This picture is one I took while reading at a café. The book, in a very brief summary, is about a woman who makes a deal with the Dark, her freedom in exchange for people forgetting her right after they meet. So, she goes through life, giving up on forming connections with others until meeting someone who remembered her after their encounter. I was hesitant to pick up this book because it was popular on TikTok and, most of the time, from personal experience, TikTok recommendations fall flat. However, I found the concept of being invisible and it's relationship to freedom interesting. The beginning of the book was a little too slow for me, but I pushed through and it progressed into becoming interesting when she encounters the man who remembers her. I'm still reading the book, but the concept of being invisible was something I could relate to as an asexual person. Addie, the main character herself, isn't asexual and there are other books (not enough in my opinion) that embody various asexual experiences well, but I could relate to wanting freedom of it all. This past year, I have been working on being more open to other about my asexuality as it became a hindrance to me opening up to people. I put myself at a distance with others, my sexuality being part of the reason why as I knew, in the back of my head, they'll never truly know me. Asexuality is an invisible identity from a queer and straight perspective. I mean, who would pass on sex in today's society? (The answer is me.) And there have been numerous times, too many to count, where I have felt invisible to both "sides." A specific experience is in high school when I asked a queer friend, one who didn't know I was asexual, whether they included asexuality as part of the queer community, in which they replied no. I guess the concept of having little or no sexual attraction to others in modern society is still unfathomable. Sometimes, I would like to be free of it. Free of my asexuality or free by shouting it out to the world, I have yet to know.