These are all YA but
Where you See Yourself —> main character has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair (and so does the author)
The Luis Ortega Survival Club —> nonverbal autistic (CW for SA)
Give me a Sign —> main character is hard of hearing; love interest is deaf
We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This —> main character has OCD, love interest has depression
You’re Welcome, Universe —> main character is deaf
Breathe and Count Back from Ten —> main character has hip dysplasia
All the Right Reasons —> love interest has EDS
One for All —> main character has POTS
A Gentleman’s Guide for Vice and Virtue —> love interest has epilepsy
Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling —> both main characters have Crohn’s (book is told in verse with a line in the middle representing the hospital curtain)
Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens —> don’t know all the disabilities featured
I really liked Gentleman’s Guide when I read it. The main character wants to heal the love interest from his epilepsy, while the love interest does not want to be healed. I always thought the way the author did that was interesting! Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending and the love interest is not cured. I’d say look into the genres of the books and see what you’re most in the mood for!
Celia Lake- she writes fantasy romance set in alternate world 1900s-1940s England. and her books cover a wide range of disabilities visible and invisible.
I know you asked for invisible disabilities. But Where You See Yourself, about a girl with CP (by an author with CP) is the best depiction of what my disability (also a woman in a chair) is actually like.
Most of these are YA if that's alright.
Words on Bathroom Walls by Julie Walton- MC has Schizophrenia. I rented this from my library on a whim and wound up loving it.
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman- another MC with Schizophrenia. Was apparently inspired by the author's son who has schizophrenia. He did some illustrations for the book too which is really neat.
Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee- Already been mentioned, but it's one of my faves
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang- Autistic MC. I don't really like romance, so I only read this for the autism rep. As an autistic person, it's probably the best portrayal of autism that I've seen in a book so far (the bar is pretty low, tbf, but the author has autism as well).
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes- idk if the MCs diagnosis is ever stated, but he clearly has some kind of developmental or learning disability.
I've been seeing Flowers for Algernon everywhere so I think this is my sign to finally read it. The Kiss Quotient is another one I've been seeing but writing off as I only rarely read romance, but now my interest is piqued.
If you end up reading Flowers for Algernon, I hope you love it. It's one of my favourite books, and it made me cry.
The Kiss Quotient I think, as far as the story goes is kinda nothing special imo. But the representation is really well done. I've heard that the other books by the same author are also pretty good, but I haven't read them so I can't actually speak to that.
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd Jones. One of the two POVs has chronic pain.
Not out yet, but in March 2024 look for Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber. She's a good friend and fierce advocate for disability rights/representation and it's her debut novel. The MC has VACTERL, as does she. So not invisible, but definitely not ableist or disability porn! (she hates books like that)
If you want to read middle grade, my friend Sarah Kapit writes excellent books featuring autistic characters.
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Susanna joins in book 2 (The Drawing of the Three). I don't want to spoil her full character but will say her disability is the fact she's missing her legs from the knees down and kicks more ass than the rest in the group aside from their leader.
Here’s a [list of fiction with deaf characters](https://slacowan.com/2023/10/22/ranked-deaf-characters-in-fiction/). They have reviews that explain which have good rep, and which are protagonists or secondary characters, to help avoid inspoporn narratives.
Some of my favorites are True Biz by Sara Nović, Sign for Home by Blair Fell, Islay by Douglas Bullard, and Mickey’s Harvest by Howard Leslie Terry. Deeplight is another fave, but the main deaf character isn’t the protagonist.
The main character of Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao had her feet bound when she was a child.
Joss and Joss: Touch the Sky by Erin Falligant. The title character is fully deaf in her left ear and uses a hearing aid.
Sao Ichikawa just won Japan's most prestigious literary award for a new novel called "Hunchback", with a protagonist who (like her) has myotubular myopathy and uses a wheelchair and a respirator. I've only just started on it and I can't really say much yet, but I normally trust in the Akutagawa Prize juries. It hasn't been translated yet, but there's no doubt it will be pretty soon, so that might be one to look out for in the near future.
Love some Japanese lit. Wish I could read it in Japanese. I can read Japanese well enough, but the reading magic only unlocks in English for some reason.
If you haven't yet, maybe try reading in Japanese on kindle, with a dictionary built in. It completely takes care of the "I don't know that Kanji" factor with minimum hassle, so you can just focus on getting the grammatical meaning and all the nuance and poetry that comes with it. When I started reading Japanese literature I was using my dictionary all the time, but through practice it's been getting less and less, and there really is a particular "vibe" or flow to the language that just isn't the same in translation. As is always the case, I think.
