This book is the product of the author's survey of a large number of A-spec people, and it describes a wide variety of experiences. It's a good primer for people who don't know much about the subject, but was also enlightening to me as an A-spec person. One of the most interesting parts was the exploration of intersectionality. The author does a great job in this area especially.

The data is very much skewed toward respondents who are A-spec as well as having other LGBTQ identities. There isn't much here about people who are straight and cis. As the author suggests, straight, cis people may be less likely to question their sexual identity. So it's possible that straight, cis people are simply less likely to explore whether they might be A-spec. This is an area for future research.

The book is full of stories, but it uses more of a scientific than a storytelling style. That's not a criticism, but it's something to be aware of so you know what to expect.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

An informative book about what aro/ace means. There's a lot of voices, extracts, and it made me understand more about this way of being.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I struggled a bit to get through this book, and I think it was mostly because it wasn't what I was expecting. Based on, I think, the title and subtitle, I thought this would be a compilation of several people's experiences with being aro/ace. What I got instead was part memoir part sociological study. It wasn't bad, I was just excited for what I thought the book was going to be, and was disappointed when it wasn't that.

The book was fine. It covered a lot of topics as related to being aro/ace. It was definitely informative. I don't generally read memoirs, so I found sections that were heavily laced with the author's experiences as not to my taste, but I could see why they were there. The writing was great.

I think if I'd had a better understanding of what this book was before I got into it, I would have enjoyed it more. The book wasn't really for me, but I think it's a great resource, and something I would suggest for people wanting to know more about the topic.

A very interesting and informative read. I would recommend it not only for ace individuals who want to understand themselves better but also family and friends.

As an own voices reviewer, I was looking forward to this book, but I'm not sure I loved it. There was loads of interesting info such as how the importance of a women's pleasure during sex has changed through time. That said, it felt jumbled and I think I would have liked it organized a bit differently.

The questions at the end of each chapter made me feel like I was reading a devotional or doing homework rather than a book about the ace spectrum and I would have liked them at the end of the book so they didn't interrupt the flow of someone not interested in journaling about their sexuality. I'm not sure if it was the questions at the end of each chapter or the voices throughout, but the book felt a bit young to me, like I was not the intended audience. I think that with education, many people are finding words that fit beyond their teens and 20s and yet this book felt like the intended audience was college kids.

I think Eris is very wise and has loads to contribute, but I would have preferred this book to share the same information, but organize it differently so greater flow could be achieved.

I am sad to say I am DNFing this book. I made it to 20% and am really struggling balancing my expectations with the reality of the book. I was SO excited to hear from so many different voices of A-spec people, but this book was just the author's voice with many quotes from the interviews they conducted. It was hard to keep track of anyone because the quotes were blended into the author's points, and the people were referenced by initials which made it hard to remember who was who. I didn't feel as though these quotes were representing anyone's voices. They were simply being used to confirm the author's perspectives. While I think this book is still important, as it is valid to hear one person's perspective, I wish it had been given a different title. I will still recommend it to someone wanting to read an informational, if fairly clinical, book about the ACE spectrum. I just wanted it to be more anecdotal, which I assumed it would be based on the title. I hope someone will write the book I imagined this one to be, because I am very much wanting to read a book with personal essays about some of the many different ways being ACE can look.

#AceVoices #NetGalley I would highly recommend to any of my customers. Great read for families and friends, too!

After receiving a promotional email from Goodreads, which recommended Ace Voices by Eris Young, I knew I wanted to read it immediately! I’m always looking for more books by and about a-spec people, and I was excited to find another nonfiction book on the topic. I never imagined it would turn out to be one of my favorite nonfiction books of all-time!

One of my favorite aspects of the novel was that it doesn’t read like a textbook. Sometimes nonfiction books can feel really boring, but this book was filled with emotion and soul! I loved that the author spoke to a large group of a-spec people when writing the book, incorporating their different experiences to show a more comprehensive look into what it’s like to be a-spec.

Additionally, Young provided helpful interpretations of different terminology that is frequently used in the a-spec community. I found it very helpful to have multiple clear perspectives on these terms. While I had already heard many of them, I think this feature would appeal to people who are not very familiar with the a-spec community. Likewise, those who have had more experience with the a-spec community will likely enjoy the diverse experiences and nuances that Young references in relation to each term.

