When I read the brief summary of this book as a YA/ teens meets Mad Max and Miss Peregrine, I was excited for the adventure I would be taken on.
As the story unfolded, I felt as though i was thrown into an odd sort of Alice in Wonderland world with similar scenes and references and a bit more alternate reality.

The main character ElizabethAnn, is a 10 year old girl who's life in the real world seems boring and benign. Her neighborhood seems to have cut down all the trees and imagination barely seems to be encouraged. However, ElizabethAnn's grandmother is a bit of a wildcard as she comes roaring onto the scene in her big car and theoretical physics mindset.

The story really "goes down a rabbit hole" when ElizabethAnn and her dog Jackson enter a portal after a monkey and are transported into another world which is about as bizarre as one can imagine, with talking mosquitos, sloths, and Duchess's who are allergic to their own babies. It just gets stranger and stranger the more people and places we encounter which is why I liken this to that of Alice and her Wonderland.

I give it 4* because I do like the whimsy and the fun the author must have had writing it. I also love reading middle grade and YA, but some points still felt a bit childish which may be just my personal opinion. There were times, the chaos was a bit overwhelming.

Wow! This book is so random, and weird and fun. The first page starts on a wild adventure and it does not let up the entire book. This gave me total Alice in Wonderland/Charlie and the chocolate factory vibes. Do yourself a favour and listen to the audiobook. The narrator does incredible voices, and with all the added sound effects it transports you right into the book. Super fun book that a youth would love.

This was a strange interesting story I read over 100 books a year and I have never read anything even close to this and the audiobook experience is the way to go

(2.0 Stars)

Where to begin with this review. I should start by saying that I am not the target audience for this book. So you could probably stop reading this review right now and just move on to the next one. However, I am the target audience of the description for this book.

I read the audiobook version, but more on that later.

This book billed itself as "Teens and YA", "Mad Max meets Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children", and "a dystopian adventure". This book is none of that. I also see a lot of comparisons to Alice in Wonderland, and while I think the author had Alice's Adventures in mind while writing this book, I simply don't see it.

What this book is, is a Children's book. The main protagonist is a ten-year-old girl, and the book is written at that level (with some odd, and unnecessary, sexual references thrown in). I'd say much closer to Pippi Longstocking meets The Wizard of Oz. If you are a fan of dystopian fiction, you will immediately realize this is more of an alternate reality fantasy, or maybe fever dream, but certainly not what I would consider dystopian.

As I said above, I read the audiobook version, which was described as being narrated by the author. It was provided by #NetGalley, but this was not a typical unabridged narration. It was performed by a full cast (including the author), complete with sound effects, musical chapter breaks, and not at all what I was expecting.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'll try to review this as a children's book. It has very vibrant characters and descriptive "worlds". The story is easy to follow, and has girls in leading roles. If you like watching Eloise, you would probably like this, especially if you'd like it with a heavy fantasy element. This is a fast moving, imaginative adventure. The cast of characters is acted out as an audio drama, and the book is neatly divided up in parts, since the overall length of the book is more than 10 hours.