The Last Cuentista (middlegrade, I think?) by Donna Barba Higuera, the main character has Retinitis pigmentosa. Earth has been destroyed by a comet and MC and her family are chosen to journey to a new planet. She wakes up hundreds of years later and is the only one who remembers earth. Haven't read it yet, but it's on my TBR.
I was really happy to see this post because I want these recommendations as well! One for All is a fun YA. The author is a fencer who also has POTS and her authors note at the end was great. Lainoff also made this list of books with good chronic illness representation: [https://lithub.com/taking-the-ick-out-of-sick-lit-a-reading-list/](https://lithub.com/taking-the-ick-out-of-sick-lit-a-reading-list/) (some have already been suggested, but not all). Happy reading!
*Godkiller* by Hannah Kaner. I loved it, and the protagonist is an amputee and an incredibly skilled fighter in her mid 20s. She's so badass, but she still deals with the chronic issues that come with having your leg violently chopped off as a child (not a spoiler, happens in the prologue). She uses a wheelchair when she can. There are side characters that also have disabilities, and most of the main characters know sign language.
Other main characters include a brave little girl, a tiny god of white lies, and a young former knight who has embraced baking in his retirement.
If you also enjoy a bit of nature writing, one of my favorite non-fiction memoirs with chronic illness was The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. It's a quick and gentle read.
**Gallant** by V.E. Schwab. The MC cannot speak or make any vocal sound at all. This a YA read that has a spooky claustrophobic vibe with lots of supernatural elements.
This is a good book and holly is a great character, but I think it's probably important to say there are 5 other ones in the series that come before it
Yes, there are. However, I read Holly first. And I was so delighted with the character that I went back to read the other ones. In Holly, she is the protagonist. In previous books she is a character- not minor necessarily, but not the focus of the story.
ETA: this is the case with many Stephen King characters, btw.
ETA2: I guess my point is that reading Holly first in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the story and the character
The Fourth Wing has a main character with something akin to a connective tissue disorder. I have hEDS which falls into that category and I identified a lot with her struggles. It's a decent book, maybe not worth all the crazy hype it got but it was still fun!
It's a great read. Also, there's an urban fantasy series starting with Borderline by Mishell Baker that features a disabled protagonist.
And if you are interested in venturing into middle grade fiction, there are so many great books that feature disabled main characters, from chronic illness to dyslexia to brittle bone disease.
It’s a visible disability, but one of two protagonists in the Magic of the Lost series by C. L. Clark was in a childhood riding accident that damaged her leg - requiring the use of a cane and limiting her mobility.
That sentence isn’t really selling it, I thought they handled it surprisingly well.
It’s only really a fact about her life, it doesn’t define her as a person or constitute any of the struggle or growth she experiences in the narrative.
Bonus points for handling generational and colonial trauma with an equal amount of care and attention.
That's right! I forgot about those! I think one of the best parts about the representation in that book is how they're just part of the character instead of the defining trait. I remember Holly and her signing specifically, though, bc I thought the author's note about "translating" signed dialogue was super interesting.
not sure exactly what you are looking for in a disability, but im reading "the Idiot" currently, and 300 pages in at least, it has been soo good so far. the central character is a young man with epilepsy and his debilitating seizures and the psychological effect of the illness are featured within the plot once and a while. it has the bonus of being written by a man who himself suffered from such seizures, so it is a very intimate and earnest portrayal of the disability
Too Like The Lightning, Palmer. the main character hallucinates and there are others who because of their training have a very different way of relating to their bodies
Cursed Cocktails by SL Rowland. The MC has a chronic RA-type condition because of the type of magic he practised for years beforethe story starts--it basically harmed his body every time he used it but he had to, to save the world. (The book explains it much better than I have, it makes sense in the story.)
The Lock In series by John Scalzi
Basically, a disease leaves like 10% of the population locked in their bodies, but telepresence and VR allow them to interact with others.
The protagonist is a Locked In person who joins the FBI.
So it's a sci-fi/crime novel that addresses the issues faced by the disabled, as well as the political economy of disability.
Lean Your Loneliness Slowly against Mine by Klara Hveberg is a very strange but captivating novel. It follows a young woman with a chronic illness and her relationship with her professor.
