We’re all avid readers here at Knee Brace Press, so we’ve included some book recs below from authors who write about chronic conditions, disability, mental health, and neurodivergence.
As always, check out content warnings before reading.
Contemporary (adult) • Contemporary (YA) • Fantasy • Historical
Horror • Magical Realism • Multi-genre • Memoir • Nonfiction
Poetry • Romance • Sci-fi • Speculative • Thriller
Contemporary (adult)
Queenie, by Candice Carty-Williams
Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
Em and The Big Hoom, by Jerry Pinto
Letters I’ll Never Send, by Nicole Zelniker
Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi
Contemporary (YA)
This Is Why They Hate Us, by Aaron Aceves
Full Disclosure, by Camryn Garrett
Where You See Yourself, by Claire Forrest
Juliet Takes a Breath, by Gabby Rivera
Turtles All The Way Down, by John Green
Afrotistic, by Kala Allen Omeiza
Please Don’t Hug Me, by Kay Kerr
Andy and the Extroverts, by Jessica K. Foster
Forever is Now, by Mariama J. Lockington
When It All Syncs Up, by Maya Ameyaw
Breathe and Count Back from Ten, by Natalia Sylvester
The Luis Ortega Survival Club, by Sonora Reyes
Fantasy
Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi
Wander, by Allison Stalberg
The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher, by E.M. Anderson
Vow of Moonlight, by Morgana Stewart
Tell Me How It Ends, by Quinton Li
Dust of a Moth’s Wing, by R. Ramey Guerrero
Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn
Historical
Red Clay Suzie, by Jeffrey Dale Lofton
One for All, by Lillie Lainoff
My Government Means to Kill Me, by Rasheed Newson
The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
Horror
Hell Followed With Us, by Andrew Joseph White
The Dark Place, by Britney S. Lewis
Peachy, by Camri Kohler
The Final Girl Support Group, by Grady Hendrix
Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno Garcia
White Smoke, by Tiffany D. Jackson
Magical Realism
The Storyteller’s Death, by Ann Dávila Cardinal
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, by Zoraida Córdova
Multi-genre
Nothing Without Us Too, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson
Memoir
Unprotected, by Billy Porter
In The Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado
Fire Shut Up In My Bones, by Charles M. Blow
Ordinary Notes, by Christina Sharpe
Little Yellow Magnet, by Jamieson Wolf
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, by Jeanette Winterson
Crazy Brave, by Joy Harjo
Dear Philomena, by Mugabi Byenkya
A Living Remedy, by Nicole Chung
All in My Head, by Paula Kamen
I’ve Never Been (Un)happier, by Shaheen Bhatt
How to Travel Light, by Shreevatsa Nevatia
What Doesn’t Kill You, by Tessa Miller
Bury My Heart At Chuck E. Cheese’s, by Tiffany Midge
Nonfiction
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman
American Refuge: True Stories of the Refuge Experience, by Diya Abdo
Invisible, by Michele Lent Hirsch
Not That Bad, edited by Roxane Gay
Poetry
Maiden, Mother, Crone, by Amba Elieff
The Whisper, The Storm, and Light In Between, by Clara Olivo
Don’t Call Us Dead, by Danez Smith
Bible Belt Queers, edited by Darci McFarland
Red Sky, edited by Gabrielle Langley, Melissa Hassard, and Stacy Nigliazzo
Bread from a Stranger’s Oven, by Janlori Goldman
Black Girl Call Home, by Jasmine Mans
Born From Ashes, by Jess Lauro
The Memory House, by Raki Kopernik
From The Yellow House And On, by Sojourner Davidson
Romance
Heartstopper, by Alice Oseman
Long Macchiatos and Monsters, by Alison Evans
Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun, by Jonny Garza Villa
I Wish You All The Best, by Mason Deaver
The Silver Linings Playbook, by Matthew Quick
Tilly In Technicolor, by Mazey Eddings
You, Me, and Our Heartstrings, by Melissa See
Everything, Everything, by Nicola Yoon
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute, by Talia Hibbert
Sci-fi
Unwieldy Creatures, by Addie Tsai
The Twin Stars, by Bridgette Dutta Portman
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, by Hank Green
The Memory Index, by Julian R. Vaca
Failure to Communicate, by Kaia Sønderby
Site Alpha, by Neal Romriell
An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon
Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao
Speculative
The Boy with a Bird in His Chest, by Emme Lund
The Vegetarian, by Han Kang
Depart, Depart!, by Sim Kern
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Thriller
Cicatrice, by Jo Boyle
It Should Have Been You, by Lynn Slaughter
Anywhere You Run, by Wanda M. Morris