I am writing this review as someone who is asexual and aromantic. If you want to know what those words mean, and why they're not the same thing, pick up this book. Like Alex Gino's <i>Rick</i>, it's a work that I wish had been around when I was younger - as Muldoon and Hernandez note several times, many ace people grow up feeling broken or wrong or like freaks, because asexuality really has historically been the invisible orientation. The negative stereotypes that they go over in the book are intimately familiar and all too recognizable, and that's why this slim volume is so important - because there's nothing wrong with being anywhere on the ace or aro spectrums.

If there's one thing I wish had been touched on, it's that your orientation doesn't affect your consumption of media. To a degree we understand this mostly through the female consumption of BL (boys' love, or homoerotic) manga, but one question I've often gotten is "why do you read so many romance novels if you're aroace?" Until society at large understands that that's like asking someone "why do you read mystery novels if you're not planning the perfect murder?," we'll still have a ways to go.

That's not going to knock a star off of my review, though. Until we can all feel safe and normal in our skin, we need works that explain things in a warm, friendly, and non-judgemental manner. This one does that. Please read it.

4.5/5 stars

This is the book I wish I had read when I was younger. This is a quick and easy guide to asexuality. The book is extremely accessible and highlights even the basic concepts of the umbrella of asexuality. The book provides for what is asexuality, it's difference from aromanticism, the myths/stereotypes/weird questions asexual people face, the (lack of) representation in media, and the experience of growing up ace. Anyone can read this book (even children!), whether you're straight or gay or bi or ace or questioning. The illustrations are very cute. I loved that the creators also included talk about being insecure about our sexuality,and feeling like you're broken or a robot. I just wish that the illustrations were colorful instead of B&W, and that the book contained more information about aromanticism. I very well know that asexuality and aromanticism are different and do not necessarily coincide. But many times they coexist together (plus there is little to no information available on aromanticism). This is a very short and accessible read, recommend this to everyone.

This is a great little guide to asexuality. I just recently discovered I'm on the ace spectrum and this was not only really validating for me it also helped clear up some lingering confusion i had about my own sexuality as I also identify as a lesbian. This guide isn't just great for those questioning their sexuality either this is a great guide to give to the people in your life who may have some questions or even to just help you feel more comfortable coming out (when you are fully ready and it is safe. Please never feel pressure to come out) This is really just a handy guide all around and honestly I recommend everyone should read it. Knowledge breeds compassion and I think unfortunate a lot of people misundstand what asexuality is and this really helps negate that. This really is the perfect handy little guide.

Overall this is a a pretty nice introduction to a complicated topic. This would be a good jumping off point for people that are questioning or allos trying to understand their ace friends. “The A in LGBTQIA+” section was a little messy. I wish it would have said explicitly that the A is never for Ally. It’s not untrue that some people believe that, but here they say that it doesn’t really matter one way or another. It may not matter to the authors, but it does matter to much of the ace (and aro and agender) communities. It’s up to individuals if they want to claim the label of queer, but suggesting the A may or may not demand inclusion is frustrating. This section goes on to say that aces may be queer in other ways, which felt pretty invalidating to heteroromantic aces, who are still queer. I don’t think the authors intended this, but it can definitely be read that way.

This is such a great source of information for anyone who wants to learn about asexuality! I’ve already read ‘A Quick and Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities’ and ‘A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns’ which are a part of the same series. I loved both of those books and this one is no different!

It is very helpful to have a short book that you can hand to friends and family to help explain your identity. I did this with my mom and the other two ‘Quick and Easy Guides’ and it made talking about my queerness a whole lot simpler! I plan to show her this book to help gently educate her as well.

I loved that this book enforced the fact that Asexuals aren’t broken! There is nothing to “fix” and all Ace identities are valid. It’s also amazing that they provide further resources to help those questioning or wanting to learn more about Asexuality in general. Overall, 5/5 stars! Thank you for the opportunity to read this book before its publication!

Thank you for letting me read this arc.

I read this book in such a short amount of time but the information and understanding I received was amazing! This book helped me a lot with my own identity, whilst being easy to read and a book that anyone of all ages could grasp and understand.

I really enjoyed reading this, the drawings and text were fab as well as all the information. I highly recommend this book, whatever sexuality you may be!!