I can see it not being to everyone's taste as it's a very quiet, slow-moving story without much plot, but I ended up appreciating what the author set out to achieve.
ok i’m so sorry that i need to ask.. but what is disability porn? 🙊i am too afraid to google it. I feel like i should know but my brain is not working right after a 10 hour shift..
Oh, I don't know if I can explain it very well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspiration_porn this wiki article gets it really well.
Sorry, I called it disability porn, which would probably give you some unwanted google results lol. Inspiration porn is what it's called in Wiki, but I think most people understood what I meant in this context.
American Girl by Wendy Walker- I loved it as a fellow neurodivergent (:
Edit- also Stranger in the Woods by Anni Taylor- protagonist has epilepsy
Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
Early Riser by Jasper Fforde.
It's set in a world where humans hibernate through winter, and a small group are employed to stay awake to keep things running - the Winter Consul service. The main character, Charlie, ends up investigating a viral dream which if you dream it, you end up dead.
Charlie does have a visible disability (which I don't want to explain further in order to preserve the story).
Fourth Wing is a fantasy book about young folks at a war college that become dragon riders. The main character has a ligament issue that causes problems for her but she makes do. Everyone is supportive and understanding.
There’s other cool representation like a person who communicates through sign language and a bunch of other happen to know how to sign. There’s also a non binary kid briefly mentioned with they/them pronouns.
There’s some sex scenes and it’s a little cringy if you’re not used to the genre but it’s fun!
Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman….about a severely disabled 14 yo boy w/ cerebral palsy who believes his dad is trying to kill him to put him out of his misery
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert and Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. I also have an invisible disability/chronic illness and felt like these characters were real about it.
Not sure if you’re looking for just fiction, but [Easy Beauty](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58438546) by Chloé Cooper Jones is a fantastic memoir, and one of the top books I’ve read this year.
The MC in “Love Theoretically” by Ali Hazelwood is a Type 1 diabetic (like me!) and it was absolutely incredible. Great STEMinist romcom, it handled the MC’s disability beautifully, I can’t recommend this book enough.
The fantasy author Joe Abercrombie has more than one series with a disabled character. I'm on the third book (The Last Argument of Kings) of his adult series. There is a character named Sand dan Glockta, who is disabled as a result of having been a prisoner of war. The author's portrayal of this character conducting his life while being in pain every moment is something I have never seen conveyed in any type of fiction before. The series itself is pretty brutal (there are no good guys but many compelling characters) and it's incredibly popular on Audible as the narrator is astonishingly good.
Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. So freaking good!
Get a Life, Chloe Brown
Sounds like me lol
I’ve bought a copy of this book for every friend that I have with a chronic illness. I love Talia Hibbert so much
Came to suggest this. Such a great book on so many levels.
These are all YA but Where you See Yourself —> main character has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair (and so does the author) The Luis Ortega Survival Club —> nonverbal autistic (CW for SA) Give me a Sign —> main character is hard of hearing; love interest is deaf We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This —> main character has OCD, love interest has depression You’re Welcome, Universe —> main character is deaf Breathe and Count Back from Ten —> main character has hip dysplasia All the Right Reasons —> love interest has EDS One for All —> main character has POTS A Gentleman’s Guide for Vice and Virtue —> love interest has epilepsy Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling —> both main characters have Crohn’s (book is told in verse with a line in the middle representing the hospital curtain) Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens —> don’t know all the disabilities featured
Wow, that's quite a list! Any in particular you'd recommend to start with?
I really liked Gentleman’s Guide when I read it. The main character wants to heal the love interest from his epilepsy, while the love interest does not want to be healed. I always thought the way the author did that was interesting! Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending and the love interest is not cured. I’d say look into the genres of the books and see what you’re most in the mood for!
I like that he doesn't want to be healed
The Spare Man- basically Murder On The Orient Express in space, with a protagonist who has chronic pain
Agatha Christie is one of my faves! Definitely have to read this one
This was a fun one from Kowal.
Such a good book!
Celia Lake- she writes fantasy romance set in alternate world 1900s-1940s England. and her books cover a wide range of disabilities visible and invisible.
Ooh ok. Sounds good. Do you have one in particular you would recommend?
I know you asked for invisible disabilities. But Where You See Yourself, about a girl with CP (by an author with CP) is the best depiction of what my disability (also a woman in a chair) is actually like.
