“Autistic and Black” Review

Posted on by Jen

“Autistic and Black: Our Experiences of Growth, Progress and Empowerment” by Kala Allen Omeiza

In this powerful insight into the lives of Black autistic people, Kala Allen Omeiza brings together a community of voices from across the world, spanning religions, sexuality and social economic status to provide a deep and rich understanding of what it means to be autistic and Black.

Exploring everything from self-love and appreciation, to the harsh realities of police brutality, anti-Black racism, and barriers to care, as well as amplifying the voices of the inspiring advocates who actively work towards change, protection, and acceptance for themselves and others, this book is an empowering force, reminding you that as a Black autistic person, you are enough.

Review

This book is a really good look at the realities of being both Autistic and Black. I feel like this is a really important book for people to read along with the books “NeuroTribes” by Steve Silberman and “We’re Not Broken” by Eric Garcia as it adds additional perspectives to the conversation about autism and how it impacts people differently. There are a lot of great interviews and stories in this book. I thought the author did a great job providing a variety of perspectives. There are Black Autistic individuals from various locations in Africa as well as the United Kingdom and the United States. There are also people of different ages, including children as young as 9. The author does a good job making sure their point of view is expressed without interference or assumptions. There is a good mixture of how individuals view autism and how it has impacted their lives for good and bad. It also has a reminder of the multiple reasons why person first language is sometimes necessary. It can be a matter of safety to avoid calling attention to any perceived difference – especially for Black and Brown individuals who may already be viewed with suspicion by authorities.

Book Details

The cover of Autistic and Black is various shades of orange in red in with a pale orange outline and then a darker orange middle with the title and subtitle at the top casing a darker red shadow diagonally down and to the right. There is a diagonal line resulting from this across the page and at the bottom a little orange snail is making its way upwards. The Authors name is at the bottom.

Author’s Website
Kala Allen Omeiza
Publisher / Date
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, February 2024
Genre
Essay Collection
Page Count
224
Completion Date
October 3, 2025

“Disabling Intelligences” Review

Posted on by Jen

“Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI” by Rua M. Williams

This book discusses the influences of eugenics on the AI industry and the impacts of AI opportunism on disabled people. Why are the negative consequences of so-called AI so consistently directed at disabled and racialized people? Disabling Intelligences answers this question by detailing the ongoing effects of the eugenicist mindset on our corporate ventures and our interpersonal relationships. It offers an accessible guide to the various meanings, methods, and impacts of AI, and provides a clear framework for classifying, categorizing, evaluating, and critiquing AI projects. Bridging the gap between STS and critical disability studies, the author centers disabled experiences to present a novel framework that helps readers transform their understandings of citizenship, consumerism, social movements, journalism, engineering, research, and scholarship.

An ideal reading for academics at all levels interested in AI technologies across the social sciences and humanities, as well as engineering and computer science, this groundbreaking short monograph challenges our understanding and assumptions about technology, encompassing the history of AI and disability from popular culture to real-life case-studies. Readers will come away from this text equipped with a clarity of perception and a toolkit for evaluating and resisting metaeugenics in technology.

Review

This was a really good look at how we think we’re using AI and the ways that it plays into ideas of eugenics. It’s another example of a technological fix for things that require societal changes in how we view work and ability to work. There are many example of past technology fixes that have been thought up to solve problems related to disability that were subsequently abandoned leaving people behind. Will AI be another one of those things. We think we need AI to solve our problems but how many additional problems does AI create in the process of using it? I think the author does a great job providing examples of AI in media and what our assumptions have been regarding those portrayals.The author also breaks down the different types of AI usage and what we think they can be used for while showing the various issues that occur as a result. While this is an academic book I felt like it was relatively easy to read and get through quickly as I felt like the author was very good at explaining things in a way that many people can undrestand.

Book Details

The cover of Disabling Intelligences is red with yellow leaves arranged around the top, left side and bottom of the cover with the title and authors name in the center right side.

Author’s Website
Rua M. Williams (BlueSky)
Publisher / Date
Palgrave Macmillan Cham, September 2025
Genre / Topics
Essays, Disability Studies, Artificial Intelligence
Page Count
136
Completion Date
September 27, 2025

“The Ending Fire” Review

Posted on by Jen

“The Ending Fire” (The Ending Fire Trilogy No. 3) by Saara El-Arifi

The Wardens’ Empire is falling. A vigilante known only as the “Truthsayer” is raising an army against the wardens. Sylah and Hassa must navigate the politics of this new world, all the while searching for Anoor.

Across the sea the Blood Forged prepare for war, requesting aid from other governments. Jond’s role as Major General sees him training their soldiers for combat, but it’s matters of the heart that prove to be the hardest battlefield.

The Zalaam celebrate the arrival of the Child of Fire, heralding the start of the final battle. Anoor’s doubts are eclipsed by the powers of her new god. Soon the Zalaam set off on their last voyage–one few expect to return from.

Review

I thought this was a good conclusion to the trilogy with a lot of things happening all at once. I really enjoyed the different point of views in the book and the way things developed for the characters. There were several things happening throughout the book to bring things to the final confrontation and I thought it was well done. I did like the ending and I felt like it was a good one for most of the characters involved. That said I was a little baffled by the ending for two of the characters and felt like it was a little too vague in the sense that we don’t fully know what happened to them.

Additional reviews and warnings can be found on the StoryGraph page for “The Ending Fire”.

Book Details

The cover is taken up by a white tile pattern that has a gold stripe through the bottom half and gold fire at the top right and bottom left corners. The title is written in the center the authors name at the bottom.

