An 80s-movie-fueled coming-of-age novel for YA and crossover adult readers, The Reel Life of Andrew Wilden blends nostalgia, humor, and heart in a fresh high school story of love, friendship, and finding your own voice.

Who needs teachers when you’ve got Ferris Bueller and a rewind button?

Andrew Wilden has never known anything outside the glow of a screen. Raised in his family’s video store, his entire education was stitched together from VHS tapes, matinees, and DVD menus. But when his mother disappears and his father collapses into illness, Andrew is thrust into the one setting he’s never prepared for: the real world.

Terrified but determined, he leans on his love of movies to win friends, outwit bullies, and charm a girl who has never seen a single film he lives by. But what happens when the lines run out? When the reel and the real no longer match?

Brimming with 80s nostalgia, humor, and heart, The Reel Life of Andrew Wilden is a coming-of-age tale about love, belonging, and the courage to stop quoting other people’s lines—and start writing your own.