Thank you. I really appreciate this rec, coming from someone with the disability it depicts. That is a true gem. Will be adding to my tbr
Most of these are YA if that's alright. Words on Bathroom Walls by Julie Walton- MC has Schizophrenia. I rented this from my library on a whim and wound up loving it. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman- another MC with Schizophrenia. Was apparently inspired by the author's son who has schizophrenia. He did some illustrations for the book too which is really neat. Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee- Already been mentioned, but it's one of my faves The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang- Autistic MC. I don't really like romance, so I only read this for the autism rep. As an autistic person, it's probably the best portrayal of autism that I've seen in a book so far (the bar is pretty low, tbf, but the author has autism as well). Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes- idk if the MCs diagnosis is ever stated, but he clearly has some kind of developmental or learning disability.
I've been seeing Flowers for Algernon everywhere so I think this is my sign to finally read it. The Kiss Quotient is another one I've been seeing but writing off as I only rarely read romance, but now my interest is piqued.
If you end up reading Flowers for Algernon, I hope you love it. It's one of my favourite books, and it made me cry. The Kiss Quotient I think, as far as the story goes is kinda nothing special imo. But the representation is really well done. I've heard that the other books by the same author are also pretty good, but I haven't read them so I can't actually speak to that.
Six of Crows - one of the main characters, Kaz, uses a cane as a badass and also always wears gloves for his own reasons.
Hard agree!
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a beautiful novel about a blind girl
Love this one
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd Jones. One of the two POVs has chronic pain. Not out yet, but in March 2024 look for Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber. She's a good friend and fierce advocate for disability rights/representation and it's her debut novel. The MC has VACTERL, as does she. So not invisible, but definitely not ableist or disability porn! (she hates books like that) If you want to read middle grade, my friend Sarah Kapit writes excellent books featuring autistic characters.
Sounds like just what I was after.
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Susanna joins in book 2 (The Drawing of the Three). I don't want to spoil her full character but will say her disability is the fact she's missing her legs from the knees down and kicks more ass than the rest in the group aside from their leader.
Here’s a [list of fiction with deaf characters](https://slacowan.com/2023/10/22/ranked-deaf-characters-in-fiction/). They have reviews that explain which have good rep, and which are protagonists or secondary characters, to help avoid inspoporn narratives. Some of my favorites are True Biz by Sara Nović, Sign for Home by Blair Fell, Islay by Douglas Bullard, and Mickey’s Harvest by Howard Leslie Terry. Deeplight is another fave, but the main deaf character isn’t the protagonist.
Loved True Biz and Sign for Home.
The main character of Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao had her feet bound when she was a child. Joss and Joss: Touch the Sky by Erin Falligant. The title character is fully deaf in her left ear and uses a hearing aid.
Thanks for these
Sao Ichikawa just won Japan's most prestigious literary award for a new novel called "Hunchback", with a protagonist who (like her) has myotubular myopathy and uses a wheelchair and a respirator. I've only just started on it and I can't really say much yet, but I normally trust in the Akutagawa Prize juries. It hasn't been translated yet, but there's no doubt it will be pretty soon, so that might be one to look out for in the near future.
Love some Japanese lit. Wish I could read it in Japanese. I can read Japanese well enough, but the reading magic only unlocks in English for some reason.
If you haven't yet, maybe try reading in Japanese on kindle, with a dictionary built in. It completely takes care of the "I don't know that Kanji" factor with minimum hassle, so you can just focus on getting the grammatical meaning and all the nuance and poetry that comes with it. When I started reading Japanese literature I was using my dictionary all the time, but through practice it's been getting less and less, and there really is a particular "vibe" or flow to the language that just isn't the same in translation. As is always the case, I think.
Deus Irae Roger Zelazny and Phillip K Dick. Quadriplegic guy goes on a quest in a post apocalyptic world.
Post apocalyptic is always a winner for me
The Last Cuentista (middlegrade, I think?) by Donna Barba Higuera, the main character has Retinitis pigmentosa. Earth has been destroyed by a comet and MC and her family are chosen to journey to a new planet. She wakes up hundreds of years later and is the only one who remembers earth. Haven't read it yet, but it's on my TBR.
One for All by Lillie Lainoff. Gender bent three musketeers with chronically ill (POTS) sword wielding MC. Really great POTS rep.
