Wish You Were Her - by Elle McNicoll

About the Book

Seeking a normal summer away from fame, autistic teen actress Allegra Brooks escapes to a small-town book festival, where she clashes with grumpy bookseller Jonah Thorne, unaware that he may be the anonymous correspondent she has been falling for.

Book Synopsis

An autistic YA homage to The Shop Around the Corner with a pinch of Cyrano, Elle McNicoll's Wish You Were Her is a triumph!

Allegra Brooks is an eighteen year old actress who is secretly autistic. When a journalist publishes a scathing profile on Allegra, she decides to take the summer off in Lake Pristine, to visit her slightly estranged father. There, she befriends the booksellers of Brooks Books and decides to help them plan the popular Lake Pristine Book Festival. As she gets closer to Simon, the openly enthusiastic and neurotypical of the two, she realizes it's really Jonah, the boy she argues with constantly and finds a bit off-putting, who she's actually more and more drawn to. As the summer wraps up and the festival approaches, Allegra has to make some decisions about what she owes to others, and to herself.

Review Quotes

"Another perfect novel from McNicoll. Secret identities! Mistaken first impressions! Masking and personas! An absolutely beautiful, witty, cinematic romcom about two autistic teenagers that feels utterly real and magically whimsical." --Lizzie Huxley Jones, bestselling author

About the Author

ELLE MCNICOLL is a bestselling novelist. She is four-time Carnegie nominated, and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Awards 2020, the Branford Boase Award and The Little Rebels Award. Her novels have been published all over the world and have been translated into multiple languages. Elle is an advocate for better representation of neurodiversity in publishing, and currently lives in North London.