If Wishes Were Retail

A pop-up at the local mall meets Alladin in this cosy, chaotic, and deeply funny debut novel where an enterprising young woman and a clueless genie just try to make a living. Alex Delmore needs a miracle. She wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke and NYU seems like a distant dream. Good thing there''s a genie in town and he''s hiring at the Wellspring Mall. It''d help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st-century America. It''d help if he weren''t at least as stubborn as Alex. It''d really help if her brother didn''t sell her out to her conspiracy theory-loving, gnome-hating dad. When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face seemingly-endless setbacks. The mall is failing and management will not stop interfering on behalf of their big-box tenants. But when the wishing biz might start working, the biggest problem of all remains: People are really terrible at wishing.