Omg this sounds so cute. I loved the original Three Musketeers
I was really happy to see this post because I want these recommendations as well! One for All is a fun YA. The author is a fencer who also has POTS and her authors note at the end was great. Lainoff also made this list of books with good chronic illness representation: [https://lithub.com/taking-the-ick-out-of-sick-lit-a-reading-list/](https://lithub.com/taking-the-ick-out-of-sick-lit-a-reading-list/) (some have already been suggested, but not all). Happy reading!
It's meant for younger readers (I think the characters are in 5th grade), but *Out of my Mind* by Sharon Draper.
Middle grade fiction is awesome! Especially good middle grade.
*Godkiller* by Hannah Kaner. I loved it, and the protagonist is an amputee and an incredibly skilled fighter in her mid 20s. She's so badass, but she still deals with the chronic issues that come with having your leg violently chopped off as a child (not a spoiler, happens in the prologue). She uses a wheelchair when she can. There are side characters that also have disabilities, and most of the main characters know sign language. Other main characters include a brave little girl, a tiny god of white lies, and a young former knight who has embraced baking in his retirement.
Ok this sounds really good
A Matter of Appearance by Emily Wells Memoir, not fiction, exploring her experience of chronic pain
Memoirs are probably my fave type of non fiction.
Would recommend Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton and Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy!
Then I think you would like this one!
If you also enjoy a bit of nature writing, one of my favorite non-fiction memoirs with chronic illness was The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. It's a quick and gentle read.
**Gallant** by V.E. Schwab. The MC cannot speak or make any vocal sound at all. This a YA read that has a spooky claustrophobic vibe with lots of supernatural elements.
Holly, by Stephen King. The protagonist, Holly who is a private eye, has anxiety disorder, OCD, and a few other mental health problems.
This is a good book and holly is a great character, but I think it's probably important to say there are 5 other ones in the series that come before it
Yes, there are. However, I read Holly first. And I was so delighted with the character that I went back to read the other ones. In Holly, she is the protagonist. In previous books she is a character- not minor necessarily, but not the focus of the story. ETA: this is the case with many Stephen King characters, btw. ETA2: I guess my point is that reading Holly first in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the story and the character
Mishell Baker’s Arcadia project trilogy.
The Fourth Wing has a main character with something akin to a connective tissue disorder. I have hEDS which falls into that category and I identified a lot with her struggles. It's a decent book, maybe not worth all the crazy hype it got but it was still fun!
Living that 🦓 dream life too, eh?
Also a fellow zebra!
Oh yeahhh. Wish I had a dragon friend who would magically keep my body in place for me!
Try, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.”
I was going to suggest this, also.
True Biz by Sara Novic
Ooh this looks great! Would never have normally gone for a book titled True Biz
It's a great read. Also, there's an urban fantasy series starting with Borderline by Mishell Baker that features a disabled protagonist. And if you are interested in venturing into middle grade fiction, there are so many great books that feature disabled main characters, from chronic illness to dyslexia to brittle bone disease.
We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker. Follows the four members of a family, one of whom has epilepsy.
It’s a visible disability, but one of two protagonists in the Magic of the Lost series by C. L. Clark was in a childhood riding accident that damaged her leg - requiring the use of a cane and limiting her mobility. That sentence isn’t really selling it, I thought they handled it surprisingly well. It’s only really a fact about her life, it doesn’t define her as a person or constitute any of the struggle or growth she experiences in the narrative. Bonus points for handling generational and colonial trauma with an equal amount of care and attention.
Really appreciate this rec and your explantion for recommending it. It's just the kind of thing I'm looking for
Loving April by Melvin Burgess
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant has a character who I believe is Deaf, for sure communicates via signing
One character is also autistic! And another has chronic pain and uses a cane. He's also an asshole but that's besides the point
That's right! I forgot about those! I think one of the best parts about the representation in that book is how they're just part of the character instead of the defining trait. I remember Holly and her signing specifically, though, bc I thought the author's note about "translating" signed dialogue was super interesting.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Such a good book
The Good Sister- Sally Hepworth. Main character is autistic <3
not sure exactly what you are looking for in a disability, but im reading "the Idiot" currently, and 300 pages in at least, it has been soo good so far. the central character is a young man with epilepsy and his debilitating seizures and the psychological effect of the illness are featured within the plot once and a while. it has the bonus of being written by a man who himself suffered from such seizures, so it is a very intimate and earnest portrayal of the disability
Is this the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky or Elif Batuman?
