I love this Alex Gino's Rick. I adore the warm approachable way it approaches discovering the ace spectrum. I can imagine a 6-10-year-old discovering this book and being comforted by it in the same way that Rick was comforted by discovering that asexuality is a thing. The book does read on the lower end of Middle Grade, and I would have loved for it to have been a little longer, but I don't think either of those aspects lessened my enjoyment of the book.

I like how the book (and Gino's note at the end of it) highlights language. Not just Rick discovering that there is a word for how he does/doesn't feel (and therefore a community of people who also feel that way), but also the discussion of pronouns and using they/them, QUILTBAG+, and the acknowledgment that the lgbtia+ vocabulary is expanding as we talk, discover, and even reclaim all the ways we can be not the default assumption. I think this talk about language is especially well-suited for an ace/aro protagonist because asexuality itself is an evolving spectrum.

I also enjoyed how the book looks into the idea of toxic friendships. I think it's important to put the idea that just because someone isn't mean to you doesn't mean that they're not a jerk. There is a second near the end that contrasted the control in Rick and Jeff's friendship against that of Melissa and Kelly's, and that blew my mind.