How to Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual

An important book necessary for high school, college, and public collections. I appreciate Burgess's honesty and vulnerability in sharing their story and also using it as a platform to give information and visibility about asexuality, anxiety, and OCD. The memoir is warm and inviting, well laid out, and includes resources at the end.

Part helpful guide, part memoir, this graphic novel is a wonderful exploration of asexuality, OCD, and the feeling of not fitting in. It is rare for me to feel represented as an ace woman, more rare still to see representation of both my asexuality and my OCD in one person, and it made be feel seen to a degree I was not expecting. This is a beautiful little book that everyone should read.

I think this is something that will be super validating for a lot of readers. Burgess does a great job highlighting how allonormative society is and how damaging that was, and how important it was for them to find an asexual community.

I wish a little bit that there had been some footnotes or something for an American edition, just to explain the British school system a bit for teen readers? But also like, it's pretty minor, I don't think that most kids will get too hung up on college vs university.

It's also....of note, I guess, that the title implies it will be all about asexuality but it's almost equally a memoir of autism and OCD. Of course it's their memoir and they can only write about their experience, but...well, I guess what I'm really saying is the market needs more asexual representation for teens (and all ages) so that this can be just one of many. Burgess does a great job showing readers their perspective, even if readers can't relate to all aspects of their journey.

Also, the art is really cute.