As the title suggests, A Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality is a good overview of what asexuality is and the different parts of the asexuality spectrum. It's informative enough to cover the basics, and I would consider it to be a handy guide for aces to share with their friends and family members who maybe aren't sure exactly what it means when their loved one comes out as asexual. The illustrations in this graphic novel are well done and I enjoyed the casual conversational tone of the book. The only part I take issue with is the fact that the author perpetuates the myth that the A in LGBTQIA+ stands for Ally, when it actually stands for aromantic, asexual, and agender. But that aside, I would recommend this to anyone who is just starting out on their journey to discovering what it means to be ace.

A fairy informative introduction to asexuality told through a series of comic panels featuring the two author explaining different parts of the orientation to other people. I think if you've been ace for awhile and have kind of 'figured yourself out' this is going to come across as pretty basic but it would be a great guide for allo people who are wanting to learn more about asexuality and also for young people who are questioning whether they might be ace or not. I know I would have loved to have something like this when I was a teen.

Being asexual myself, obviously I would want to read "A Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality" by Molly Muldoon and Will Hernandez. This is a special volume as it really is just a quick and easy comic or graphic novel type guide to asexuality. It does exactly what it says it will, which is guide you though the terms and any confusing questions that may pop up when you think of asexuality. They present the information in a conversational, easily accessable way that doesn't ever feel preachy or condescending. It doesn't ever assume that you, the reader, knows something and instead takes the time to spell things out but in the friendliest way that it always feels like the authors genuinely want to dispell any misunderstandings.

It may have been one of the intentions of this book to make asexual people feel seen, loved, and understood, because this is certainly how it made me feel. And I don't mind saying that I teared up and cried a little when reading it. One simple sentence: You are not broken.
It means the world to me to hear that after decades (I am an older reader) of considering myself lesser, broken, weird, not right but not quite 'queer', or not 'queer' enough to be LGBT. When I learned that people started using LGBTQIA+ and that the A could stand for asexual and what asexual was and that it was a spectrum I knew I was on it. I learned this only a couple of years ago. This was an amazing moment but it has still been something I am learning about and about myself. This guide was very beneficial, and I would recommend every Secondary school in the country have one in their school library and guidance centers. That all staff rooms also get a copy so that teachers are also aware. I also think it would benefit some of my family members to read it, as they still don't 'understand' me.

I recently 'came out' to a very liberal group of friends/ colleagues, in as relaxed and nonchalant way as I could and it was one of the most liberating things I have done in years. Everyone enthusiastically started discussing sexual attraction, libido, what they need from a romantic and sexual relationship and asking me questions about what asexuality is. One of my friends thought she understood but when I delved a little deeper and started talking about demi-sexual and grey-asexual, she suddenly stopped and exclaimed "Oh! I think I just learned something about myself! I think that's me!" I would like to get her a copy of this and see if it helps her understand herself a little better, whether she identifies as asexual or not.

This is a brilliant guide and I cannot rate this highly enough. It is one of the best books I have read all year. Thank you to the authors and publishers for printing it and allowing me an advance copy. This old asexual lady appreciates it!

A short graphic novel that covers every basic information about asexuality you may need as an allosexual interested in the topic. It's not exhaustive, it doesn't pretend to be, but it's really helpful to understand or refresh some concepts and misconceptions on the topic.
With a very positive and kind tone, I think it is really useful and didactic for readers beyond those who identify on the ace spectrum or have close ties to it (as myself, an allosexual with friends and family in the ace spectrum). This book could really help general audiences understand more about asexuality and dispell some of the widespread ignorance.

I love the Quick & Easy Guides! This is a great addition. Asexuality is definitely misunderstood and underrepresented in our community. I've only read one other book with an ace character in it, and it was a memoir. This Guide helps anyone--gay, straight, ace, questioning, trans, ANYONE--have a better understanding of what asexuality is and is not in a simple format that's easy to follow. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the subject.

Really, really loved this short yet very complete guide to asexuality. It introduced this identity in a very comprehensive way and it busted some myths surrounding it. I feel like this is a good starting point for people who are questioning their sexuality or for those who want to educate themselves on what being asexual means. It is very short, so you can read it quickly and form a idea of what asexuality entails.

Uhuh. So it was generally a good introduction apart from the last part and as someone who spends a lot of energy trying to fight for aces' and aros' rights to belong in the queer spaces, I can't let it slide. It's precisely non-answers like these that lead to more prejudice against aspecs in queer spaces.

Once and for all - A IS NOT FOR ALLY. Ally is not an identity, it's not something you're born, it's an action. A in LGBRQIA+ stands for aromantic, asexual and agender.

I'm so tired of repeating the same thing over and over. And how can it ever stop if even materials made for aces, by aces, don't get the basic facts right?

How can you first say that aces often feel like we don't belong in the cishet world but then say that it's "unclear" if we belong in queer spaces either? There is no separate category for aces, you're allocishet or you're queer, its very simple.

It's a superimportant topic for me as I have opposite experiences to the authors - I've encountered plenty of gatekeeping (and straight up aphobia including offers of conversion therapy) from the offline queer communities. At the same time, online spaces were always very inclusive and welcoming in my experience.

