Welcome to this month’s theme sale: Disability Pride! July is the month for celebrating disabled people: their achievements, their humanity, their unique visions of the world. So this week I’m highlighting books with disabled characters in the main cast. Check them out!
A Dance of Bow & Blade
Ellie Lieberman
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling, Arthurian
Disability Rep: Unspecified, disabling chronic illness that includes symptoms such a pain, dizziness, fatigue/crashing, and more
.99 at Amazon
A magical, sapphic, all-women fairy tale retelling combining the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood (and some other Celtic myths sprinkled throughout). Robyn, notorious leader of the band of thieves, and Art, the new queen, become unlikely allies to heal the land.
Dyrwolf
Kat Kinney
Genre: Young adult fantasy romance
Disability Rep: chronic intractable migraine
.99 at Amazon or these retailers
In a world where shape-shifting wolves enslave humans, Lea Wylder encounters Henrik, a wounded wolf from her dreams. She must help him cross enemy lines to potentially change the war.
A Life in Too Many Margins
S. E. Thomson
Genre: New Adult, LGBTQIA2S+, Disability, Literary, Contemporary
Disability Rep: Autism, Ehlers-Danlos, ADHD, Anxiety, Traumatic Brain Injury, Depression
$1.99 at Payhip
A Life in Too Many Margins is a darkly funny, deeply personal collection that explores life at the intersections of queerness, trans identity, disability, neurodivergence, and chronic illness. It blends memoir-style storytelling with sharp humor and emotional honesty, exploring themes such as growing up misunderstood, navigating trauma, relationships, identity, and the exhausting, sometimes absurd work of trying to exist in a world that wasn’t built for you.
The Old Goat and the Alien
Veo Corva
Genre: cosy space fantasy
Disability Rep: missing leg, ME/CFS, neurodivergence
$1.99 at itch.io and these retailers
The Old Goat and the Alien is a story of family and friendship set on the binary plants of Geminus.
Love at the Rock Show
Katta Kis
Genre: Contemporary romance
Disability Rep: fibromyalgia and endometriosis (not diagnosed til later), anxiety, limb difference (best friend character)
$1.99 at itch.io or these retailers
A burnt-out former pop star
A sweet, broke psychic… who hates him
The festival tour that changes everything
Chai and Cat-tales
Lynn Strong
Genre: Cozy fantasy in a magical Middle East
Disability Rep: Chronic pain and walking with support, neurodivergence, anxiety
$1.99 at Amazon or these retailers
Bask in a sunbeam with three cozy fantasy novellas of the Catsprowl, a busy neighborhood brimming with cats and cat-goddesses, book-keepers and bath-houses, piping hot chai, and pouncing kittens’ mischief. The God-Emperor’s prophet has foreseen Najra, the witchy archivist-to-be; he always foresees trouble. And nobody’s ever told Najra she doesn’t brew enough trouble. Next, Priye is a nonverbal kitten with big opinions about pigeons, great literature, and soap. (Spoiler, soap is the worst. Thanks for coming to Priye’s TED yowl.) Finally, Shai Madhur, a cinnamon roll of a priest, wants everyone to have a nourishing meal… even the mice.
The Princess: Tales of Kelnore
Hannah E. Carey
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Disability Rep: One of the main characters has a post-viral chronic illness (based on POTS & ME/CFS)
$1.99 at Payhip or these stores.
The fate of an empire rests in the hands of more than just its emperor...
Non-Player Character
Veo Corva
Genre: Cosy fantasy
Disability Rep: Autism, Chronic Pain
$1.99 at itch.io and these retailers
Tar and their found-family role-playing group get transported into the world of their game in this cosy, queer portal fantasy for adults.
Haroun and the Study of Mischief
Lynn Strong
Genre: Cozy fantasy set in a magical Middle East
Disability Rep: Blindness, chronic pain and walking with support, neurodivergence, anxiety
$1.99 at Amazon or these retailers
Three things are known to be blind: Love, Justice, and Venerable Haroun’s fashion sense. Haroun, the blind dogfolk priest of Yepuet, has come to the City of Cats for an education in mischief. And Haroun has never met a crime of fashion he wouldn’t commit. Shai Madhur thought accepting Haroun’s leash meant being Haroun’s seeing-eye human. He wasn’t prepared for the political machinations… or for the carousing. With a splash of Studio Ghibli, a sprinkle of Roshani Chokshi, and a dash of Terry Pratchett, Haroun and Madhur take on the difference between what is seen and what is true.
When a ship of religious pilgrims lands on an “empty” planet, the disruption to the ecosystem may doom them all.
And that’s the sale! Check out the books and scoop up what you like while they’re this cheap. Next month, we’re doing nonbinary characters. Signups are open now!
Sheila Jenne, author 