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Book # 93/100

I’m so glad I got an arc of this book!!!!! This short but very educational book should be available in all schools, libraries and places of work!

The term Asexuality is relatively new to me and before reading this book I wasn’t 100% sure what it meant and how it differed from Aromantics.

I’m glad this book covers the essentials in only pages which makes it extremely easy to read and understand!

I will be sharing this book with all my friends as it has been a topic in our conversations!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!!!!

It pains me to have to say that this non-fiction 'graphic novel' style of a book will likely not get read by anywhere near as many people as need to read it, and especially not by the ones who have most to learn from it. It's not aimed just at the LGBTQIAP+ community, but also at everyone else. As such, and indeed like that acronym (LGBTQIAP+), it tries to be so inclusive that it risks becoming too nebulous and on one occasion led to a faux pas, but overall, it's a very worthy read for anyone who needs a sort of a baseline introduction into what can be a briar-patch topic.

The problem with this subject, asexuality, as I mentioned in my review of Julia Sondra Decker's book The Invisible Orientation: is that there's a lot of nebulousness inherent in it, and if it isn't handled properly, being vague and fuzzy around the edges can do more harm than good. That's actually why I didn't like the Decker book, a reference to which is included in this book in an all-too-brief section at the end (and in which the author's name is mispelled! It's Decker, not Decke!) My beef with this vague approach is that, in reference to the present work, it risks confirming any possible a priori reader conceptions - such as that asexuality really isn't a thing, or that it's a condition, or that it can be 'cured' with some good therapy.

For me, this book did have a positive approach which made things clear - and it reinforced those things, and typically did not undermine the message by meandering or rambling, or otherwise muddying the water, although my understanding is that the 'A' in LGBTQIAP+ refers to asexual (and including aromantic and agender) and does not refer to 'ally', as important as those are. I think this is a problem with inclusivity: in trying to get as much support as possible and inviting everyone under the banner, the community has sometimes made itself a source of disenchantment and disagreement about who exactly should be in, as it were, and perhaps risking diluting the message, which ultimately and in simple form, is that there's nothing wrong with being different.

This disagreement has been running through the movement for decades and in a variety of forms though. People have asked, 'should the community only by gay and lesbian, and other persuasions, orientations, statuses (or however you want to term them) should be under a different banner?' Others might argue that LGBTQI should be in but the 'A' not included, and so on. In short, it's a bit of a mess. Frankly, for me, there are much bigger battles to fight, and these relatively petty skirmishes are not helpful. This is precisely why these various groups need to work together. Maybe once the big battle is won, those disagreements will not seem so important.

But I liked this book. I like that it keeps it simple and straight forward, to reduce the risk of confusing issues and confusing people. It was short and well-written by Molly Muldoon, and it was decently illustrated and diversly-drawn in grayscale by Will Hernandez, so it's very much an own-voices publication. That doesn't mean everyone will agree with how it was written here, but it does mean it's another source of information. It has a light tone and is very informative. It sends a positive and clear message, and I considered it a worthy read.

A great resource that should be available to wider communities and definitely to schools for sex-ed teaching.
Wonderful conversation to have about feeling "broken" and the harmful stereotypes seen in TV - however it would have been great to see example of the positive rep also seen on TV (Todd's arc from Bojack Horseman comes to mind, and Sex Education also had ace character(s)). I hope the final copy is in colour, as the black and white pages definitely took away from the concept. - the art style isn't really my thing either, and I found the 4th wall talking to me offputting.

This graphic novel is a combination of facts about asexuality/aromanticism and the spectrum(s) they fall on, alongside anecdotes from the two authors themselves (who are both ace and differ on where they place on the spectrum).

This book was everything I needed right now.
I was definitely in the target audience as a person in the grey area, questioning their sexuality.
The Guide to Asexuality covers the most important and the most intriguing aspects of going about your life as ace. Reading the stories and experiences of the authors felt like talking to long-time friends. Seeing asexuality as a part of somebody's life was refreshing from the stereotypical representation in media.
But most importantly it felt like a safe space. I've never thought I would feel so understood and relate so much to an author. Even though I knew about asexuality, I never pictured it as such a broad spectrum open to interpretation. But that was the goal. I realized there were so many things I didn't realize earlier and that nothing is black and white.
This book was a perfect combination of keeping things informational, while connecting with the reader on an emotional level and presenting it all in a light manner with stunning design. I can alredy see myself coming back to this beautyful graphic novel.