I said it before and I'll say it again, okay? I'm tired. I just spent half of Saturday at a meeting arguing that non-answers like "you can belong in queer spaces but... " are aphobic and lead to aspecs having zero legal protections (unlike the LGBTQI community in Sweden) and asexuality not being recognized as an official sexuality but instead being continously treated as a medical curiosity that needs to be cured (that's called conversion therapy, fyi). I don't need to hear the same non-answers from a book that's meant for me, written by my oan community.

Why couldn't it elaborate on these issues? Why couldn't it tackle gatekeeping and aphobia in queer spaces? Why not focus on importance of self-identification and especially about the feelings of heteroromantic aces and demis? It would have been so much better than the "it's unclear but you're always welcome" which is plain bullshit.

Writing it all down made me lower it down by one more star. Also, there were some unnecessary gender binaries thrown in.

This book is a starting point for those who want to educate themselves about asexuality. It's a quick and easy read and you only get a basic understanding of the asexual spectrum.

I do have one issue with this book, the section about what the "A" in LGBTQIA stands for made my blood boil. This book argues that it could stands for ally. Let's be clear, the A stands for asexual/aromantic/agender, that's it. Allies are not queer, they're not part of the acronym. "A stands for ally" is a very harmful misconception, we are underrepresented and get excluded from our community enough as it is.

Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in return for an honest review!

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

A quick and fun filled explanation of the asexual spectrum. Some parts in the book can be problematic for some. Generalizations and judgements are made by the writers.

A good start and teen friendly.

This book delivers exactly what it promises. I like that it gets into many important topics: defining asexuality, exploring the spectrum, explaining the difference between sexual and romantic attraction, dating, growing up asexual, stereotypes, and the larger LGBTQIA+ community. There are also resources for further reading and research. As someone who has been aware of their own asexuality and aromanticism for awhile now, this book didn't present anything new but I still enjoyed reading it and feeling validated by the authors' insights and experiences. It's nice to have this guide bringing attention to asexuality and being there to help inform people who don't know about this orientation or who might be questioning. I would have loved having this guide around when I was younger and struggling with my identity but didn't have the terminology to described what I was -- and wasn't -- feeling. This guide is super quick (it took me about an hour to read), easy to understand, and told with simple illustrations and a casual, conversational tone. Highly recommend!

This is a very honest description of the ace experience. It's informative and covers pretty much everything there is to know about it.
It could be very useful for people who are trying to understand themselves and also
for those who want to know more about asexuality in general.
I don't agree with a couple of things they mentioned, hence 4 stars, but it's a good book anyway.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

I got an e-arc through Netgalley, this in no way affected this review.

I really enjoyed this informative book on Asexuality. It’s still a sexuality you don’t see a lot of representation of in today’s media and I’m so happy this book exists.

I identify as aro/ace, which took me a long time to figure out and I really feel like this book could have helped me if I’d read it a few years back! But I’m so happy other young, queer readers might pick up this graphic novel and find themselves in it.

The only reason that I didn’t give it 5 stars, is because while everything was explained in an excellent way, I did feel like they repeated stuff a lot to the point where I skipped some of the pages where they were summarising everything.

I always want to educate myself on the elements of the LGTBQTIA+ community that I don't have a great understanding of, so I was really excited to see this graphic novel explaining the basics of asexuality.

This book does exactly what it sets out to. It's a great simple and concise introduction to all things A. It looks at topics within asexuality and aromanticism and swiftly dispels some myths about them. It's really accessible with simple language and some great drawings. An absolutely great starting point for anyone who wants to learn about asexuality.

I really wish I had something like Molly Muldoon and Will Hernandez’ A Quick and Easy Guide to Asexuality when I was struggling to figure myself out. I did not hear the term asexual outside of very specific conversations about cellular reproduction. When I did start hearing the term in relation to human sexuality I initially confused it with androgyny, which is an entirely different thing. Fellow Cannonballers started reviewing Angela Chen’s Ace and I was very curious. Further investigation gave me an almost cartoonish lightbulb moment when suddenly SO MANY THINGS made sense. Anyway, it would have been very nice if I had realized not really being sexually attracted was a thing and not a problem to be fixed a few decades ago. I feel like I owe a few exes an apology.

Coincidentally, it’s National Coming Out Day, and this is me, coming out as Ace. Specifically, somewhere in the aro-ace corner. I’m not going to worry about it too much because at this point in my life it’s largely irrelevant.

But back to Molly Muldoon and Will Hernandez’ A Quick and Easy Guide to Asexuality. It is a lovely and joyful short comic doing exactly what it says on the tin – providing a quick introductory guide to asexuality. At this point, I’ve moved beyond this level of introduction, but even two years ago, I could have used this. I liked the friendly artwork. I liked breadth of covered topics. I liked the very clear message that we are all more than our labels, and that attraction and love are a spectrum. This would be an excellent addition to any library where teens and young adults (or older adults who had no idea asexuality was a thing) are looking for information.

