Brando Sando does such a good job including diversity in his books. Not only that, but it doesn’t feel forced. I’ve read so many books, fantasy or not, that just feels like they’re only including diverse characters for the sake of marketing them. Sando doesn’t do that. He creates entire worlds and actually takes the time to make sure that not every character is white, not every character is straight, and so on. And he does a ton of research for it too! His writing feels like an accurate representation of a group! Just reading how he describes being gay/lesbian from a gay/lesbian’s perspective feels like my own thoughts, as a lesbian myself. And he creates autistic characters that aren’t on the severe end of the spectrum! And many, too! It’s such a breath of fresh air after what’s happening to the fiction side of YA. And despite his religious background, he’s still able to write atheistic characters without making them become religious or make them really sad because of their atheism. Best of all, he doesn’t always only give the diversity to the main character. He has one bridge four character who’s gay, and there’s maybe a couple conversations on the topic with him, then nothing. He purely did that for the plot, for understand. Not for marketing, not for being able to promote it during pride month, no. He does it for the book.
