Fourteen-year-old Allie Little lives in a perpetual Wonderland—with all the confusion and none of the wonder. Diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), she is continually forced into rabbit holes of misunderstanding and anxiety. Whatever she reads, sees, or hears often turns into nonsense, and the time to be “curiouser and curiouser” about her surroundings is a luxury she can’t afford from the impatient people around her.

But one day, during a field trip on a ferry named the Wonder, Allie meets an odd character named Charlie and sees the creative genius and unadulterated joy that madness can bring.

A semi-autobiography of the author’s personal experiences growing up with APD, reimagined through the lens of Lewis Carroll’s timeless nonsensical classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, here is a contemporary fairy tale about learning—and accepting—the methods in one’s madness to navigate the real world.