Ace Voices is a great exploration of both asexual and aromantic identities. Incredibly meaningful and poignant, I would highly recommend to anyone questioning their own identity, someone who is looking for support, someone looking for a new perspective, or anyone who has a loved one in their life who identifies as Ace. This was a really great and informative deep dive.

I could probably write a thousand different reviews and none of them would come close to explaining just how much this book means to me.

Every page, every word, hit me right in the emotions (both happy and sad) and buried themselves in my heart. An absolutely wonderful and important read.

A fantastic read, as an Ace person it's always very affirming to read anything written by a fellow ace person! Would recommend this to anyone who is ace questioning, or just looking for some support!

We need more books like this and they need to be required reading. Appreciated the many points of view and the care taken on these topics. Books like this are the stories I needed growing up so that I didn't feel lost for as long as I did. I really appreciated the more scholarly approach as well.

It's so nice to see more writing that looks at the ace and aro spectrums being published. This is a really interesting and insightful read, especially with the look into why aro + ace identities are treated the way that they are by society and the accounts from ace, aro, gray-a and demi people.

Ace Voices by Eris Young is exactly the kind of representation and visibility asexuals everywhere could hope for. Many people do not realize the "a" doesn't stand for ally, and it is books like this that will educate and inform people about what the "a" really stands for--which is asexual. Asexual is such a broad term, which encompasses a wide range of expression and identities. As a demi-sexual woman, I appreciated the breadth of representation present throughout the book--which was informed by a multitude of interviews Young conducted with people across the entire asexual spectrum.

Young does a great job at presenting all the intersections of sexual identity, gender, race, and more. I'm sure I'll be revisiting this one over time. It was a lot of information to absorb all at once.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my e-ARC.

While I had high hopes for this unfortunately it fell a little short for me. My main issue was that it felt more academic, and scientifically written than I had expected. When I requested the title I had expected it to be more an own voices collection of life experiences but it was more a study of asexuality featuring a survey that had been done by the author.

A very well collated book discussing the range of experiences that come under the ace umbrella. I liked how it really engaged with the entire asexual spectrum and discussed ideas of validity, erasure and your identity outside of sex. Asexuality is a really important thing to understand in a world where for most people sex is a huge part of it. I think the nature of the book meant it wasn’t a read which fully hooked me but I enjoyed dipping in and out of it.

"Ace Voices" was such an important and informative reading about the ace community.

In this book, Eris Young talked about and discussed several parts of the lives of A-spec community, based on interviews they did with a lot of different people across the asexual spectrum. Themes like visibility, medical issues and love were debated by the author and I feel like that I got out of the book with a lot more information and points of views.

I really liked the explanations and definitions of the main and micro-labels. They helped me understand the huge variety and diversity of the ace community, which was quite important as a reader that picked up this book exactly for it!

I loved Eris Young writing style, but I was expecting this book to be a little more personal, to have the stories of the people that were interviewed, and not just quotes.

It's a very good book for anyone wanting to learn more about the ace community, and, from the opinions I've seen from people who are part of the community, it's also a good read to get other views from people in the a-spec and several important resources!

*I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers in exchange for my honest review. *

While my review isn't particularly positive, I want to be clear that this has nothing to do with the people who gave their time and voices in this book. This is very much a book full of people's personal experiences, which does make it very difficult to rate. That being said I didn't find this book very readable, the formatting wasn't great and it felt quite disjointed going from authors personal thoughts, facts, bits of history interspersed and then big chunks of quotes from other people.
I also felt that using initials for so many people wasn't particularly helpful and I didn't feel like I got to be familiar with any of the voices.
I also wasn't sure what the aim or audience of this book is, if it's for ace people who want to know more it felt too basic and over explained, if it's for people who are new to the whole idea I don't think it did a great job of explaining key terms clearly.
All in all, I'm glad this book exists and while it isn't my perfect book it may well work perfectly for someone else.

Wow! Color me surprised in the most glorious fashion.

When I first heard about this book, I was definitely interested… but I also anticipated an “Ace 101” type introductory text. I had just recently read Sherronda Brown’s ‘Refusing Compulsory Sexuality’ and I was amazed by its comprehensiveness. I didn’t expect that same level of societal examination from a book described as “what it means to be asexual, aromantic, demi or grey-ace.” Of course, I know now that I am a fool and I never should have doubted Eris Young and their work - or the quotes compiled from across the community.

Eris makes it very clear in the ‘Who Are We?’, ‘Microlabels’, and ‘When Language Isn’t Enough’ chapters that, although they are providing some general definitions for various identity labels, these words should absolutely not be taken as gospel. They discuss the use of these words as “identity” vs “description.” They challenge the very need to include a glossary like this in Queer nonfiction. (Where Queer folks are “queering” the very concepts of sexuality, romance, and relationships in general.) They see the beauty in ambiguity.

And then! They explore intersectionality, which (in my opinion) no book on Queerness should lack in this day & age. They connect our topic to race, gender, disability, neurodivergence, and mental health. They ask us to consider the definition of “love” while explaining the split attraction model. They talk explicitly about sex and the continuum of experiences with it across the Ace community. And all along the way, they ask these incredibly thought-provoking questions for any reader: ace & allo alike.

