vivi reviewed Stim: An Autistic Anthology by Lizzie Huxley-Jones
Around one in a hundred people in the UK are autistic, and the saying goes …
Essential for any autistic person, great for others too
5 stars
As an autistic person who often feels isolated from representation in media and art this is such a refreshing read. Non autistic writing, while still entertaining, is just structured differently. And while I've gotten used to it, the opportunity to hear pure unfiltered autistic literature is so special. It feels like I have a more direct connection to the authors than I generally do from non autistic writers. As if the compatibility layer I always use to read books can just be removed. This is of course very difficult to explain effectively but it's just a feeling I get.
All of these stories are very personal and heartfelt and they go into very intense places sometimes, but the tone almost always resolves to positivity. Also, each story has a content warning at the start which is thoughtful.
Some of the stories focus in particular on British life as it is …
As an autistic person who often feels isolated from representation in media and art this is such a refreshing read. Non autistic writing, while still entertaining, is just structured differently. And while I've gotten used to it, the opportunity to hear pure unfiltered autistic literature is so special. It feels like I have a more direct connection to the authors than I generally do from non autistic writers. As if the compatibility layer I always use to read books can just be removed. This is of course very difficult to explain effectively but it's just a feeling I get.
All of these stories are very personal and heartfelt and they go into very intense places sometimes, but the tone almost always resolves to positivity. Also, each story has a content warning at the start which is thoughtful.
Some of the stories focus in particular on British life as it is a British book, but that did not really detract from the content in my mind as the stories are diverse. (It not being US-centric is a bit of a nice change of pace anyway)
The stories were short and it was worthwhile to take a long pause after each one to really absorb it and bask in the feelings and thoughts of each author.
All in all I would recommend this book to everyone, autistic folks as well as non autistic folks who want to understand the autistic mind better.