When Holly Smale was diagnosed with autism in 2020 at age 39, a light bulb went off for the British author—and life finally made sense. “The shame I’d been carrying for years drifted away,” Smale says over Zoom from her apartment in the English seaside town of Brighton.
Growing up, Smale knew she was different. “I felt like an alien,” she admits. “At school, kids were playing in the sunshine and I was inside facing a wall and reading a book.” She studied her classmates to fit in. “I’d try to make sense of everything. This is how they communicate, how far apart they stand. If everyone laughed, I’d think, okay, I’m going to laugh, too. That ability to watch and observe has been invaluable to me as a writer.”
Smale—who puts bits of herself in each of her novels—writes voice-driven books that feature colorful, sometimes socially awkward or neurodivergent female protagonists who embark on journeys of self-discovery. She’s the author of two YA series: Geek Girl, which debuted in 2013 and is now a Netflix series, about a nerdy girl turned model, and the Valentines. She also wrote the 2023 adult novel Cassandra in Reverse, about an autistic woman who discovers that she can go back in time and change the past, which was a Reese’s Book Club selection. Her books have sold 3.4 million copies, according to the Shaw Agency, which represents the author, and have been translated into approximately 30 languages.
Smale’s second adult novel, I Know How This Ends, out in August from Mira, follows Margot Wayward, a 36-year-old, recently dumped meteorologist whose life takes a weird turn when she begins to have visions of her future and a boyfriend she’s never met. When Margot meets Henry, a single father, she realizes that he’s the man from her visions. The two date, and Margot begins glimpsing snippets of their shared future (the fights, the loving experiences) and starts to wonder if being in a relationship is worth it if the outcome—good or bad—has been predetermined. The book, which fuses magical realism, speculative fiction, and romance, was inspired by a conversation in a bar that Smale had with a friend who’d just had a breakup. “I asked him, ‘Knowing how it ended, would you go back and still have the relationship?’ ” she recalls. “It became a heated discussion.”
Born in 1981 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, Smale grew up on classic literature. “My mum used to read me Tennyson, Longfellow, and Shelley when I was two and three,” she says. At 15, she was noticed by a modeling scout and modeled for two years around London (editorial and runway, primarily). “I hoped it would help me to assimilate to humanity better. I wasn’t great. I had one facial expression and it was fear.”
The author bailed on modeling to pursue academics. She earned a BA in English literature from the University of Bristol in 2004 and an MA in Shakespeare in 2006. After graduating, she worked at a PR agency and, from 2009 to 2011, taught English in Japan—a country she likes because, she says, “it’s so orderly.” She wrote Geek Girl—inspired by her stint as a teen model—and was surprised when it became a massive bestseller in the U.K. in 2013. “It spread by word of mouth by teenagers,” Smale says. “Over the years, readers told me that Harriet [the book’s protagonist] seemed autistic, and I repeatedly said, ‘No, because she’s based on me and I’d know if I was,’ which is embarrassing looking back at it now.”
Making the move from YA to adult fiction, and writing adult love stories, was intimidating for Smale. “Relationships for me are hard,” she admits. She has a difficult time spotting red flags on dates. “When you’re constantly struggling with romance and dating, how do you write that?” But writing has become a way to learn about herself. “I can be quite avoidant, structured, and rigid. I can be angry as well. Writing Margot gave me hope that there’s potential to take risks, to be vulnerable. I don’t find vulnerability particularly easy.”
While Smale may not have an easy time with vulnerability (she doesn’t like surprises either, she notes), her novels are emotionally nuanced and complex—qualities that her U.S. editor, April Osborn, finds irresistible. “Holly’s writing always makes me cry,” Osborn says. “She’s able to connect with people in a special way. Her books are always dealing with something bigger than what it feels like at the beginning.”
Kate Shaw, Smale’s U.K. agent, has been with Smale since Geek Girl and highlights the author’s ability to write authentic female leads. “One of the things Holly does well is offer that gorgeous reassurance that messing things up is normal and lovable,” Shaw says, “and that there isn’t anything you can do that you can’t come back from.”
Among Smale’s writerly superpowers is her ability to hyperfocus—she wrote the last fifth of I Know How This Ends (22,000 words) in one day, too excited to stop. “I can do one thing for like 18 hours and forget to eat, go to the loo, or drink,” she says. “I can work until my body says no more.” Smale is also a writer on the Geek Girl Netflix series, which she cocreated, and which is entering its second season. “I’m not really built for a writers’ room. I have to apologize to a lot of people in the writers’ room because I don’t have the brain space to be both socially acceptable and come up with ideas.”
Smale prefers to work independently, as she did for I Know How This Ends, a novel in which she again explores the search for happiness and self-love. As the book unfolds, Margot tries to revamp her career, bond with her BFF grandpa, and stop comparing herself to an ex-friend who has the perfect life—all while taking a romantic leap of faith, something Smale can relate to. “I’ve never been in love and would like to be,” she says. “Life is full of potential joy.”
Allison Hellegers, Smale’s U.S. agent, describes Smale’s books as “a mix of the fun and the profound”—which can also be said of Smale, who pushes herself to get out of her comfort zone. The author explores the world solo (she’s been to 33 countries) with her trusty travel kit, which contains a silk sleeping bag liner and pillow cover, items that help her to limit sensory overload.
“I almost always have a meltdown as soon as I get to a new place,” Smale says. “My parents are ready for the phone call: ‘I want to come home!’ I find traveling difficult, but worth it.”
When Smale is home in Brighton, she retreats to her writing nook—near a window with a view of the sea. It’s where the fun happens. “Books are my greatest love,” she says, “and my happy place.”
Elaine Szewczyk’s writing has appeared in McSweeney’s and other publications. She’s the author of the novel I’m with Stupid.
