![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis].null](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/7-uk-young-adult-books-featuring-disabled-and-neurodiverse-characters-ukyaspotlight.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
Today I’m combining GeekDis with another fabulous event that has also been running this month! The #UKYASpotlight is an event dedicated to UK based young adult authors and their books. I love YA, and I’m a big fan of promoting UK authors so when I spotted a prompt about disabled and neurodiverse UKYA I knew I had to incorporate it into GeekDis. I got in contact with the lovely #UKYASpotlight founders Beth and Sifa, and they will be joining me here at Just Geeking By for a special guest post tomorrow!
Today’s prompt is very special to me. For those who don’t know my story I was very ill as a child. I was diagnosed with asthma when I was ten, hypermobility syndrome when I was about fourteen and migraines when I was seventeen. Despite having three chronic illness diagnoses before I was even eighteen I didn’t know that I was disabled, or that I could even claim that identity until my early twenties. A lack of accurate disability representation in pop culture is one of the reasons that I attribute to this, and that was one of the main reasons for me founding GeekDis last year.
GeekDis is an event for the disabled and neurodiverse community to discuss disability representation in pop culture, from books, movies and TV shows to the media and the Internet. You can find more about GeekDis here or alternatively see what content has been created for GeekDis 2022 here.
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Day 20 – Disabled and/or Neurodiverse UKYA
For day twenty’s prompt, I’m sharing with you 7 UK young adult books featuring disabled and neurodiverse characters!
Adolescence is a time of confusion for all young people, even more so when you’re disabled and/or neurodivergent. Being able to see themselves in books helps to make young people feel less alone and helps them develop an identity. Books with disability and neurodivergent representation are also essential to provide a safe environment for teenagers to discuss disability, neurodivergency and related topics such as ableism.
Here are a 7 young adult books by UK authors featuring disabled and neurodivergent characters to get you started.
![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis] - Girl of the Ashes by Hayleigh Barclay. A red and grey tartan cover with a silhouette of a young woman in historical dress. Black gothic font at the top of the cover reads "Girl of the Ashes" with the "I" in girl resembling a sword. At the bottom of the cover in the same font in smaller white letters is the authors name "Hayleigh Barclay".](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/girl-of-the-ashes-by-hayleigh-barclay.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
Scotland 1897. Three hundred and fifty years ago the Inservium overthrew the government of a remote town in northern Scotland and for over three centuries the Phoenix vampires have faced persecution. Eighteen-year-old Elise de Velonte is now caught in a war which threatens to wipe out her entire bloodline. Between hunting and killing the corrupt Councillors of the Inservium, and fighting against an ancient curse which is tearing apart the families of her coven, she blurs the lines of love and hate to become a warrior and survivor.
![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis] - The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig. A black cover with a fiery red and orange omega symbol with an A in the middle surrounded by fire like a brand. At the top of the cover in white font small text reads "Born as twins, Raised as enemies, Bound by Death". The title of the book is in the center of the cover in white font; "The Fire Sermon" and beneath it in smaller text is a quote 'Holds a mirror up to our obesession with perfection' Guardian. At the bottom of the cover in orange letters is the authors name; Francesca Haig.](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/the-fire-sermon-by-francesca-haig.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
BORN AS TWINS
RAISED AS ENEMIES
BOUND BY DEATH
Cass is born a few minutes after her brother, Zach. Both infants are perfect, but only one is a blessing; only one is an Alpha.
The other child must be cast out. But with no discernible difference, other than their genders, their parents cannot tell which baby is tainted.
Perfect twins. So rare, they are almost a myth. But sooner or later the Omega will slip up. It will eventually show its true self. The polluted cannot help themselves.
Then its face can be branded. Then it can be sent away.
Buy The Fire Sermon
The Library of the Dead
![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis] - A blue book cover showing the city of Edinburgh. Overlaid on top in white text is the authors name T. L. Huchu and below in larger yellow font is the title of the book “The Library of the Dead”.](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/the-library-of-the-dead-by-tl-huchu.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
When a child goes missing in Edinburgh’s darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She’ll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?
When ghosts talk, she will listen…
Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children–leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.
She’ll dice with death (not part of her life plan…), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She’ll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa’s gonna hunt them all down
![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis] - A green book cover with a light green polka dot background. The name of the book is written in large white font “The State of Grace” with the name of the author below in smaller font “Rachael Lucas”.](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/the-state-of-grace-by-rachael-lucas.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
“Sometimes I feel like everyone else was handed a copy of the rules for life and mine got lost.”