This lovely little book is out in late March of 2022. Plenty of time to pre-order or suggest to your local library.

Thank you to NetGalley and Limerence Press for the advance reader copy. My opinions are my own.

Note; I am asexual and on the aromantic spectrum myself.

I think this was a very good guide to the A! It is explained in a very clear cut and easy way, while still providing enough detail to avoid oversimplification. Of course, asexuality is a very wide and diverse spectrum, so it is impossible to cover everything, but I think this book did it well! I kinda felt that there was too little about sex repulsion though, although it is good that they covered that asexual people can still be in relationships.
I also liked how it covered both dating and growing up as asexual, and I could relate to alot of what they talked about.

I do think they should have specified that the A does not stand for ally, and the chapter about aces and the lgbtqa+ community could have been handled better. It was not necessary to see examples of what kind of negative things people say about asexual people online, for example.

It definitely benefits people that know nothing or little about asexuality, but for asexual people this is kind of redundant and almost too simplistic. It kind of lacks nuance, I suppose.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eArc!

This is the second book I have read in the Quick and Easy Guide series (first one being about consent), and I really appreciate the series being put forth to teach readers about some difficult to comprehend topics.

I never really knew much about asexuality before I joined Tiktok during the pandemic. I purposely sought out creators of different backgrounds in the LGBTQIA+ community so I could be a better ally. Being allosexual, I found asexuality difficult to understand at first. When I saw this book available on Netgalley, I decided to request it to help further my education on the topic.

What I really liked about this book was that it states at the beginning what this book is, and what this book isn't. It also provides resources to fill in any gaps the book does not cover. The actual content of the book is easy to follow, and provides examples and clarifications throughout.

The one thing that I didn't like in the book was the discussion of what the "A" stands for in the LGBTQIA+ acronym. I felt like it was kind of awkward when it danced around what the A stood for... and I definitely do not agree that it could stand for ally. Allyship is super important, but I don't think they need to be included in the acronym.

Overall the book is very informative, and educates readers on the basics of asexuality. Readers won't be experts coming out of reading the book, but it does lay a good foundation of understanding.

Thanks to Netgalley and Oni Press for a digital arc of this book!

This is a great introduction to the world of asexuality. If you are new to the concept of asexuality, this will go over the basics. It also talks briefly about the split-attraction model, other sexualities on the ace-spectrum, and a dip into aromanticism.

This goes a great deal into depth about stereotypes of asexuals and why they aren't true, and explains what is the actual case. It really felt like a conversation between the authors and the readers, and I think it will be a great resource for anyone who wants to learn about asexuality, is asexual, or knows someone who is asexual!

Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia

tldr;
5 stars!!!
It's brilliant! I could not recommend it more for any reader who wants to learn a little about an often forgotten identity or a reader who is searching for solidarity and a feeling of validation that is hard to find.

The long version:
I thought this was a brilliant primer to give someone a basic understanding of asexuality. It in no way tried to be all-encompassing and outright stated that asexuality is more complex than can be expressed in this book, but it was friendly, engaging, and relatively easy to understand for those who are unfamiliar with the topic or are trying to figure out their own identity. It was also really inclusive and just helpful. I loved the sections about stereotypes on ace identifying people because sometimes it is so easy to overlook a stereotype as the norm since ace is not an identity with any real meaningful representation in the media. That section really helped me see my own biases and also made the identity much more three-dimensional. I also loved that the authors included their own stories and experiences about being ace and the fact that this book was written by ace people. It made the book resonate a lot more for me and made it feel more like a safe space. I will say the art took a little getting used to, but honestly, the message was far more important and I totally appreciated the book for what it was. I will be keeping a copy of this book in my proverbial back pocket if ever I need to explain asexuality to someone and I don't feel up to the task.

As an ace person myself, I’m sure I’ll NOT give a super reliable review here, but this comic is something that I've dreamed for SO LONG and it’s finally real!!! This is just so, so good, I’ve loved it. Seriously. Before I found out I was asexual, I struggled for so long, trying to figure out myself, and in some ways, I’m still doing the work. I don’t think it’s ever done. And I’m so glad the new generation of ace people will have more content to rely on. There’s still a long way to representation, but I’m happy to see ace people setting the ground for future generations themselves.

This is a perfect introduction to asexuality I’ve ever read, period. I’ll probably send a copy of this to my sister’s once I’m came out and they start scratching their heads trying to figure out what the heck asexuality means. Of course, this will probably not work for everybody, but people are people. We’re all complex individuals, after all. Overall, this is very well written, the art is freaking adorable and you know, a very good introduction to what being Ace really is.

Would recommend this: for ace people trying to figure themselves out, for ace people who are tried to explain what asexuality is to allo people (it’s really tiring, I know!), or you know… ace people looking for more info on our asexuality. Again, this is just the basic, but a pretty darn good one. Go read it, you’re not gonna be disappointed.

This book was aptly named. It was in its essence a quick and easy guide. It was very clear in its delivery of information while avoiding being preachy. Hopefully this book does well and is distributed generously because I think it could change a young questioning person's life.

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