*I received an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I had started this book a couple of years ago but was not in a headspace that would have allowed me to appreciate it to the fullest extent so I put it on the backburner and I am glad that I waited until I could fully appreciate it.

Much like Angela Chen's Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex, Sherronda J. Brown explores what it means to be asexual in modern society and talks about how A-spec people are often viewed as not straight enough in straight communities but also not queer enough in queer communities. Where this book goes even further than Ace on is in showing how acephobia is connected to anti-Blackness and white supremacy. The intersectionality is an important one to discuss because as Brown (and others) have rightfully called out, the white queer rarely thinks about how their whiteness still privileges them.

I want to see more scholarship on a variety of queer identities, and I am anxious to see how discussions of asexuality and compulsory sexuality play into the rise of homophobia and greater divisiveness surrounding representation in media.

This book is packed with a ton of information yet it never feels dense, and it's laid out in a way that allows for each chapter to be read independently or in bite size chunks. I purchased the audiobook because I tend to prefer consuming my nonfiction in audio format; however, I will absolutely be picking up a physical copy to tab and reference. I especially found the conversation around chrononormativity very fascinating, especially as I reach an age where I'm noticing more and more people not falling into the "standard" lifepath trajectory.

All that to say, I'm glad I finally finished this book and I highly recommend it to anyone even if they are not Black and/or Ace!