Well... where do I even start?

I think the intention was good, but the execution not so much...

There is one big issue and that is the chapter refering to the A in LGBTQIA+. The A is not for ally, it has never been, it will never be. A stands for Asexual, Aromantic and Agender and white some aces personally don't consider themselves as part of the community, the A still stands for that, never for allie and there's no debate, that's just facts. It really made me mad to see something like that, especially in an ownvoices book.

On top of that, I think the book focuses much more on the personal experiences of the authors than on the representation. It is overly simplistic and I get that it's supposed to be a quick and easy guide, but some topics just weren't handled with the care and detailed they deserved. For example, when talking about the spectrum of asexuality they talk about the gray area refering to being sex-repulsed, sex-neutral or sex-favorable but that has nothing to do with being ace because it is not about attraction but about the action of having sex, so someone sex-neutral is not gray-sexual. I found that to be very confusing and not very well explained.

I think this book could have been longer and it could have taken the time and space to explain things right. A quick search on google provides way more information. And while I love iniciatives like this one and I do think they could be very helpful and useful, the executions was so poor it partially defeats the purpose.

Of course not everything was bad and I think we could still rescue some parts of it, but overall I would never ever recommend this. There's way better books in the topic (though not many because you know, it is the invisible sexualtity after all, but still...). And I'm just sad because I got really excited about another book on asexuality coming out but this was just not it, sorry.

The title really says it all: this book is an introduction to asexuality and other identities within the ace spectrum. Most people familiar with asexuality will probably already know everything said in this book, but for those who don't it's an informative resource for those just being introduced to the community, or those who may be questioning their sexuality.

I thought this book was charming. They do a good job of explaining different aspects of asexuality and since it's in a graphic novel format, they make use of some really great visuals when explaining different concepts. I also appreciate how they emphasized the nuances of identity and how every person experiences asexuality differently on the scale.

I also appreciated the fact that the book was written and illustrated by people in the asexual community. I enjoyed the art style. It was really just a pleasant, informative read.

Thank you, NetGalley, for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As the title suggests, A Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality is a good overview of what asexuality is and the different parts of the asexuality spectrum. It's informative enough to cover the basics, and I would consider it to be a handy guide for aces to share with their friends and family members who maybe aren't sure exactly what it means when their loved one comes out as asexual. The illustrations in this graphic novel are well done and I enjoyed the casual conversational tone of the book. The only part I take issue with is the fact that the author perpetuates the myth that the A in LGBTQIA+ stands for Ally, when it actually stands for aromantic, asexual, and agender. But that aside, I would recommend this to anyone who is just starting out on their journey to discovering what it means to be ace.

A fairy informative introduction to asexuality told through a series of comic panels featuring the two author explaining different parts of the orientation to other people. I think if you've been ace for awhile and have kind of 'figured yourself out' this is going to come across as pretty basic but it would be a great guide for allo people who are wanting to learn more about asexuality and also for young people who are questioning whether they might be ace or not. I know I would have loved to have something like this when I was a teen.

Being asexual myself, obviously I would want to read "A Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality" by Molly Muldoon and Will Hernandez. This is a special volume as it really is just a quick and easy comic or graphic novel type guide to asexuality. It does exactly what it says it will, which is guide you though the terms and any confusing questions that may pop up when you think of asexuality. They present the information in a conversational, easily accessable way that doesn't ever feel preachy or condescending. It doesn't ever assume that you, the reader, knows something and instead takes the time to spell things out but in the friendliest way that it always feels like the authors genuinely want to dispell any misunderstandings.

It may have been one of the intentions of this book to make asexual people feel seen, loved, and understood, because this is certainly how it made me feel. And I don't mind saying that I teared up and cried a little when reading it. One simple sentence: You are not broken.
It means the world to me to hear that after decades (I am an older reader) of considering myself lesser, broken, weird, not right but not quite 'queer', or not 'queer' enough to be LGBT. When I learned that people started using LGBTQIA+ and that the A could stand for asexual and what asexual was and that it was a spectrum I knew I was on it. I learned this only a couple of years ago. This was an amazing moment but it has still been something I am learning about and about myself. This guide was very beneficial, and I would recommend every Secondary school in the country have one in their school library and guidance centers. That all staff rooms also get a copy so that teachers are also aware. I also think it would benefit some of my family members to read it, as they still don't 'understand' me.

