Wish You Were Her

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.