Tilly in Technicolor

Gr 9 Up–A sweet neurodivergent love story. Tilly, who has ADHD and is considered the ne’er-do-well of her family, is spending the summer as her overachieving sister’s assistant as she travels Europe promoting her new business. She embarrasses herself in front of her airplane seatmate, the very handsome but “rude” Oliver. Little does she know, Oliver is her fellow intern with whom she’ll be sharing a room! Oliver, who is autistic, is a photographer with a large Instagram following and has been hired as the social media manager for the business. Proximity and newfound understanding grow into love in this fun, trope-filled story. Eddings’s debut really shines in the way that Tilly and Oliver demonstrate that people in the neurodivergent community can develop deep connections with one another through shared experience even when they have different neurotypes. Tilly’s struggle for acceptance from her family is almost painfully realistic as she is infantilized and demeaned by her mother, who tries to convince her to go to college. Though the romance is perfectly paced, the novel could have used more time to resolve this family drama. Includes fade-to-black sex scenes and some swearing.