I recently 'came out' to a very liberal group of friends/ colleagues, in as relaxed and nonchalant way as I could and it was one of the most liberating things I have done in years. Everyone enthusiastically started discussing sexual attraction, libido, what they need from a romantic and sexual relationship and asking me questions about what asexuality is. One of my friends thought she understood but when I delved a little deeper and started talking about demi-sexual and grey-asexual, she suddenly stopped and exclaimed "Oh! I think I just learned something about myself! I think that's me!" I would like to get her a copy of this and see if it helps her understand herself a little better, whether she identifies as asexual or not.

This is a brilliant guide and I cannot rate this highly enough. It is one of the best books I have read all year. Thank you to the authors and publishers for printing it and allowing me an advance copy. This old asexual lady appreciates it!

A short graphic novel that covers every basic information about asexuality you may need as an allosexual interested in the topic. It's not exhaustive, it doesn't pretend to be, but it's really helpful to understand or refresh some concepts and misconceptions on the topic.
With a very positive and kind tone, I think it is really useful and didactic for readers beyond those who identify on the ace spectrum or have close ties to it (as myself, an allosexual with friends and family in the ace spectrum). This book could really help general audiences understand more about asexuality and dispell some of the widespread ignorance.

I love the Quick & Easy Guides! This is a great addition. Asexuality is definitely misunderstood and underrepresented in our community. I've only read one other book with an ace character in it, and it was a memoir. This Guide helps anyone--gay, straight, ace, questioning, trans, ANYONE--have a better understanding of what asexuality is and is not in a simple format that's easy to follow. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the subject.

Really, really loved this short yet very complete guide to asexuality. It introduced this identity in a very comprehensive way and it busted some myths surrounding it. I feel like this is a good starting point for people who are questioning their sexuality or for those who want to educate themselves on what being asexual means. It is very short, so you can read it quickly and form a idea of what asexuality entails.

Uhuh. So it was generally a good introduction apart from the last part and as someone who spends a lot of energy trying to fight for aces' and aros' rights to belong in the queer spaces, I can't let it slide. It's precisely non-answers like these that lead to more prejudice against aspecs in queer spaces.

Once and for all - A IS NOT FOR ALLY. Ally is not an identity, it's not something you're born, it's an action. A in LGBRQIA+ stands for aromantic, asexual and agender.

I'm so tired of repeating the same thing over and over. And how can it ever stop if even materials made for aces, by aces, don't get the basic facts right?

How can you first say that aces often feel like we don't belong in the cishet world but then say that it's "unclear" if we belong in queer spaces either? There is no separate category for aces, you're allocishet or you're queer, its very simple.

It's a superimportant topic for me as I have opposite experiences to the authors - I've encountered plenty of gatekeeping (and straight up aphobia including offers of conversion therapy) from the offline queer communities. At the same time, online spaces were always very inclusive and welcoming in my experience.

I said it before and I'll say it again, okay? I'm tired. I just spent half of Saturday at a meeting arguing that non-answers like "you can belong in queer spaces but... " are aphobic and lead to aspecs having zero legal protections (unlike the LGBTQI community in Sweden) and asexuality not being recognized as an official sexuality but instead being continously treated as a medical curiosity that needs to be cured (that's called conversion therapy, fyi). I don't need to hear the same non-answers from a book that's meant for me, written by my oan community.

Why couldn't it elaborate on these issues? Why couldn't it tackle gatekeeping and aphobia in queer spaces? Why not focus on importance of self-identification and especially about the feelings of heteroromantic aces and demis? It would have been so much better than the "it's unclear but you're always welcome" which is plain bullshit.

Writing it all down made me lower it down by one more star. Also, there were some unnecessary gender binaries thrown in.

This book is a starting point for those who want to educate themselves about asexuality. It's a quick and easy read and you only get a basic understanding of the asexual spectrum.

I do have one issue with this book, the section about what the "A" in LGBTQIA stands for made my blood boil. This book argues that it could stands for ally. Let's be clear, the A stands for asexual/aromantic/agender, that's it. Allies are not queer, they're not part of the acronym. "A stands for ally" is a very harmful misconception, we are underrepresented and get excluded from our community enough as it is.

Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in return for an honest review!