I think "quick and easy" perfectly describes this. If you're looking for a more nuanced book that goes into depth of every single permutation of the covered topics, this is not it. But it (mostly) does what it promises, and even if you feel like this is too easy for you it might still give you some insight on different experiences than the ones you've personally had, and it's something you can give your allo friends/family to help them understand you better.

(I do have some meh feelings about how the A in LGBTQIA and the queer topics were handled. I think what the authors were trying to do is not alienate anyone, which obviously is going to alienate someone. For example, by not really answering whether aces are part of the queer community or not, i think they want to make those aces who, because of past experiences or other, feel excluded from the queer community, feel welcome in the asexuality spectrum at the very least. But by doing so it might perpetuate the message that being ace doesn't make you part of the community unless you're also not-cis and not-hetero. Ultimately i think this level of nuance goes beyond a book like this, but there might have been slightly less "apolitical" answers that would have worked better.)

Thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

'A Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality' is a cool and straightforward introduction to the topic of asexuality. I think it would work best for teens, but contains useful information for adults too who aren't familiar with the topic. The explanations are usually brief and easy to understand, could be a helpful conversation starter. They also provide further resources at the end of the book, which is also very useful.

I'd recommend it to people who'd like to know the basics, or are questioning if the label fits them.
#AQuickEasyGuidetoAsexuality #NetGalley

Five 'you just haven't found the right person yet' stars.
Five "the a in LGBTQIA stands for Ally" stars.
Five "why can't you just be normal" stars.
Five "that's not a thing you're making it up for attention" stars.
Five "you're just camping onto the latest trends' stars.

Wish I'd had this book in high school. I love how it allows for room to grow and change. It's taken me roughly 8 years of questioning and changing my identity to come to terms with my own asexuality, and even then, I'm not accepted by my own family because of it. Telling someone new that I'm ace, I always feel like I have to hold my breath. I still question myself, am I really ace or just pretending? It's tough. This book covers all of that and more. Fantastic resource pages, too.

It is indeed a quick and easy guide but it's not at all correct since it debates the fact that A is for ally, while it really isn't. This is a guide to asexuality and saying the A is ally and not for asexuality/aromanticism/agender is wrong. For people trying to understand the bases of asexuality, it's not the worst of guides, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

This guide to asexuality is a fantastic primer for readers looking to better understand asexuality and its complexity. It is comprehensive, yet also a quick, fun and educational read! Highly recommended for young adults and adults, especially in public library collections.

This book takes a topic that seems complex and confusing (and, honestly, is) and breaks it down into very simple concepts. It is a valuable tool for everyone, from the person who may be questioning if they are ace themselves to the person who wants to learn and understand. :D

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have always had questions about asexuality and what it means not necessarily by definition, but what it means and feels like for the people who identify and find comfort under this umbrella. I really enjoyed this.

I think the authors did a wonderful job on balancing what and what not to say when it comes to the difficult topics that are mentioned and how they may or may not play into how you are as a person, sexually, romantically, and how you choose to label yourself.

I would recommend this to anyone, but especially to those who know they are queer, but might not know exactly where they fit in, people who suspect they might be on the Ace spectrum, and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community. I think as a community, we have a duty to learn as much as we can about each other’s identities in order to be respectful, kind, and inclusive.

Learning about the stereotypes at the end, has helped me recognize when I need to speak up about the way people are being treated or portrayed. I don’t like the severe lack of LGBTQIA+ diversity we see media (although I’ve read some great books recently with Ace rep) and I hope we continue to see more in the future.

This was my first introduction of "Quick & Easy" books and to be blunt, I did not enjoy the writing style of setup.
Frankly, I felt spoken down to. While I understand the idea is to breakdown a complex topic that is most likely new to some reasons, it felt condescending in it's approach. Followed by attempts of playful narrative banter.

I do feel it's a very short view into all those identify as Ace and did not cover some of the Ace sexuality spectrum.

Not sure what I think about this overall reading experience. I'm not sure how I feel about if I could recommend it or not.

**Thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. **

This is exactly what the title promises, a very quick guide to asexuality. While I appreciate that this book exists and it’s being published, however, I feel like it is somewhat lacking. Keep in mind I read an ARC of this, so maybe the finished copy won’t have this problem, but in general it felt a bit too quick. There’s a chapter about asexual stereotypes in media which felt completely unfinished.
In general, I feel like this guide could have been expanded a little more, because you can find all of the information on asexuality.org and this book doesn’t really add more. I would have loved a bit more personal experiences from the authors or other aspec people, because as an ace person myself, I know that allos won’t understand just basic explanations, sadly.
It was nice seeing myself and my experience reflected in this book, but I’d still choose to recommend Loveless by Alice Oseman or asexuality.org if an allo asked me for recs on where to learn more about asexuality.
Overall, it was a nice guide, but a bit oversimplified. I was hoping for something more.

TW for acephobia mentions ofc

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the ARC of this book.

This book gave exactly what it says on the cover. A quick and easy guide to asexuality discussing the most frequently asked questions, like what is asexuality (and aromanticism), dating as ace, growing up as ace, harmful stereotypes and representation, and finally our place in the LGBTQIA+ community. Although there is one thing I would like to say. Aces, yes even the cishet aces, do belong in the LGBTQIA community.
This book is perfect for anyone who's just met this term for the first time, let they be questioning or someone to whom a person just came out to. But as for "well-versed" aces, it could be a bit boring as all the information discussed inside is what one would read in their very first researching spree.

A brief intro to a topic I knew little about, accessibly brought.

I breezed through a A Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality after being approved for the ARC. Asexuality as an orientation is rather invisible in mainstream media the authors note, and this triggered me to find out more. The book is very accessibly written, well suited on a young demography that is finding out if they are "normal" or not. The spectrum of romantic and sexual orientation is explained easily, and the cake metaphor used is something that sticks. All varieties or nuances are hard to cover in less than 80 pages, but Demisexual would have been something I would have liked a bit more background about, and in general I feel something about history or prevalence rates would have helped putting everything in a broader context. But maybe that is something easier incorporated into the Wikipedia article on this topic than a more personal approach applied to this book, with the authors telling something about their own orientation and experiences.
An important little book, to make one think about how our society is unwittingly very much organised around sexuality, but especially as a potential resource for anyone trying to make sense of oneself.

Like many other reviewers of this book, my feelings are a bit all over the place after reading this.
I liked the playful narration and cheerful tone, but thought this clouded any concrete conclusions about ace representation and the ace experience as a whole. As an ace person I don't feel particularly empowered after reading this.
I think this book would work for someone who has never heard of the asexuality spectrum and feels they need a very brief introduction. It's too short and meanders around its arguments too much to be useful to anyone else.

Thank you so much to Oni Press for this e-arc.

This felt like an infomercial for allos learning about aces. Definitely a 101 that could easily be found with a quick google search. The graphic novelization aspect was interesting but not to my taste.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I requested A Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality because I have friends who identify as asexual, and wanted to educate myself about it.

This short comic book is a wonderful resource for asexual people, allies, or just people who are interested in this topic that isn't talked about often enough.

As I am not asexual myself, I can't talk about how it represents the community, but for someone who is an ally, this was a great overview, clearing up misconceptions, and explaining the concept of this sexual orientation in a simple and fun way.

This is exactly what it says it is: a quick and easy guide. This appropriate for any age who can read about 80 pages of a book and will be a fantastic resource to hand to friends and families after coming out. There is a lot here for people who ace, and I can see this being beyond helpful for anyone questioning if they might be ace. A worthy and needed addition suitable for all public libraries.

A quick and Easy Guide to Asexuality can be considered to be a really basic guide to understand Asexuality, useful to both Allos as well as questioning Asexuals, as mentioned in the beginning as well. I really loved reading through the book - the illustrations were very cute!

I really liked how it dealt with the basic and most important things about asexuality - explanation, different sexual orientation, how it is an orientation which is as present as any other sexual orientation like heterosexual or bisexual, the common "questions" and "stereotypes" around asexuality, the grey area existing in the asexuality spectrum and also discussion around how sexual orientation is different from romantic orientation and yes these are separate things!

