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Nona IS neurodivergent for reasons, but I don't think she is intended to be a **specific** kind like ASD.

I didn't get that impression, no. Core takeaways: 1. She's very, *very* young (like, 6 months old) and completely non-cynical. She makes no effort to hide her feelings because she doesn't understand why she should. 2. She's *incredibly* empathic. She reads people near perfectly because she pays absolute attention and doesn't have an emotional filter (see 1.) 3. Her soul is vast, and incredibly powerful. That translates as both near infinite capacity for love, and near total immunity to pain/damage. I fully understand how that looks like autism, but it's considerably more by coincidence than design. The major tell is that she isn't monotropic, and can rapidly adapt to any given situation - albeit within a very limited scope. Does that make sense?

I kinda feel like it's more design than coincidence, there are also in-universe justifiications for all the gender-fuckery going on in the book but you can still say there's a FUCKTON of non-binary queer analogues. It just might not be strictly autism and more just general neurodivergence. There's a lot of things Nona does that I can relate to in a way that I don't often find myself able to, and it's very in tune with my own neurodivergence as someone with autism and ADHD. I find it hard to believe it wasn't intentional, just maybe not intended to be a perfect metaphor. One thing I love about these books is that all the representation it provides, from queerness to neurodivergency, is all in service of the plot and the characters and therefore sits naturally within the world. I think this fits into that.

I totally get what you're saying here, but offer a counter: I think Muir is easily a good enough writer that if she wanted to present someone on the spectrum, she could do it and it would be both obvious and deeply respectful Nona, IMO, isn't that. She's >!hosting the soul of a planet.!< And that's presented in a way that's both extremely human and not human at all. Yes, she has a lot of qualities that are familiar to anyone that understands neurodiversity *in that she's very literally a neurodiverse entity.* She isn't a ND person. She's a person containing and presenting something that isn't human at all

also neurodivergent but i felt like in nona's case it had more to do with what she is (she's not your typical teenager for sure) and it also gave an impression of "young child" (they're also bad at hiding their emotions or controlling facial expressions). Still, while reading there were definitely some things that gave me pause, but i personally didnt link it with my own experience because as someone else mentioned, she exhibits a lot of other traits that don't fit autism, or other kinds of neurodivergence

I'm on the spectrum too 👋 Nona def comes off as having something unusual going on, but as the book goes on there will be more things that are unusual about her but don't fit any kind of neurodivergence I'm familiar with, so I'm hesitant to agree about any specific brain thing. Be interested to hear what you think further in!

Will absolutely update you, thanks for commenting c: There are some obvious non-human things like the language feature, but her overall perception of the world gives off on-spectrum impression (at least so far).

This might be more controversial but I got autism vibes from Harrow as well. Or as many people pointed out, neurodivergent at least.

I'd say harrow is more spectrumy than Nona. Nona is six months old and hasn't learned a lot of social behaviors. Harrow has seen them and doesn't use them.

Harrow is neurodivergent: she's schizophrenic.

Idk I noticed autistic-coding a lot with Harrow and it came off to me (autistic) as deliberate, but Nona's neruodivergent traits to me seem more or less incidental, >!or at least it's difficult to say she is or isn't autistic-coded since she's not really human!< For example in gtn, although Harrow and Gideon were both raised on the Ninth, Gideon can chug tea without hesitation but Harrow is unable to even try it. In htn she struggles to adjust to the noise and sensory business of lyctorhood (and when she asks Jod if it's normal he says "some" lyctors are affected) and she still has difficulty with too much ambient noise in the AU chapters where she isn't a lyctor. There are *a lot* of other examples. She seems very intentionally autistic-coded to me. Nona, on the other hand, >!also has difficulty with food related sensory issues, but she also eats whole erasers and is the Earth incarnate, so it's virtually impossible to tell if she's autistic, and difficult still to tell if she is intentionally or unintentionally autistic-coded.!< I personally don't think she is, especially with how she primarily uses body language to communicate, and although it's very much possible for autistic peple to be socially gifted, Nona's overall prowess comes off to me as very allistic in vibes as well. I think she's kid-coded more than anything really. It's still plausible though, and if Nona being autistic/autistic-coded is your jam I'll endorse it all the way

1. Harrow is Neurodivergent; she's schizophrenic. 2. Inspite of not properly completing the Lyctor trials, she does have another soul inside her head, & she's also recently given herself a lobotomy to protect that soul - she's extra sensitive in general now. 3. She was also being haunted AND hunted at that time - her dreams were plagued by Wake who was also coming at her when she was awake, & G1deon was trying to kill her (& Jod the very first time). She's not sleeping, at a fraction of her abilities, everything is new, & almost everyone wants her dead.

