Hey my guy. I've been following your stuff forever but lately I've been low-key stalking everything you've ever posted lol. I was hoping you could talk more about neurodivergence in regards to Alek and Dylan/Deryn. You've touched on it and I've found it really interesting. I have always thought of Alek as autistic myself. I could read about those goobers forever. Also I love you please be my best friend. And post more vampire shit.

oooh man you done it now. 

Alek.

This here is my special boy whomst I love. It’s sorta difficult for me to begin with characters like Alek because I’ve spent so much time thinking about the way his mind works. The way he thinks is incredibly relatable to me personally, and most of my reference of how I feel about his psyche comes from that. 

First off I’d like to make it clear that while I do think he may be on the spectrum, I don’t think the majority of his ‘telling’ behaviours are the result of autism. His social awkwardness is the first thing that usually comes to mind when the topic is brought up, but the book makes it very clear that the awkwardness stems from his isolated upbringing. and because he’s been abused by volger for the majority of his life i mean who said that i dont 

I think the more interesting question of Alek’s neurodivergence isn’t found in anything so clean cut as him openly lamenting his poor social skills, but rather in what context we can glean from Dylan’s chapters about his oddities.

Alek is openly affectionate, Alek is somewhat disrespectful of personal space, Alek is blunt, Alek humorously misunderstands what Dylan means on multiple occasions. One has to think of how he grew up in regards to his autism. Think of what behaviours we superficially associate with autism and where those behaviours come from. 

Autism isn’t a disorder that makes you put your foot in your mouth for no reason. It’s an umbrella term for brains that have difficulty picking up social cues. Often times professionals in special education will tell you that the only difference between a ‘normal’ child and a child on the spectrum is that you have to break social convention to communicate on their terms. It’s not enough to just have them enter a situation and fail and then learn from the awkwardness because they wont pick up on the awkwardness. You have to tell an autistic child what they did wrong and explain why its wrong. 

Alek was a prince who had round-the-clock attention from multiple tutors. It makes sense that any of the trademark weird behaviours media associates with the spectrum would be beaten out of him quickly. It makes sense that he’s at home at social functions where the rules of diplomacy have been laid out for him straightforwardly since he was a kid. 

Furthermore, the insecurity that often comes with autism is from failing to connect with peers. Alek had no peers growing up, and only realised that he was socially stunted after leaving his old life behind. Therefore the inability to connect that people on the spectrum feel woven into their very souls doesn’t affect him. He’s had no reason to think he’d have a hard time in a causal social setting because he’s never been in a casual social setting. His angst about being othered and useless only come up in the third book when he realises that this whole people thing is really really hard. 

Dylan and Volger both lament that Alek doesn’t have a shred of common sense. Things that he’s expected to pick up on naturally like casual conversation or whether or not Tesla is a raving lunatic fly right over his head. In their introductory chapters Dylan constantly tries to get on Alek’s good side and he assumes the boy is threatening him. It’s only after he gives Alek a direct compliment that he realises Dylan was trying to be his friend. The hero worship Alek feels for Dylan stems from the effortless way he navigates an environment Alek desperately wishes he could be apart of. Alek’s opinion as Dylan as this shining beacon of masculinity and his disappointment at discovering his assigned sex speaks to this as well. 

Alek doesn’t hate Dylan for being female. During the fight his sexism its the first thing Alek apologises for, and then in a fantastic display of tone-deaf hypocrisy gets pissed at Dylan specifically for assuming he would would be angry if he found out. All of Alek’s complaints about the reveal are in regards to his own insecurity and the fact that Dylan didn’t see him as a real friend. He’s felt infantilised by the people around him his entire life and then finds out the first person whose ever treated him like an equal has been handling him with kid gloves. 

There’s more i wanna say abut all this, but I need to start thinking about work n i didnt wanna leave you hanging :) continued in part 2 i guess heh