Book Review:
Unmasking Autism by Dr Devon Price
Monoray, 7th April 2022

There's an awful lot discussed in Unmasking Autism, including eating disorders (bulimia and anorexia), LGBTQ+, comorbidities, and more. The author talks from personal experience as well as from his personal perspective, and this makes the subject all the more emotive, particularly if you are reading as someone who thinks they could be on the spectrum, or already have a diagnosis.

This could so easily have been a series of several books, as there is so much to unpack here. While there is a lot of information on some subjects, on others it feels as though the author has barely skimmed the surface. The writing style is inclusive, and it's easy to read, although some of the chapters are rather long.

There will be so many people that read this and have a real lightbulb moment, and for that, the author should be applauded.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Octopus Publishing (Monoray) and Dr Devon Price for the ARC provided via NetGalley; this is my unbiased review.

#UnmaskingAutism #DrDevonPrice #Monoray #OctopusPublishing #BookReview #Neurodiversity #NetGalley #Bookstagram

This book is a comprehensive look at masking which might help autistic people to understand the role it plays in their lives.
It's written accessibly, by an autistic person and links personal experience with research.

Unmasking Autism: The Power of Embracing Our Hidden Neurodiversity by Dr Devon Price is a very comprehensive book covering a range of elements, including what autism actually is, why people mask, the co-morbidities which often accompany autism, the risks of masking, why people should unmask and strategies to come out as autistic in a neurotypical world as well as much more. The book has a large focus on how autistic people should be themselves and not be afraid to ask for the access arrangements they need in the neurotypical world so they can succeed and live as close to a normal life as possible.

This book makes a very interesting read, with both surprising, shocking and interesting lessons and ideas about autism. It was particularly interesting, at least to me, reading about the, in my opinion to an extent, inhumane treatment using aversion therapy, but also just how common some of the co-morbidities are, including self-harm, eating disorders, social anxiety, depression and so on. It is commonly believed that there is no treatment for autism so it was also very interesting to read about how some people have been using cannabis, or more specifically CBD, to try and apparently succeed at managing the autistic symptoms. Price also makes a conscious effort to include different types of autistic people, including autistic females, black people, transgender and generally LBBTQ+ autistics. It was nice with the exercises, which were featured in some of the chapters, and I enjoyed the real-life case studies from various autistics, which helped reinforce the point Price was making.

However, it may be said that some of the chapters were quite long, which arguably may not be the most ideal for some autistic and other neurodiverse readers. As well as this, the book was meant to be on autism and unmasking, but I feel that throughout this book, there may have been too much emphasis on female, black and LGBTQ+ autistics. Yes, these people mustn't be forgotten, but I'm not sure it was entirely relevant to repeat this throughout the book. This book seems to be trying to tackle two topics at the same time when it may have been better to write two different books, one on unmasking specifically for autistic people and a second book on autism more generally and the people it impacts with a major focus on those who are underdiagnosed. Because of how these two topics have been combined into one, much of it is very interesting; parts of this book are more relevant to autistics and other parts to non-autistics. Price further makes some recommendations about how this neurotypical world can be more autistic/neurodiverse friendly, but some of these recommendations, I would say, go too far and could be considered unreasonable; they get to the point where there would be positive discrimination.

Finally, a technical note, there was some inconsistency in the language used, with Price sometimes using "and colleagues" or "and "and others" and other times using the more proper "et al.", so it may
have been nicer to see some more consistency, with a personal preference for the use of et al.,

Altogether, I rate this book 3 stars, making it a good book. Yes, there are areas of improvement, but this is a great book for autistics to both better understand their mental illness and also learn about the benefits and disadvantages of masking and some advice on the process of unmasking. I would recommend this book to both autistic and non-autistic people. For autistics, it is a great book, as just mentioned, and for neurotypicals and non-autistics, there is relevance to other mental illnesses. Still, I also feel it is important that there is a greater understanding of mental illnesses in general, including autism, so we can work towards a more accessible society. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Octopus Publishing for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in return for an honest book review; I really enjoyed reading it and learned loads of fascinating information about autism.