But I do have a problem with this book - the "A" in the LGBTQIAP+ doesn't stand for Ally in any way. I understand that the book was written primarily based on personal experiences and research but that shouldn't erase ace people from queer spaces. Defining the "A" properly is important because honestly there is no grey area as to whether asexuals belong in queer spaces. The basic explanation for the same is that it is a "sexual orientation" which isn't heterosexual even though there might be aces who experience other kinds of attraction in a hetero manner. And there's no point in defining the "A" for Allies because what is even the rationale behind it?

The "A" in LGBTQIAP+ refers to AGENDER, AROMANTIC and ASEXUAL as umbrella terms encompassing tonnes of different identities. Understanding this is important because the feeling of alienation from the cishet spaces as well as queer spaces isn't uncommon and even though one can argue that you have to find your own space wherein you are comfortable, the feeling of being separate. So yes, there isn’t any doubt whether or not asexuals belong in the “A”. Apart from that I would really like to pass on this book to people…!!!!

Note: I was provided with an arc of this book via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars.

Okay firstly, I needed this. Especially the dating section--what an absolute blessing. BRB while I go over into the corner and cuddle my blanket of validation.

Most of this graphic novel is genuinely great. It's been written as a conversation and it works very well, informative without ever being too overwhelming or feeling like a lecture. It's still an introduction and if you've already done research on the subject, this may be a little basic for you. I'd recommend this to somewhere like a library so people can see this on the shelf, pick it up and have the opportunity to explore this for free, in a safe space. They have also provided further resources (books and websites) in the back, which is great.

I'm not sure I'd pay for it when you can find the same things online--if you already know to look, that is!

The illustrations are lovely--including visual aids to explain the spectrum and the split attraction model. They're simple but engaging. (And diverse, which is always fantastic to see!)

There are sections that tug on the old emotions--growing up ace, stereotypes etc.--but overall it's a very uplifting, informative graphic novel.

However, the section at the end discusses "where do people on the ace spectrum fit in the LGBTQIA+ community?" is not clear enough for me. A stands for asexual, aromantic, and agender. I feel like that should have been a clear line drawn. This section <i>does</i> discuss both the positive responses and the challenges ace people face in the wider queer community, it does not erase that in any fashion; but it also doesn't draw a conclusive line of: <b>you deserve a space here.</b> at the end of the section. And, in my opinion, it should. I'm not sure who the writers were trying to accommodate in purposefully making this "open ended" ?

I'm lucky that I've been blessed with a wonderful queer community who I know love and accept me. It's very important that ace people are made aware of the issues we're facing, but if I was just figuring stuff out from nothing, this openendedness would have likely been detrimental, keeping me out of queer spaces for longer.

This section is the only reason why I haven't rated it 5 star.

I really liked this graphic novel style guide to Asexuality! There are a lot of misconceptions around asexuality, particularly on the internet, so I thought this was a really informative introduction into what it really means. I liked that the authors included they're own experiences as it helped demonstrate the spectrum of people that identify under the umbrella term of asexuality. The book discusses what asexuality is, what it isn't, what it means to date and to have sex, and how it is viewed by society. I really liked that it was illustrated, I think it made it easier to engage with. If you're interested in learning more, this is a great introductory book!

The Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality was a great introduction to the subject, managing to be both informative and approachable at the same time. Even though the guide was a short and easy read, it managed to pack a lot of information into its mere 72 pages.

I really loved that the book was written by two asexual authors. Their personal experiences helped to enrich the book and make it that much more informative and engaging.

While the book didn't cover every single question you may have ever had about asexuality, it does a truly impressive job of answering some of the most frequently asked. For anything beyond the scope of the Quick & Easy Guide, a list of further resources is helpfully provided at the end.

To start, obviously there is no way this book or any other single book could possibly cover the whole asexual spectrum, so if you're looking for the world's most comprehensive ace book, this isn't it and that's okay. However, this is such an excellent primer for people who might have recently heard about asexuality, people who want to support a newly out ace friend, people who are questioning, or anyone else who might want a quick intro into asexuality. For such a short book, it's impressive how much they manage to cover: definitions, the Split Attraction Model, stereotypes, growing up ace, and more. I would love to see a copy of the entire Quick & Easy Guide series in every public library, because I can only imagine how much good could come from younger audiences having accessibility to a wider spectrum of LGBTQIA+ books. If you're looking for more research after this guide, there's also a handy resource list in the back. Five stars, I want to send this to all my allo friends, check it out when it comes out!