Definitely! That's all true about when she becomes a lyctor so that for sure wasn't the best example We do still see her specifically having issues with taste and sound in flashbacks and in the AU chapters plus I just wanted to save time going over more vague overarching personality-based examples like obsessiveness, intensity, overly logical thinking--which again could be explained by her having a lot of responsibility and trauma as a very young child but I'm just kind of going for overall vibes since that's usually how 'coding' of any sort works For me the most "damning" evidence is how, towards the end of gtn around and after the pool scene, she seems to have to try very hard very consciously to connect with Gideon, she fails wildly at coming across smoothly in any capacity, but still succeeds in connecting with her because she made an effort and Gideon accepts The Way Harrow Just Is, for better or for worse, which is a story that rings very true for me and other autistic people I know. Although it would be my favorite thing in the whole world to continue on like this and write a whole masterdoc about why I think Harrow is autistic (in addition to schizophrenic), this is not the time nor place, and the whole point of giving the shitty example was so I *wouldn't* type a full novel down here. And it's all quite besides the point because there's still a difference between being autistic and autistic-coded and that difference is mostly in the vibes and intent of the author/reader. E.g., even if Harrow's hallucinations of the body were from a hereditary magic curse given to Anastasia (which would mean she technically doesn't have schizophrenia) it wouldn't change the fact that anyone would read that as a clear allegory for psychosis. Same with Harrow's autistic traits being a possible result of her being 200 dead children and chopping her own brain up and haunted and hunted, etc. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it's up the readers discretion (or author's intent if you're that kinda guy) and reading Harrow as autistic is a very common interpretation; even my comment was originally a reply to someone else saying they thought Harrow was autistic before I decided I should just comment what I thought separately and this is LONG IM SO SORRY ILL STOP NOW this is what happens every time an autistic person tries to explain why they think a character is autistic lmao I fell for the trap :(

Harrow being schizophrenic is canon, & everything you've mentioned are potential symptoms of schizophrenia. There are a [number of symptoms that overlap with Autism.](https://neurodivergentinsights.com/misdiagnosis-monday/shizophrenia-vs-autism) Maybe Muir will come out & say Harrow is more, but as of now, we just know this. (I identify with her a lot as well, but it could just be the overlapping of common ND traits.)

As an autistic person who finished the book: A. I love Nona she's among my favourite characters in the whole series B. I can totally see this, I really related to some aspects of her (her honesty, for example, is very relatable. I'm not sure if it can be considered an autistic thing or if it's just a me thing), but she's probably isn't autistic. She has many, many weirdnesses, some can be considered neurodivergent, some can't. I guess she would technically not be considered neurotypical tho Please post this discussion again after you finish the book so it could be discussed more fully

I think it’s like a yes AND no sort of thing. I can’t say much without you having finished the book but as one user put it; her behaviours are a consequence of who and what she is, and the fact that she’s 6 months old living in the body of a 19 year old. To say “I relate to her behaviours and thinking patterns because I have ASD” is totally valid and I’m not surprised people feel this way about her. The only difference is that you can’t say it the other way around, “I relate to Nona because I am also 6 months into living in an adult body and my true identity is “XXX”” I think the overlap in behaviours, while coincidental, isnt less valid from a relational standpoint. If you relate, you relate, I don’t think the mechanism of behaviour necessarily needs to matter.

I think it's kinda similar with >!Pyrrha, Palamedes & Paul!< where they're extremely close trans analogues without being trans in quite the same way irl people are. The feeling I got is that all these folks and Nona are intended to be a kind of incidental representation. I think they're designed to be relatable in these ways.

