As an autistic person diagnosed in adulthood, reading and learning about all things neurodivergence is always an engaging and rewarding experience for me. Liam O’Dell’s debut book, ‘Selling Out the Spectrum’, delves into a wide range of relevant topics, focusing on the impact that often questionable research has had on public perceptions of autism.

While I personally didn’t learn much new information, I believe this book serves as an excellent primer for anyone looking to better understand the challenges our society faces regarding controversies, flawed research, and outright falsehoods that continue to shape societal views and understanding of autism.

My main critique of the book is that at times it feels like a collection of academic essays that have been expanded and restructured to be forced into the shape of a book. As a result, it occasionally lacks cohesion. A more concise edit or a different organisational approach could have made it more accessible to a wider audience.

That said, Liam’s writing style, particularly in his conversations with interviewees, is highly approachable and engaging. While the messaging can feel a little repetitive in places, this repetition serves to reinforce the key themes, ensuring readers come away with a strong understanding of the book's message.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

I decided to start this book driven by my interest in the topic of autism and the questions this subject raises regarding the daily lives of people living with this condition and the impact it has on their families and society. The book stands out from the very first pages for its thorough analysis and thoughtful perspective. Despite having a personal viewpoint on the issues discussed, the author demonstrates a remarkable ability to present opposing perspectives, thus fostering constructive debate. This approach makes the text not only informative but also engaging for readers, encouraging them to consider a variety of viewpoints.

Despite these strengths, the book does have some shortcomings. For instance, the biographical section is less impactful than the rest of the text.

Nonetheless, this does not diminish the value of the work. It is a well-structured book that is an excellent starting point for anyone looking to delve deeper into the subject, whether through more detailed research or personal reflection. It invites dialogue, positioning itself as a foundation for further discussions on such a complex and fascinating topic. Highly recommended for those who wish to approach the topic of autism with a broad and thoughtful perspective.

I was quite frustrated by this book, overall. It felt like a missed opportunity.
The topic is very important, and many of the people interviewed are really interesting. I enjoyed reading the interviews although at times it felt as though huge swathes of transcript made up the bulk of a chapter, with little critical engagement from the author.
It felt very padded out in places. I was often unclear of the ideas pulling a chapter together. I struggled to discern the point of the book overall. Are we meant to distrust all research? Are we meant to see all autism researchers as suspect? Including experts like Monique Botha with their dedication to not just ethical research but a whole philosophy of research that centres ethics.
It just felt like long lists of scandals, ideas, quotes in a descriptive style with too little persuasive and critical writing.

An ambitious debut, Liam O’Dell’s Selling Out The Spectrum takes on issues that have long frustrated academics and autistic advocates alike. With thorough research and a hefty number of interviews, the author interrogates the legacies of controversial figures like Andrew Wakefield and Simon Baron-Cohen. O’Dell doesn’t simply rail against the academic machine, however—he consults with researchers, charities and autistics themselves to paint a nuanced picture of the problems at hand.

My main criticism is that, at times, O’Dell’s own voice got lost in the sea of interviews. As someone with a background in journalism, I know this might be counterintuitive to someone of the author’s profession. However, I would’ve liked to hear more from him outside of the introduction and conclusion.

Solid Enough Primer On The Topic Marred By Dearth Of Bibliography. This is one of those books where, as others have noted, O'Dell clearly has his own perspectives and they clearly come through, and yet he also does a reasonably balanced job of showing both sides to any given issue - while clearly favoring whichever side he does. For those perhaps unfamiliar with the Actually Autistic/ Autistic Adult community and the reasons it clashes so often with researchers of all forms and levels, this is a solid compendium of the issues at hand and an introduction to just how complicated some of them can be.

The primary blemish here is the dearth of the bibliography, clocking in at just 10% of the overall text - at least in the Advance Review Copy form I read weeks before publication. Adding to this is the editing/ formatting choices of at least this format - hopefully corrected in the full final form - that left footnotes in odd places that made it unclear at times whether one was reading a part of the narrative or a footnote, which got quite jarring indeed at times.

Still, for the actual information contained here, even while this particular Autistic doesn't *fully* agree with many of the perspectives of the author, this truly does at least show the relevant issues and shows each of them from a variety of angles - which is always appreciated.

Recommended.

Super relevant, highly recommend to anyone reading austistic research or who wants to go a bit deeper into the trust issues the autistic community has with the scientific community - I particularly enjoyed the parts where the book presents suggestions on how to rebuild trust, it really gives some hope.

After recently reading the Ellie Middleton books, a memoir by Melanie Sykes and Fern Brady and also some books by Kate Fox, I’ve been looking for more good quality non fiction books on this topic. Great writing, excellent content. Will look for more from this author

I got this an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in November. This was a fantastic read. I struggled with one of the earliest chapters because it seemed counter to the premiss but its purpose became clear later. I found myself agreeing with a lot, not all, of the book which was hard to do since it's a complex matter.

Liam Odell’s Selling Out the Spectrum is a text I would recommend to anyone seeking to get caught up or refreshed on the numerous issues in academic research, medical care, politics, and the media as it pertains to autistic individuals. This book is a thoroughly researched and succinct “crash course” in historical and contemporary issues in the autism industrial complex.

Odell strikes an impressive balance between clearly communicating his stance and simultaneously presenting the alternate side in a fair light. The inclusion of perspectives from researchers, journal editors, clinicians, autistic individuals, and parents of autistic individuals (of note, these groups are not mutually exclusive) adds a wealth of professional and personal detail, thus providing readers with insight about systems that can be difficult for most to penetrate, learn about, question, and challenge. It was particularly powerful to read about the intersectionality of the Black experience within the autistic experience. Though many of the issues discussed do not have a single clear path forward, Odell is able to lay out clear strategies researchers can take: increasing community participation so studies more closely uphold what is deemed important and ethical by the autistic community. This would be an excellent start.

Selling Out the Spectrum should be required reading for any individual who hopes to, or claims to, uplift autistic people. As an allistic mental health professional trained in the 2010s who works with neurodivergent individuals, this was a challenging, necessary, and excellent read that I will be recommending to EVERYONE! Thank you to Odell, those who provided their wisdom for this book, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

In the particular, this book is about the autistic community and their relationship with research and researchers into autism. Its conceptual scope, or applicability, is much broader, about the question in general of how science and medicine relates, or should relate, to the objects of its research.

The weak point is that it does feel particularly first-book-ish. The writing could be stronger, the organization more elegant, and the themes stated more clearly. But the journalistic qualities are stellar. This is a question that does not have a singular answer, not yet, and maybe not ever. But there are a lot of different ways to think about the question - as science, as public policy, as experience, et cetera - each that get included and considered in their own accord and in constellation.

Possibly the best quality is the author's grinding his axe gracefully. He clearly has a position, and full disclosure it is not mine, but I never felt opposing positions to be either unfairly or inaccurately represented. He has a particular talent for addressing a hostile interlocutor without rancor but with judgment.

The book is more of a starting point for discussions, again about autism in specific but with themes that are broadly applicable to every human typology, but as that it is excellent, and a comfortable read at that.

My thanks to the author, Liam O'Dell, for writing the book and to the publisher, for making the ARC available to me.

This was a short read and very fascinating to look into. The chapters were laid out very well and I liked hearing from different people throughout the book. As an autistic person myself, certain parts were quite difficult to read but I knew this going in, and it was good to inform myself of the situations and see that others feel a similar way to me. I enjoyed reading this and would recommend it to anyone looking to know more about the medical field’s approach to autism throughout history.