Unmasking Autism

Strong start but got less and less relatable until I had to put it down. I'm ostensibly the target audience for this book–white, queer, over-educated, high-masking, leftist–but even I felt like Price became out of touch once he started trying to explain what unmasking could look like.

The first 2 chapters were validating, and I even sent entire paragraphs to my mom because they explained experiences I haven't been able to articulate. Chapter 3 “The Anatomy of the Mask” started to lose me, and by Chapter 4 “The Cost of Masking” I was annoyed by Price's generalizations and inability to conceive of Autistic people who didn't validate the point he wanted to make. Fully gave up in Chapter 6 “Building an Autistic Life” because all of the anecdotes used as examples of successful unmasking were from people who started in economic and social circumstances that are unattainable by most. I skimmed the rest, and it looks like Price quickly glosses over some actual societal changes as a palate-cleanser to make up for it?

Overall, the book lacks a strong thesis and suffers from it. Is it a memoir of a specific Autistic experience? A self-help guide for high-masking Autistic people? A resource for allistic friends and family members? It doesn't seem to know.