Author’s Website
Saara El-Arifi
Publisher / Date
Del Ray, September 2024
Genre
Fantasy
Page Count
464
Completion Date
September 26, 2025

“The Iron Garden Sutra” Review

Posted on by Jen

“The Iron Garden Sutra” by A.D. Sui

Vessel Iris has devoted himself to the Starlit Order, performing funeral rites for the dead across the galaxy, guiding souls back into the Infinite Light. Despite the comfort he wants to believe he brings to the dead, his relationships with his fellow Vessels are distant at best, leaving him reliant on his AI implant for companionship.

The spaceship Counsel of Nicaea has been lost for more than a thousand years. A relic of Earth’s dying past, humanity took the ship to the stars on a multi-generation journey to find another habitable planet yet never reached its destination. Its sudden appearance has attracted a team of academics eager to investigate its archeological history. And Iris has been assigned to bring peace to the crew’s long departed souls.

Carpeted in moss and intertwined with vines, Nicaea is more forest than ship. But Nicaea’s plant life isn’t the only sentience to have survived in the past millennia. Something onboard is stalking the explorers one by one. And Iris with his AI enhancement may be their only hope for survival. . .

Review

This was such a great read! I really loved the worldbuilding and the character developments throughout the book. Iris was such an interesting character to get know along with his AI companion. It’s interesting reading about a character having an AI companion considering what’s going on today but I liked the way the author handled the whole situation. I really liked the way Iris ended up developing various connections and relationships with everyone in the group (especially one character). I really enjoyed the way various histories of the characters ended up being told as they got to know each other.

I thought the balance of character development and solving the actual mystery of the ship was well done. Things happened in a way that necessitated characters talking to each other in a way that made sense. The potential story of that happened on the ship in the past is all too realistic given how generational knowledge is lost over the years. The way everything worked out was also interesting. I did wish for confirmation on one plot, but it’s okay that it was not shown. I also liked the way a specific relationship developed and the way things played out even if the ending felt too abrupt. I did think it made sense given the rest of the story that whatever might happen next was not the focus of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Erewhon Books and A.D. Sui for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details

The cover of the book is yellow with two circles with various spheres on top in orbit around a space station with multiple modules. Below the circles is a triangular shape with a human skull over it and red vines growing around it. The title is written one word on each line down the center with the author's name at the bottom.

Author’s Website
A.D. Sui
Publisher / Date
Erewhon Books, February 2026
Genre
Science Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Page Count
384
Completen Date
September 14, 2025

“Real Americans” Review

Posted on by Jen

“Real Americans” by Rachel Khong

Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn’t be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.

In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can’t shake the sense she’s hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.

Review

This was a really interesting book. It’s a bit slow in places but completely worth it. I actually liked the last section of the book best which is May’s story (Lily’s mother/Nick’s Grandmother). It may seem strange to tell the book in that order but I think it really makes a solid point about how children can grow up questioning their parents’ choices and being resentful, without the full context of why the choices were made.

There are a lot of themes in the book with the biggest ones being about immigration and assimilation to a new country. Lily’s parents made a lot of choices when they arrived in the United States that had an impact down through the generations. One of those choices was to never teach Lily their own language. Which you end up seeing the consequences of when Lily goes to visit China and cannot speak to the people there.

There is also a thread of eugenics in the book that is not talked about in depth but is always there. Again choices were made that had an impact on both Lily and Nick. There’s a lot there that could be talked about but one of the main ideas is that choices can result in far reaching consequences.

The ending is one of the more abrupt endings that I’ve read, but I also think it works well for the book. I liked that we got to know that it’s possible that things could be resolved for the family members.

Additional reviews and warnings can be found on the StoryGraph page for “Real Americans”.

Book Details

The cover has multiple oval shapes going down the center of the cover which show various images inside in different colors yellow red and blue. The title of the book and then the authors name are written one line per word down the center of the page inside the ovals.

Author’s Website
Rachel Khong

Publisher / Date
Knopf, April 2024
Genre
General Fiction
Page Count
416
Completion Date
September 5, 2025

“The Battle Drum” Review

Posted on by Jen

“The Battle Drum” (The Ending Fire Trilogy No. 2) by Saara El-Arifi

Anoor is the first blue-blooded ruler of the Wardens’ Empire. But when she is accused of a murder she didn’t commit, her reign is thrown into turmoil. She must solve the mystery and clear her name without the support of her beloved, Sylah.

Hassa’s web of secrets grows ever thicker as she finds herself on a trail of crimes in the city. Her searching uncovers the extent of the atrocities of the empire’s past and present. Now, she must guard both her heart and her land.

Sylah braves new lands to find a solution for the hurricane that threatens to destroy her home. But in finding answers, she must make a decision, does she sacrifice her old life in order to raise up her sword once more?

The three women find their answers, but they’re not the answers they wanted. The drumbeat of change thrums throughout the world.

Review

I thought this was a good sequel to the first book. I enjoyed learning more about the characters and seeing how they were working to find their answers. Naturally being the middle book of a trilogy it was mostly information gathering and building on prior knowledge before the conclusion. Some things were more frustrating than others but I enjoyed it.

Additional reviews and warnings can be found on the StoryGraph page for “The Battle Drum”.

Book Details

The cover is taken up by a white with blue tinge tial pattern that has a blue strip through the bottom half and a blue design at the top The tile is written in the center the authors name at the bottom

Author’s Website
Saara El-Arifi
Publisher / Date
Del Ray, May 2023
Genre
Fantasy
Page Count
544
Completion Date
August 21, 2025