This was an amazing debut paranormal story about a girl named Alyssa who must travel to Wunderland to defeat a curse that has been in her family for generations which causes the women to go mad. Alyssa fears that she will be next. She is already hearing what insects and plants have to say. She is also torn between her best friend Jeb and the mysterious Morpheus who haunts her dreams.The story is filled with wonder and magic and dark and light. Alyssa has many hard choices to make. Her choices are even more difficult because Morpheus has his own agenda and is constantly lying to Alyssa. The novel is loosely based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland but this one emphasizes the creepy and deals with one of Alice's descendants who is a young adult. I loved Alyssa's relationship with Jeb who has been her protector for years. Their families live in adjoining duplexes. Both have had hard childhoods. Alyssa has had to deal with a mother in an insane asylum who cut her hands with hedge clippers and left her terribly scarred. Jeb's father was an abusive alcoholic who left masses of burn scars all over Jeb's body. But both Alyssa and Jeb are talented artists. Alyssa's medium is a little weird. She does mosaics made from dead bugs. And, unknown to Alyssa, Jeb's favorite model is Alyssa who he consistently draws as though she were from Wunderland.Morpheus is the more complex character of the two boys. His hidden agenda and constant manipulation of Alyssa makes it hard to like him. But Alyssa comes to remember the childhood they had together in Wunderland and is always making allowances for him. Yet Alyssa isn't following his path blindly. She is making decisions that she must according to her own sense of right and wrong. She is a strong character who can make good choices.The magical world that Howard created was vivid and amazing. I loved her take on the characters from Alice in Wonderland. Fantasy lovers will enjoy this story and might even be tempted to pick up the original Alice in Wonderland to see how Howard transformed it.