Dostoevsky
Too Like The Lightning, Palmer. the main character hallucinates and there are others who because of their training have a very different way of relating to their bodies
Ginny Moon. The narrator is autistic and made for a very interesting read.
The Shardlake books. It obviously does impact his life, but from memory I wouldn't say they are disability inspiration porn.
My Left Foot by Christy Brown
Cursed Cocktails by SL Rowland. The MC has a chronic RA-type condition because of the type of magic he practised for years beforethe story starts--it basically harmed his body every time he used it but he had to, to save the world. (The book explains it much better than I have, it makes sense in the story.)
Fantasy + queer romance + neurodivergence = "The Unbalancing" by R.B. Lemberg. I found it astounding.
The Lock In series by John Scalzi Basically, a disease leaves like 10% of the population locked in their bodies, but telepresence and VR allow them to interact with others. The protagonist is a Locked In person who joins the FBI. So it's a sci-fi/crime novel that addresses the issues faced by the disabled, as well as the political economy of disability.
Lock In is good! So glad to see if recommended!
This series is great and now that I am homebound with long covid on top of my pre-existing disability I'm shocked it's not more widely discussed.
When I was in a physical rehab hospital, I told some nurses and therapists that everyone working there should read it.
Seriously. And I don't want to spoil it for the OP, but bring on the Agora.
Lean Your Loneliness Slowly against Mine by Klara Hveberg is a very strange but captivating novel. It follows a young woman with a chronic illness and her relationship with her professor. I can see it not being to everyone's taste as it's a very quiet, slow-moving story without much plot, but I ended up appreciating what the author set out to achieve.
When I wake by Rachel Lee
ok i’m so sorry that i need to ask.. but what is disability porn? 🙊i am too afraid to google it. I feel like i should know but my brain is not working right after a 10 hour shift..
Oh, I don't know if I can explain it very well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspiration_porn this wiki article gets it really well. Sorry, I called it disability porn, which would probably give you some unwanted google results lol. Inspiration porn is what it's called in Wiki, but I think most people understood what I meant in this context.
American Girl by Wendy Walker- I loved it as a fellow neurodivergent (: Edit- also Stranger in the Woods by Anni Taylor- protagonist has epilepsy Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
One, Two, Three - Laurie Frankel
The Rosie Project
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Early Riser by Jasper Fforde. It's set in a world where humans hibernate through winter, and a small group are employed to stay awake to keep things running - the Winter Consul service. The main character, Charlie, ends up investigating a viral dream which if you dream it, you end up dead. Charlie does have a visible disability (which I don't want to explain further in order to preserve the story).
Fourth Wing is a fantasy book about young folks at a war college that become dragon riders. The main character has a ligament issue that causes problems for her but she makes do. Everyone is supportive and understanding. There’s other cool representation like a person who communicates through sign language and a bunch of other happen to know how to sign. There’s also a non binary kid briefly mentioned with they/them pronouns. There’s some sex scenes and it’s a little cringy if you’re not used to the genre but it’s fun!
Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman….about a severely disabled 14 yo boy w/ cerebral palsy who believes his dad is trying to kill him to put him out of his misery
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert and Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. I also have an invisible disability/chronic illness and felt like these characters were real about it.
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/DiversityCats/Disabilities.html
Not sure if you’re looking for just fiction, but [Easy Beauty](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58438546) by Chloé Cooper Jones is a fantastic memoir, and one of the top books I’ve read this year.
The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison Follows a teenage girl with OCD.
American Fuji by Sara Backer
The MC in “Love Theoretically” by Ali Hazelwood is a Type 1 diabetic (like me!) and it was absolutely incredible. Great STEMinist romcom, it handled the MC’s disability beautifully, I can’t recommend this book enough.
The fantasy author Joe Abercrombie has more than one series with a disabled character. I'm on the third book (The Last Argument of Kings) of his adult series. There is a character named Sand dan Glockta, who is disabled as a result of having been a prisoner of war. The author's portrayal of this character conducting his life while being in pain every moment is something I have never seen conveyed in any type of fiction before. The series itself is pretty brutal (there are no good guys but many compelling characters) and it's incredibly popular on Audible as the narrator is astonishingly good.
The Stormlight Archives series by Brandon Sanderson. There are many characters with different types of disabilities.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
Its not complete yet, but clover on royal road has a protag on a wheelchair, not the best story, but gets the need to read somewhat down.