An interesting book, that has given some interesting insight into Autism. The exercises are useful and really made me think. The book does talk a lot about the transgender experience of autism, which I found hard to relate to, and didn’t match my own experiences of autism, so I found that a bit difficult to get through.

"Unmasking Autism" by Devon Price is a much needed and in a way reassuring book on neurodiversity. The author and other contributors explore the anatomy of a mask that many autistic people are forced to wear on the daily basis.

Working with autistic clients, I'll be very happy to recommend this book as a valuable resource, especially for its' exercises and overall accessibility.

The author describes the process of unmasking and living an authentic autistic life. However I was unsure whether they were referring to someone who is “masked” as being undiagnosed or diagnosed but trying to conform to a neurotypical world. I think at times, the term “masked” was used interchangeably for these two states.

The term neurodiverse was also used at times to refer to neurodivergence.

I sensed some anger from the author in the way they had been treated before discovering their autism. Perhaps it was also anger directed towards neurotypicals or the system which is stacked against the poor and marginalised, whether autistic or not. The book also spoke a lot about the LGBT community, drawing many parallels between that and autism.

I’ve read many books on autism and I’m glad I read this one, as there were a several things I’d never considered before. However the thing I largely took away from this book is thankfulness that I’m not American. For all the faults within the British NHS and the long delay for assessments, diagnosis is possible and the focus post-diagnosis is on making adjustments, rather than “treatment” or “therapy” to “cure” autism.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Although some of the book feels as though it is aimed primarily about theAmerican health system (which differs from the uk) there is much to be gained by reading this book.

I liked that it addressed the additional challenges that may be faced by a range of marginalised groups who may have been affected by autism and gave ideas or sources of support to address them.

Comorbidities such as ADHD were discussed with lots of ideas to thrive as a neurodivergent.

I particularly liked the ideas such as Celebrating Special interests, Reframing autistic stereotypes and the use of more positive language when describing Autistic tendancies.

Useful sources of information and activities were very helpful such as the 52 lists series, although stimtastic was included but it appears to have been out of business for a few years so I was surprised it was mentioned. I also valued that they had carefully considered unhelpful sources of information to steer readers clear of. A well thought out book: Informative, engaging and inclusive.

Unmasking Autism is a memoir about living as an autistic person forced by society to constantly mask, and how this can be incredibly harmful to individuals. I enjoyed reading about the author’s experiences and found it to be a very relatable book. I also liked reading the anecdotes from other people which were featured throughout the book, as this provided more depth and different experiences and opinions. I think one of my favourite things about this book was the inclusive language used and the focus on autistic experiences amongst other marginalised communities, for example, the racism faced by non-white autistics, particularly in America, and also the experiences of transgender autistics, and the harm stereotypes can cause to these people. I found myself feeling seen and understood when reading this, and I believe other autistic people would definitely benefit from reading this, as well as non-autistic people in our lives. I had been very excited to read this book and I’m very grateful to have been given the opportunity to read this! I would recommend this to other autistic people or anyone wanting to learn more about autism directly from an autistic author.

I work with autistic students and enjoyed reading this book. Definitely will recommend to parents and will have it on my work bookcase for reference. The exercises scattered throughout were useful too!

Absolutely incredible, and a must-read for people on the spectrum; especially for those diagnosed later in life.

I was diagnosed in October 2021 at 20 years old and to be honest even though I've seen videos on masking and knew it was something I did, I still didn't really understand the concept. Apart from visibly stimming, I didn't understand what else could count as not-masking. Price is amazing at explaining what masking is, where it comes from and how to begin the unmasking process. It involves tapping into the person we have hidden and learning to trust ourselves instead of the neurotypical people around us. There are exercises that help the reader reflect on the past and how to find our values and suppressed feelings/modes of being. This book is so rich I honestly can't even cover everything. I've highlighted and dog-eared so much of it because I need to go back to fully digest the message.

