Human Enough

I really liked this book. I wouldn’t necessarily classify this as fluff because there’s several scenes of violence, prejudice, and ableism, but the relationship between Noah and Jordan is soft and sweet.

Noah Lau is a vampire hunter, part of the Vampire Hunter Association formally Van Helsing Agency, and he’s in a (sorta secret) relationship with vampire Jordan Cross. They’ve been together about four months and the book is told by alternating between when they met and present day. Noah has noticed the VHA investigators seem to be dispensing faulty intelligence and is worried that they may have killed vampires they shouldn’t have in the present story line. Jordan and Noah met when the vampire who turned Jordan kidnaps Noah and shows how they escape and fall in love.

This book has some of the best autistic representation I’ve come across - on par with Talia Hibbert and Xan West - and seeing Noah be unapologetically autistic was so wonderful and validating. There’s several time he muses on masking and the things that are easy for allistic folks but aren’t so obvious to him. I really loved those parts and would recommend this story on that alone.

I also really loved when Jordan learns about asexuality. He was born in 1921 and the vampire who turned him didn’t give him much access to the internet so when Noah mentions the different identities, Jordan does some research of his own. Him telling Noah that he’s asexual and realizing he’s not broken resonated so deeply with me and my own experiences of realizing there’s a word for those feelings.

I really like the way the story was told and the conflict didn’t come from the romantic relationship. Noah and Jordan work really well together and are a great support system. I also loved Noah’s sister and how supportive of Noah she is. I do wish they’d gone more into whether Jordan is related to one of the characters, especially because they meet, but that thread isn’t explored beyond the initial wonderings.

Overall, this was a really good read. I loved to romantic relationship and the autistic rep, and the mystery and tension was really well done.

This book was extremely thought provoking and insightful. As someone who doesn’t know a lot about autism I found it shed a light on it and educated me. It wasn’t just that though, the book was very inclusive and I liked the way it hightailed and dealt with it. It wasn’t forced or pushed in. It was natural and showed the ups and downs that most people encounter. It was a very good book, better than what I expected and I am glad I got a chance to read it. I am glad there is an author that speaks about these things in such a way.

Publishing date: 7th Oct. 2019
Disclaimer: I recieved this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tags: LGBT, romance, paranormal, Ace, Pansexual, Autism, Crime, Alt Universe, law enforcement, vampires, friends to lovers, interracial.
Content warning: Ableism, graphic violence, allusions to past emotional abuse, abduction, hate groups.

I really liked this book. I can say that about loads of books, sure, but Human Enough managed something only a few couple have managed before - it dragged my head-first out of my reading slump, and was finished in just over 24 hours. I spoke with a friend just the other day on how so much of queer literature is just about coming out and nothing more - “Where are our fantasy novels? Where are our paranormal romances?” Well, it’s here, and it’s bloody brilliant.

Yu manages to do just the right amount of world building to pull us in as readers, whilst not going all exposure all the time. I as a reader believe in the world I’m getting - the secrets of vampires uncovered with time, the research to find a solution, the hate groups and the support groups both. There are several things we only get glimpses of, whenever Noah tags along with Jordan, but they are still only glimpses, and they make me want to learn more about the world.

Seeing a main character be so unapologetic about his neurodiversity (whilst also, at times, giving a big mental middle finger to the norm for autistic representation in media) was truly marvellous to read. The paragraphs on overstimulation, on auditory processing, on masking, on executive dysfunction… As a person who has for quite some time now been believed to be somewhere on the neurodiverse spectrum, these paragraphs felt incredibly validating to read. And whilst this is not entirely my topic to judge, and so I might’ve missed certain things, I would 100% recommend the book for this representation alone.

On that note, I also adore all the focus on communities - whether it’s a support group where certain vampires can talk through their thoughts and feelings, or online forums and message boards. So often in media we get presented with a minority character who the text completely isolates, because the writer - for whatever reason - can’t be bothered to give them any form of community or others to relate to, leaving both the character and the represented reader feel… not very good. Human Enough manages a good mix, both between people of different marginalized identities helping each other out in solidarity, and characters finding support amongst their own that I recognize from my own life and friends. Helping where you can when you can, and then when you cannot, helping to find someone who can.