On top of that, there were discussion questions at the end of each chapter that really added to the feeling of reflectiveness and introspection. I love that Young wants readers to think, not only about what being ace means, but also about many different aspects of orientation and gender identity. The questions were simultaneously thought-provoking and easy to understand.

The thing that made this book really stand out was the emotions, from those who participated in the creation of the book, from the author themself, and from me as a reader. This made the book very powerful, and I found comfort in many of the things that were shared by other ace people. So many experiences described in the book, from having a fear of being alone forever to not feeling an urge to dive into microlabels, really resonated with me, and made me feel a deeper connection to the a-spec community.

Overall, this is a book that I will be recommending for a long time to come! I’m hoping to add a signed copy to my a-spec bookshelf soon, and I know I will feel a sense of wholesomeness and hope every time I see it on my shelf!

While this was an informative and important, well-researched book, I didn't finish it. Not really, just skimmed through parts of it. Despite being ace myself, I couldn't feel engaged. This might be a "reading on my phone" issue and I will get the physical copy to read through, as well (i think this is a good book to have in my library).

Because, yes, there are good and great parts, good information, challenges structures and I liked stories from interviewees. It was just hard and sometimes boring to get through.

/ Denise

Any book published by JKP will always be engaging and informative.

This book quite literally gives a voice to people who experience asexuality at any point on spectrum, using dozens of interviews, research and the opinions of ace people to create an authentic narrative.

Easily readable and in an accessible format, this is a great look at how people experience asexuality, and while it may not go into detail if that's what your looking for, this would be a good read for anyone looking to learn a little more for themselves or to better their understanding.

This was a really interesting read and I'm glad I took the time to do so. The book defines labels and microlabels that fall under the a-spec umbrella and explores some intersecting aspects of identities in varying depth, benefiting from some interviewees' responses that are well integrated into the structure.

The writing style does well to be both accessible and critically engaged, which are both vital in such a book when there is so little literature on this subject. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the intersectionality between gender and asexuality for its nuance and depth, as well as the later chapters on aces within the wider queer community, on theorizing - while drawing on interviews - what ace relationships of all kinds can look like, and on ace joy. As the author points out, so much language associated with asexuality is to do with a lack, or is desperate to prove that "aces are normal too". I'd have loved the expansion on the ace joy chapter.

A few things were less well done. There are questions at the end of each chapter that directly address the reader, but these feel a little too pedagogical and targeted at baby aces, rather than anyone who already identifies as somewhere under the a-spec umbrella. The earlier chapters defining terms feel a little labored; and it's clear that where the author's voice really flows is in the latter half of the book. Some intersectional chapters went into more depth and more research than others.

Overall, this is a good read for anyone who's done or doing some preliminary research into asexuality, and offers some food for thought in a meaningful way on the aforementioned topics that other ace literature does not tackle. 3.75

Thanks to netgalley and Jessica Kingsley publishers for sending me the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great, robust look at asexual and aromantic experiences and identities, with a wide range of voices and a refreshingly candid discussion of the author's own gaps and limitations (as a relatively privileged white person w/ ample Internet access as a teen). I loved all of the interviews/excerpts, and I thought the book was divided into cohesive, logical sections. I'd highly recommend this, though it is a bit long.

5 stars

**HUGE thank you to Jessica Kingsley Publishers for granting me an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!**

Aided by dozens of interviews and their own significant research, Eris Young presents a history of asexuality and aromanticism, along with discussions about aroace rights and the lives of community members. Topics include ace representation in media, the importance of representation in general, the way we describe asexuality being all English terms (such as “demi” and “grey”) and what that means for non-English-speaking people, visibility and community and how lack of technology affects this, lack of sex education, intersectionality, the pros and cons of labels, coming out, not being believed, how the U.S. and U.K. got to such sex-obsessed cultures, ace women feeling excluded from feminism as for not wanting sex, gender as a performance, society’s vilification of aromantic people, being taken seriously, found family and society's devaluation of friendship, different types of love, definitions of romance, and polyamory.

Rep: Author is asexual, greyromantic, neurodivergent, and non-binary. Interviewees are from all over the aroace spectrum, many also with other queer identities. Several are people of color, disabled, and/or neurodivergent as well.