I can sing the praises of the material written within this book very easily. I can point to my multitude of tabs with notes like, “Did I write this part?” and “OMG, it me” and “Mood.” But what I think makes this book even more powerful is that Eris seems to have found a part of themself while on this writing journey. And in that, the book takes on the feel of a memoir - in a very nontraditional & beautifully queered way. What a joy to share as a reader!

The boom of the inclusion of asexual identities and experiences in the world of publishing has been incredibly heartwarming, and Ace Voices solidifies itself as an important piece of this. The voices of writing collected here provide for a nice rounding of understandings, but as with many collections this would also benefit from more diversity.

This is the book I didn’t know I needed. When you’re trying to figure out your identity and where you might fit in the aro/ace world, it’s helpful to be able to read about others experiences. The world has been lacking in books like this. While it’s thought provoking and informative, it does have a focus on American, as many books do, so some aspects were slightly less relatable. That being said, I do appreciate the fact this book was written with intersectionality in mind. The authors own intersectional identity allows this book to cross into many different areas a white cishet a-spec person might not have (or at least not intentionally). It’s really affirming to have someone tell you you’re normal, you’re not the weird person you always thought you were, even if you’re not quite able to believe it yet. While the book does capture different voices in different ways, I was sort of expecting it to be more from different perspectives, rather than being from one voices who utilises the voices of others. All in all it was an interesting read.

This book reads very much like a college paper or thesis, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in the right context, but it wasn't what I was expecting for a book. While I definitely learned a lot from the book, I eventually stopped wanting to engage because of the style it was written in - it felt more like a dictionary with some quotes describing the term in place of the typical, use the word in a sentence. A way to reframe this book may have been to really highlight one individual's voice each chapter to make a point or bring a specific perspective to the table. A more narrative/short story approach would have made this book more accessible.
While saying all that, this book was clearly researched very thoroughly and definitely taught me many things I didn't know about. It also felt like the author really tried to be respectful and inclusive throughout the book.

This was the first non-fiction ace book I’ve read, and I enjoyed how comforting and affirming the experience of reading it was. Eris Young collects together the stories and experiences of ace people across the spectrum, on their sexualities and on many intersecting topics such as gender, disability, race and religion. The book does a great job of showing the vast variety of individuals who fall under the asexual umbrella, and gives equal love and attention to the myriad of ways in which people experience asexuality and aromanticism. As someone who still feels a lot of insecurity about my asexuality and how I relate to it, Ace Voices made me feel more accepted and understood.

Ace Voices collects together the results of a survey done by Young, in which they invited acespec people to answer questions about their lives and experiences. The book is split into chapters, many of which focus on intersectionality, exploring issues like race and gender. There is a conscious effort to acknowledge different cultural perspectives, and to unpack Western biases about asexuality, by exploring the ways that people from different backgrounds relate to their asexuality and the unique issues they face.

However, in some ways, I wish the book had contained more complete stories from the acespec people interviewed. There are a lot of quotes, and sometimes the emotional impact and understanding is lost in the process of jumping between different people. Although I loved reading the interview responses, and seeing the variety represented by them, there is a slight sense of detachment from these individuals as people. Some of the relatability is lost in the bite-size quotes. I would have loved to see at least a few full stories, in which I could truly understand how the asexual experience impacted people’s lives differently.

The book has quite an academic tone, almost like a dissertation, and although I don’t think that detracts from the strong writing and the value of the content, I do think it made me read a little more slowly and I was less immersed. I enjoyed the book, and I found it quite thorough in exploring all the different ways that asexuality can be expressed, and all the ways it impacts people’s lives. I think this book could provide allosexual people with a good base understanding of the asexual community, especially with the well-organised chapters and discussion of labels and definitions. Overall, this was a positive, relatable read that collects together many varied voices and celebrates the beautiful diversity of acespec people.

4.25⭐️

A non-fiction novel aiming to amplify aro/ace voices, raise awareness of the LGBTQIA+'s less well known identities, and validate individual experiences.

I'm not even going to lie; I've been reading this book for literal months. It took me a long time to read this because it felt too real. I had an inkling that I was on the spectrum for a very long time, but reading this book was a reality-check for me. I'm still not quite certain of my identity, and although this book definitely brought on the identity-crisis, I'm happy that it did. Because now, I'm on the right track to find myself. Thank you.

Seriously speaking: I'm not an avid reader of non-fiction, but I found that this book was A, very well researched, B, very well structured, and C, balanced the personal nature of the topic with the societal research and evidence with finesse. This is one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read and it truly made me understand so much more about the aro/ace-spectrum, about being aro/ace, and about other people's and my own identity.

I really appreciate how much this book represents so many different experiences within the ace community. It is clear that the author did their research and put a huge emphasis on intersectionality, It showcases the common thread between all ace people while still being respectful of our differences and the many nuances that exist within the community. I personally think this would be a great read for people outside of the ace community as well.

Really informative. It explored different aspects of asexuality and aromanticism and has diaclaimers when the author is not the voice of that minority.

Ace Voices provides a thorough introduction to a-spec identities, bringing together research and varied lived experiences into a work I believe would be a beneficial read for anyone - from someone hearing about a-spec identities for the first time to someone well-versed in the relevant terminology. From the sections I identified with to those that taught me something new, I enjoyed learning, reflecting, and exploring what it means to be a-spec. The final collection of quotes from interviewees was especially moving.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was unable to provide review due to time constraints of me starting college. I look forward however to reading this book in the future simply as a fan, not a reviewer, and an Ace one at that.