Thank you Dr Devon Price for writing this! He's also very attentive to the different types of autistic people and our social and cultural differences, he emphasises how different our social conditions can be and how these affect our masking and ability to unmask. A very attentive and thorough author, I'm very pleased with everything in this book.

This was a great book. It was very useful if you wanted to learn more about some aspects of autism. I liked the way the author drew on his life experiences. It was easy to understand. It was very interesting, and I definitely recommend reading it.

Many thanks to the author and publishers for creating this useful book
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/unmasking-autism-by-devon-price-octopus-4-stars and my mew blog https://ladyreading365.blogspot.com/2023/06/unmasking-autism-by-devon-price-octopus.html under my name ladyreading365

This is a really useful book. It's extremely readable, I particularly like the exercises scattered throughout, and it is very well researched (and has an excellent bibliography).

I can see how it would be challenging to some (neurodivergence <i>and</i> transgender identity, gasp!) but given the huge overlap between non cis gender experience and neurodivergence, it is pretty relevant, and not that surprising. It's also useful, given the similarities in experience between coming to understand yourself as queer, and coming to understand yourself as non-neurotypical - the way that Price links the two throughout might make the experience feel relatable to a wider audience.

My thanks to Octopus Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

One of the best autism books I’ve read in a very long time. This is a book for autistic people (though I’m sure it would also be useful for those who have an autistic or neurodiverse person in their life too) all about masking. Price provides a book that is not just validating of autistic people’s experiences but also provides really helpful guidance on looking at how to stop masking and move away from shame and guilt about being autistic to embracing it proudly. I liked the way the book was written as it was clear, concise and informative but also gave plenty of information on where to go next and find more resources. The author did an excellent job of breaking down stereotypes and incorporating a variety of experiences to show just how diverse a community we make up. The exercises were really useful too. It was nice to see something that moved away from CBT models (which often doesn’t work well with people who are neurodiverse) and instead look at Value Based Integration (a practice I hadn’t come across before but will definitely be exploring further). A book I will be returning to again in the future!

This book had some really interesting concepts and it will be useful to think about what autistic people struggle with when interacting.

The thing that strikes me most about Dr Devon Price’s book is how they are able to reframe the Autistic stereotypes and thus changing our thinking - for example changing the label of childish into curious, open minded and joyful. There are sections of the book too for you to undertake and these will help you understand who you are and how to make note of the things that truly bring you joy. Price unpicks how and why we wear our masks, and what the Autistic mask truly means. It took me years to realise that I did actually mask, and thanks to this book I am trying to unmask with those I trust. Once you know and accept your identity as Autistic then you can truly find reason behind your actions and how you work.

When I was at Gallaudet, one of the courses I attended was on Enforcing Normalcy and looked at the social constructs of disability and deafness. Devon Price looks at parallels with the Deaf community and the Autistic community, and perhaps if the society we live in changed then there wouldn’t be the need for us to mask. Price explains how being undiagnosed and masked is very similar to the idea of being in the gay or trans closet, because you are hiding who you truly are. This book will help you uncover this.

Regardless of whether you have a diagnosis or whether you are self diagnosed, this book will help you with your identity and the struggles behind your mask and help, when you’re ready, to slowly removing the mask.

This book is informative and generally a useful book when it comes to explaining, or ‘unmasking’ Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders. In my family I have an adult son, a sister and a niece who have all got a diagnosis of Autism. And I myself am probably there with them, albeit undiagnosed. The point being that I have a pretty good level of understanding of Autism and how it doesn’t present in a ‘one size fits all’ kind of way. This is something that this book is good at identifying and sharing.
There are parts of the book that feel are of more use to the American market, but that aside, there is still lots that people in the UK will benefit from.
Those with Autism and the people close to them would definitely get some benefit from reading this book.
My thanks to the author, the publisher and to NetGalley for gifting me this arc and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Informative and comforting as someone who is currently seeking a diagnosis. It did feel geared more towards an American audience at times but most of the advice/information is accessible to everyone.

Being Autistic myself this books was both informative and comforting. I would recommend everyone to read this book regardless of if you know, are or don't know an Autistic person.