Cassandra in Reverse

Smale emphasizes the differences of neurodiversity as perceived by oneself versus others throughout Cassandra in Reverse to provide a nuanced representation of the experience of neurodiversity. Through first-person detail, parenthetical insertions, and pairing others’ observations about Cassie with her reactions to them, Smale provides an experiential representation of neurodiversity and illustrates the negative effects of a lack of understanding about neurodiversity.

By using specific narrative voice, first-person perspective, and sensory detail, Cassie’s descriptions of her way of being in the world create an experiential representation of neurodiversity. For example, she describes being overstimulated as follows: “The noise, the crowds, the flares, the colors, the alarms, the whistles, all at once it feels like I’m a million mouths and none of them can speak but all of them are screaming and I’m being swept away […] in a flooding human river” (63). Smale includes tactile, auditory, and visual details in this passage, as well as the visceral, bodily simile of being a million mouths that can’t speak but are screaming. Throughout the text, Cassie’s vivid, first-person accounts of her experience provide a detailed representation of the experience of neurodiversity.