and if romance is present it's just one of the vast amount of diverse dynamics and personal issues going on. The Crooked House uses the protagonist's romantic relationship as pretext to get him into the story of that family, but that's basically all it does, a plot function with very little screen time. Things that matter in this story aren't romance. In Ordeal by Innocence, there are several very very lowkey romantic subplots, and again they aren't what the story is about. In Hercule Poirot's Christmas, there is a romantic subplot -  one of those few media romantic plotlines I am genuinely invested in and fully ship, but maybe it's my personal taste:) And two healthy long-married couples I also support, but a long-married couple I think is something other than "romantic". 

Death Comes As The End is a mystery novel with a historical setting in Ancient Egypt and very interesting from the aspect of the era depiction, and another family psychology one. It has a love triangle involving the heroine, but it doesn't dominate the story. 

Out of Miss Marple novels I recommend A Murder Is Announced (not romantic story, interesting antagonist drama, village world, quite some humour and fun side characters), The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side (not romantic central conflict, interesting antagonist drama, cinema world, social commentary about the times). And, well, Miss Marple herself is a happily single elderly woman and an admirable one. 

After The Funeral from the Poirot cycle is another very good non-romantic one, also good atmosphere and interesting social commentary. 

Ah, and I should not forget the famous play The Mousetrap. Another powerful drama with interesting characters, central conflict isn't romantic (if you ask me what it's about... I'd say cruelty, indifference and compassion?), and the only "romance" in here is a relationship crisis between a young married couple who realize they don't understand each other that well. 

Edited February 6 by Ekaterina