I like the overall pacing of the story. The time jumps had me confused for a hot second, as the text explicitly tells us when it jumps back but not forwards, though after figuring out the (eventually) rather obvious pattern of “every other chapter”, it all went swimmingly. I might’ve felt that the plot was maybe a little predictable at times, having called certain plot twists several chapters ahead of time, but less to the point where it spoilt the story, and more like I’m “Poirot, detective genius”, solving the mystery alongside the characters. The overall storyline felt… I wouldn’t say lacking, but rather… almost too short? Despite the 6 month-divide, both plots only last a couple of weeks, making the story feel more of perhaps a slice-of-life than I was prepared for.

I’d like to personally thank Yu for including one of my favourite tropes, friends to lovers, but also for the clearly loving way in which various marginalized identities are included and discussed within the text. The characters strike a good balance between talking about their various identities in a way that feels real, and lived, and honest, and just being downright salty over the lack of respect the majority often has for minorities. Which, oof, big mood.

A quick and easy read, yet captivating and warm.
All in all, book gets a strong 4.5/5 stars - at the very least.

Honestly, this book had me at "On top of being autistic in a world that doesn’t try to understand him, ..." Because that's really how it feels, and it gave me high hopes for the autism rep in this book. And the representation ended up being SO amazing and relatable and often made me want to scream "YES!" and cry at the same time. I can't help feeling so incredibly grateful whenever I get to read good autism rep, because there really isn't a lot.

Anyway, onto the book itself! The main character, Noah, is a Chinese-American, pansexual, and, like I said, autistic 25-year-old guy, who works as a vampire hunter. When he gets kidnapped by a really old vampire, he meets Jordan, who's also a vampire, and *accidentally* falls in love with him. Jordan is gay and grey-asexual, and struggles with depression. I absolutely loved these characters, and the romance was just fantastic. So soft, and so sweet.

The book is told alternating between the time when Noah and Jordan meet, and a year later, when they are living together. I thought this worked really well, because it took away a lot of possible angst when it comes to "will they, won't they?", and it added so many domestic scenes that you usually miss out on when a book ends when the characters get together.

Of course there's also a plotline driving both of the storylines forward, and I really enjoyed this as well. The book is quite short and really fast-paced, which can also be a downside because it did mean some things were a little rushed and were maybe resolved a little too easily. Because of this, I would mostly recommend this for the incredible romance and representation.

I really loved this book and I'm not finding anything I didn't like about it, which is rare. I'm normally not even one to love vampire stories but this sounded so good and I was not disappointed in the least.

Noah is a vampire hunter who gets trapped in an old vampire's house, and there he meets the vampire's partner (although he's a victim of his abuse too), also a vampire who's been turned unwillingly.

The story takes place both in the past and in the present and while at first I was scared this was going to feel a bit disruptive of the action in both timelines, I didn't find that was the case at all. If anything it just made me more eager to keep reading. It was also a nice way to both see Noah and Jordan's relationship develop and see them as an established couple, and they were so cute as both.

I think this book's strength is the focus on representation, especially Noah's autism and Jordan's discovery of being ace. Noah's internal monologue often makes it clear what's it like for an autistic person to live their daily lives and as far as I know from having read ownvoices reviews the rep is good and accurate. Jordan, being a vampire, was born in the 1920s and has been kept almost seclusive by his abusive ex partner, so while he's known forever about his homosexuality, he still has some issues being open about it because of the mentality back then. This is not something that impacts the relationship with Noah though, and it's clear that Jordan grows more comfortable once he gets access to the internet and is able to be more open. He also finds out about asexuality when Noah talks about the LGBTQIAP+ spectrum and he realizes that's also a part of his identity, and that was one of my favorite scenes in the book.

There's also a kind of investigation plotline that I thought was well written, perhaps it didn't keep me on my toes and was even a little bit predictable but I found that it perfectly fit the tone of the book.

There's really nothing I can complain about and I would 100% recommend this book to whoever is looking for a fun, sweet and diverse vampire story.



Rep: autistic pansexual Chinese-American MC, gay grey-ace vampire LI

TWs: emotionally abusive relationship, ableism, violence, death, grief, captivity