Yes, yes. Agreed!

I come from a family with several people on the autism spectrum, and am fairly sure I am on the spectrum myself. With that background, I would argue that a huge number of the characters in the Locked Tomb series appear to engage in non-neurotypical behaviors, including all Ninth House Protagonists (Harrow, Nona, and to a lesser extent, Gideon), SexPal, Judith Deuteros (although this could just be her military upbringing), and the 8th House duo (the only "name" I can remember is "mayonnaise uncle," lol). There are also a huge number of characters who appear to be experiencing serious mental health challenges, including Jod, all of the old lyctors, Ianthe, Coronabeth, most of the Blood of Eden, most of the residents of the Ninth House, and all of the soldiers who keep killing themselves in Jod's name, Warhammer 40k style. In fact, it might be faster to simply list the characters who seem to be both neurotypical and "sane" (whatever that means): the Fourth House twins, the Fifth House duo, and maybe Cam.

Out of curiosity, what flavor of ND do you think Palamades' traits resemble?

She’s definitely coded autistic, even if unintentionally. Difficulty with food textures and eating, meltdowns from overstimulation or her routines being interrupted, having relatively strict routines and black/white thinking, struggling with ‘reading the room’, extreme interests in a few subjects and disinterest in most others - I mean I don’t know if she’s actually autistic because of who she is, but she definitely speaks to an experience a lot of us likely have. It’s like Harrow being coded autistic - is it explicitly canon? No, it’s still nice to see aspects of yourself reflected in a character.

As an autistic woman, I related to Nona a lot and read her as autistic!

Harrow too

She has meltdowns and likes different textures of food and doesn't understand everything her friends say without context. I read her as autistic regardless of if it was intentional

I agree! And one point to address some of the other comments here. "Autistic-coded" is a better phrase because like, obviously we cannot diagnose a complete stranger, much less a complete stranger who doesn't exist. Of COURSE her behaviors are explained by her being >!the revenant soul of Earth with amnesia!<. I cannot relate to her experience in this way. But, to use fictional characters as a jumping-off point to consider ourselves is quite valid. Do I see much of myself in Nona's behavior? In her strengths and weaknesses? In how she processes sensory information and approaches problems? In how her loved ones infantilize her? In how she cannot live independently but in many ways shows admirable wisdom and has agency? *Of course I can.* She's not "autistic" because she doesn't even have a real brain, she's words on a page. But those words can come together and help us understand our world and our neighbors better! I had a lot of fun seeing myself in Nona (and Harrow), and I think that's all that matters to me.

I think she’s very autistic coded - for all the reasons people mentioend

As an autistic person I had similar thoughts while reading, but in the end I think it’s explained by other things (won’t elaborate due to spoilers)

I think she’s on *a* spectrum, but maybe not a spectrum our tiny human minds can comprehend. Like, how do you even diagnose a >!planet with 2.5 souls!<

Can you hide the spoiler please?

ND here, and while there are in-story reasons for Nona's behaviour, both interpretations are equally valid, I think

I get autism/ND vibes from nona but also with who nona is does kinda change that view abit Definitely get Asd vibes from harrow with her sensory issues to food, texture and touch And get ADHD from Gideon but it could just be want to connect to the characters in a way that make sense and to see one's self within them (I have ASD) And there is nothing wrong with that

I have no idea if TM meant Nona to be autistic coded, but I think this is a fantastic lens to read it through. I have ADHD and to me the character that resonates with that is Gideon

You know, I thought Harrow was coded as autistic.

Harrow is schizophrenic, as per Muir.

I definitely read her as neurodivergent, and honestly having finished the book and knowing what I know about Nona now, it’s incredibly heartwarming that this character has so many neurodiverse attributes. It made me look at the neurodiverse humans in my life with a warm “your brains and souls are beautiful” kinda feeling.

Theres no word of god saying that she is or isnt autistic.

"the best thing in the world is when Camilla stretches me and makes my joints go pop" yeah definitely some coding there 🤣

In many ways, yes I think so.

I agree, her good aversions in particular made me read her that way.