Grace has Asperger’s and her own way of looking at the world. She’s got a horse and a best friend who understand her, and that’s pretty much all she needs. But when Grace kisses Gabe and things start to change at home, the world doesn’t make much sense to her any more.
Suddenly everything threatens to fall apart, and it’s up to Grace to fix it on her own.
![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis] - A book cover with an orange background. White font reads “This Story” with a white shape of a rabbit between the two words. Below in red font are the words “is a lie” with the shape of red wolf between “is a” and “lie”. The authors name, Tom Pollock, is printed in small white font at the bottom of the cover.](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/this-story-is-a-lie-by-tom-pollock.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
A YA thriller described as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meets John le Carré, about a teen math prodigy with an extreme anxiety disorder who finds himself caught in a web of lies and conspiracies after an assassination attempt on his mother.
Seventeen-year-old Peter Blankman is a math genius. He also suffers from devastating panic attacks. Pete gets through each day with the help of his mother—a famous scientist—and his beloved twin sister, Bel.
But when his mom is nearly assassinated in front of his eyes and Bel disappears, Pete finds himself on the run. Dragged into a world where state and family secrets intertwine, Pete must use his extraordinary analytical skills to find his missing sister and track down the people who attacked his mother. But his greatest battle will be with the enemy inside: the constant terror that threatens to overwhelm him.
Weaving between Pete’s past and present, This Story Is a Lie is a testimony from a protagonist who is brilliant, broken and trying to be brave.
![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis] - Today I'm joining in with #UKYASpotlight to share 7 UK young adult books featuring disabled and neurodiverse characters for #GeekDis!null](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/7-uk-young-adult-books-featuring-disabled-and-neurodiverse-characters-ukyaspotlight-pin.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis] - A book cover with a green background and red hair flowing across the cover from the right side. At the top of the cover inside a loop of hair in black font is the books title “Unbecoming”. At the bottom of the cover in the same font it reads “From the bestselling author of Before I Die Jenny Downham”.](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/unbecoming-by-jenny-downham.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
Three women – three secrets – one heart-stopping story. Katie, seventeen, in love with someone whose identity she can’t reveal. Her mother Caroline, uptight, worn out and about to find the past catching up with her. Katie’s grandmother, Mary, back with the family after years of mysterious absence and ‘capable of anything’, despite suffering from Alzheimers. As Katie cares for an elderly woman who brings daily chaos to her life, she finds herself drawn to her. Rules get broken as allegiances shift. Is Mary contagious? Is ‘badness’ genetic? In confronting the past, Katie is forced to seize the present. As Mary slowly unravels and family secrets are revealed, Katie learns to live and finally dares to love. Funny, sad, honest and wise, Unbecoming is a celebration of life, and learning to honour your own stories.
Buy Unbecoming
![7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis] - A book cover with a yellow background. The cover shows an Asian teenage boy standing on a stage in front of a microphone and an audience. He is scratching his head with one hand and looking confused. He has short brown hair, and is wearing a short sleeved white T-shirt and blue pants. Above his head in large white font is the books title “Why is nobody laughing?”. At the bottom of the cover is the author’s name in small white font; Yasmin Rahman.](https://geeking-by.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/why-is-nobody-laughing-by-yasmin-rahman.png "7 UK Young Adult Books Featuring Disabled And Neurodiverse Characters! [#UKYASpotlight + #GeekDis]")
Will the real Ibrahim Malik please stand up?
Ibrahim and Dexter have been best friends forever. While Dexter is always cool and confident, Ibrahim…well, Ibrahim’s dealing with a lot. Hiding his passion for comedy from his family, dealing with the pressure of being the oldest child in an immigrant family, and now he’s started having episodes he soon realises are panic attacks.
When Ibrahim has a panic attack on stage at a local stand-up competition, he runs off to a deserted room. There he finds Sura.
Sura is kind and helps him come to terms with his anxiety. He can open up to her in a way he’s never been able to with Dexter. But there’s also something strange about her – how much she knows about Ibrahim, and how she seems to disappear in an instant.
Will Ibrahim crumble under the pressure, or will Sura’s words be enough to help him? And what will happen when he no longer has her help?
A powerful contemporary novel tackling teenage mental health in boys.
Over to you
Thank you for joining me today for this special post for #UKYASpotlight and GeekDis!
Have you read any of the books of this list? Or have any more to add?
I’ve read some of them and you can read my reviews for The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu and Girl of the Ashes by Hayleigh Barclay. I also interviewed Hayleigh Barclay for GeekDis last year and you can read our interview here!
[Book background image is from Rawpixel]
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Trying to catch up on a few of these- I seem to have only commented on twitter! I loved reading this, as I said there <3