Content warnings: Aphobia (author’s term), transphobia, racism, ace erasure, expectations of sex, sexual harassment and abuse, not being believed, exclusion, religion, sexualization of trans bodies, misogyny, gender roles, toxic masculinity, and familial control and tension. Brief mentions of child abuse, grooming and pedophilia, colonialism, war, slavery, genocide, and forced sterilization.

I can’t emphasize enough how wonderful this book is! While I’m not on the ace spectrum myself, I am demiromantic, and it was a pleasant surprise to have a chance to read about this identity. Also, my fiancée is demisexual and my sister and two close friends are asexual; it was a joy getting to share parts of this book with them, hear their insight, and celebrate their feelings of being seen.

Young ends each chapter with a list of questions for readers to consider, and I loved that. It invites the reader to engage more deeply, as does the conversational tone. Part of what contributes to this is how Young seems to have written it for EVERYONE, partially evidenced by their inclusion of dozens of interviewees. Allosexual people can read it and enjoy being educated (proof: me), and ace people can read it and enjoy being validated.

Some of the discussions that I found especially fascinating include: how asexuality was included under the bi umbrella in the early days of the queer liberation movement; the cool connection several ace people have with kink communities; and how the 18th-century erasure of female* pleasure led to the belief that people with these body parts couldn’t be ace because they were incapable of feeling sexual pleasure.

Ultimately, this book proves just how crucial LGBTQIA+ nonfiction is. Young is an incredibly talented writer, and I hope “Ace Voices” inspires even more deep dives into marginalized queer identities.

* Used here in the sense that people in power at the time would have used it, meaning people with vaginas

I’m really glad that there are more books coming out written by ace and a-spec people! This book was a little too dry/academic for my taste though, but I’m certainly glad it exists.

This is a very important book! As an ace person, I am so used to our identity being erased. When I was first exploring being Ace, being a librarian, I looked for any book I could find about the Asexual experience. This was one I wish I'd had years ago!

3.5⭐️ More Ace books are needed, and I'm happy to have read this one. But I was hoping for more on the "Ace Voices" side of things, and a lot of the book felt more definition based. The personal stories were captivating, but I found myself skimming at times during the parts where it felt like I was reading a dictionary.

More ace books are needed. This book offers multiple voices to show what a part of the ace community looks. I loved the discussion of language and how there are not words to describe everything. Thank you for writing this book and making this information easier to find for people who want to learn more about the community.

Ace Voices does a great job discussing the varied experiences within the ace community. There were a couple of micro labels I wasn’t aware of before this book and found it easy to understand. My one critique is that some responses seemed a bit tacked in there and it was hard to remember initials given to the people interviewed. Thank you to JKP and Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

It's been difficult for me rating this book. When I requested the ARC I thought the book was about A-spec people speaking to and about their stories and experiences. This was a mixed of the author relating pieces of the interviews and blank statements.
I"m always finding it difficult to rate nonfiction books so I would say this was informative.

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

This was a really informative and engaging read, giving me entirely new perspectives on the range of sexual and romantic experiences. Thank you to @netgalley and @jkpbooks for the early copy, I really enjoyed this! 
*
This book explores sexual attraction, and the range of people across the asexual spectrum, as well as those who fall in the aromantic spectrum, and how those two identities intersect with each other as well as with other factors like gender, race, neurodivergence, or mental illness. It seems to me at least that the A aspect of LGBTQIA+ does not get as much attention as others, so this was really interesting to dive into and learn more about. There are so many very real consequences about how we as a society talk about sex, how sex is often actually codified into law or sexuality impacts actual medical diagnoses. 
*
This gave me a whole new set of terms to help understand how people see sex and romance, some of which the author said were even new to them, but was really helpful for new ways to think about the topics. This really drives home just how much language plays a role in affecting someone's experience, in figuring out who they are, but also in how others treat them. But this also acknowledges how much language changes between people and over time, so none of the terms introduced were meant to be binding but more like guidelines. 
*
I really appreciated the author's experiences interjected with quotes and stories from the hundreds of people they interviewed for this book. It really helped show just how unique every single person is and the huge range of options available for how people think about and experience sex and romance. 
*
I definitely learned a lot from this book, and would certainly recommend to anyone looking to educate themselves on this lesser-discussed aspect of sexuality.