Kevin Wilson once again proves himself to be a literary master. In Nothing to See Here, Lillian Breaker is summoned by her childhood friend Madison in order to nanny for Madison's two stepchildren. The catch? Sometimes the kids catch on fire and nobody knows why. What starts out as a classic "what is wrong with the kids?" mystery turns into a complicated and sometimes heartbreaking character driven story.

While the premise is outlandish, the dialogue is as witty and humorous as I've come to expect from a Kevin Wilson novel (I am a big fan of The Family Fang). While it can sometimes degenerate into rambling, the pace of the dialogue often does more to mirror the character's emotional state than what they're actually saying. Lillian - normally a loner with a bitterness streak - finds herself in the unenviable position to help these children with a physical problem that manifests from their emotional problems, with both negative and positive results. A nicely paced, character driven novel, I will be thinking about Nothing to See Here for some time to come!

A special thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Kevin Wilson is the David Sedaris of fiction, which is basically the highest compliment I can think to give. This is a book about a young woman who goes to live with an old friend (frenemy?) to nanny the woman's stepchildren who have been known to spontaneously combust. This book could be ridiculous. But instead, it's witty, has heart, and highlights relationships in a way that is so lovely.

Kevin Wilson has done it again. You may remember Kevin Wilson from his darkly comedic Royal Tennenbaums-eque take on the hapless performance art family in THE FAMILY FANG. Or perhaps from his alternatively optimistic commune of utopian ideals in A PERFECT LITTLE WORLD.

While similar in tenor, imbued with Wilson’s quixotic hopefulness and unexpected chaos, NOTHING TO SEE HERE is wholly unique in premise and scope.

Lillian, a smart girl from the wrong side of the tracks, fights her way into a privileged prep school where she and her rich roommate, Madison, bond during their first year. Then an infuriating circumstance (which I won’t spoil here) leads to a split. Fast-forward ten years later when Madison, now married to a senator, summons Lillian for an urgent, yet mysterious, job opportunity. Lillian, still stuck in a dead-end life, jumps at the chance and quickly finds herself dousing the flames of the senator’s twin offspring.

Literally.

Because they self-immolate when they get agitated.

Wilson writes in such a way that I simultaneously want to ask him to be my friend and tell him to get out of my head. His commentary sometimes made me laugh out loud in doctors’ office waiting rooms. He describes a spoiled little boy removing toys from a chest: “like clowns from a VW bug, out came so many stuffed animals that I felt like I’d dropped acid.” And on feeling out of place: “I felt like some mermaid who had suddenly grown legs and was now living among the humans.” He expertly describes “bread that cracked open like a geode” that makes me crave a loaf immediately. And then he subversively sneaks in plenty of touching real-life wisdom about things like life, parenthood and meditation: “And I had never thought about it this way, had always assumed that whatever was inside me that made me toxic could not be diluted, but each subsequent breath made me a little more calm.”

Wilson’s is the type of voice we need more of in the world: unfailingly witty, unexpectedly original and always, and perhaps most importantly, relentlessly hopeful, even when it seems like the world is burning down around us.

*Netgalley provided B3 with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: November 5, 2019

A few months ago, our book club read "Perfect Little World" by Kevin Wilson, and I loved it. I have to admit I was skeptical at first because it didn't sound like something I'd typically read, but he has such a great way of taking odd situations/things that don't fit in with social norms and making them more understandable and sympathetic. This book struck me the same way. Using dark, odd humor (which I love), Wilson symbolizes different behaviors in children with which many parents (myself included) can identify. His writing makes me feel like things will be okay, if that makes any sense. It's comforting and inclusive, and this book is a must-read.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of Kevin Wilson’s NOTHING TO SEE HERE. This is the first work of Wilson’s that I’ve read, and there’s no doubt that I’ll be adding more of his books to my TBR list as this novel was enjoyable from start to finish. Despite the bizarre premise of this book (spontaneously combusting kids, really?), the story amazingly worked, which speaks to Wilson’s talent as a writer. The plot and characters never become silly or ridiculous, and the book is both genuine and memorable in all of its quirkiness. While NOTHING TO SEE HERE is on one level a reflection upon wealth and privilege, the novel is rooted most firmly in its consideration of the universal complexities of parental love that transcends even the most stubborn socioeconomic boundaries. In Wilson’s creation of the twins, Bessie and Roland, the wild beauty of children is perfectly rendered as they make literal the simultaneously magical yet terrifying experience of parenting.

'But they were not attractive children, the rest of their faces soft and undefined. They looked ratty. I hadn’t even tried to fix their cult haircuts. I feared that fixing them would only make the kids more plain.'

Lillian and Madison, an unlikely pair became tight friends at Iron Mountain Girls Preparatory School, hidden on a mountain in the middle of nowhere, where all the rich people sent their daughters. Lillian, having grown up poor in the valley of the mountain with a single mother knew she just needed ambition and a scholarship, her ticket out of a luckless life. It doesn’t matter if her mother thinks this ‘opportunity’ isn’t the golden ticket her daughter thinks it is. That you can’t just go from the pits to a palace, that reaching too high can only lead to a greater fall, bigger disappointment.

With Madison’s friendship she comes to understand true power and what loyalty costs. There is an incident and Lillian must leave the school and abandon her dream for a better future, slipping mostly out of Madison’s life too. Working now as a cashier, Lillian’s life is antithesis to her old friend’s, who is ‘famous in political circles’, living a charmed life of wealth and still glamorous in her ways, with a perfect little boy named Timothy. Humming inside of Lillian is still the attraction, the need to please Madison, the desire to be needed by her. It is a desperate plea that has returned Madison to Lillian, her husband Jasper is up for secretary of state and his other two children by his ex-wife Jane have a peculiar affliction, they burst into flames upon any sort of upset. No, it isn’t a joke! It’s untenable in the limelight, how could Jasper explain, how could he reach success with children always on the verge of combustion? Imagine the danger, the chaos! All Lillian has to do is keep the children safe, calm and really, what does she have to lose? Her life is already ash anyway, really this is her salvation to Madison’s way of thinking and it’s infuriating that she may be right.

As Lillian enters the children’s life, hoping to tame them and manage their strange illness her heart expands and this temporary world comes to feel more important than any dream she ever conjured. She understands too well Bessie and Roland’s disappointments, because that is all her life has been made of, too she understands their inability to fit in anywhere and how their strange little hearts beat so much like her own. She will come to be more of a mother than their ‘governess’ and do anything to protect them. How are families made? Sometimes our wants and desires arrive disguised as disordered worlds, as lonely, dangerous children alight with fire.

This is one of the strangest, sweetest books I’ve read all year. It put a warm little fire in this heart of mine!

Yes, read it! It will warm you up in the cold of November. Wonderful fall fiction.

Publication Date: November 5, 2019

HarperCollins Publishers

This was hilarious! I laughed out loud so many times. I loved the contrast between the whimsical, mysterious kids and down to earth, gritty Lillian.

This is one of the few books that I have been enthusiastically recommending to all my friends, family, and colleagues! A poor young woman wins a scholarship to an exclusive boarding school, and is taken advantage of by the family of her wealthy roommate. Years later, despite the results of the family's interference, they are still friends and the poor young woman is offered a job caring for the children of the rich young woman's husband's children from his first marriage. There's a catch though -- these kids burst into flames when they get stressed or upset. Yikes! Funny as all get-out, but there's a deeper thread running throughout the story, and readers will relate to the poor young woman and her unusual attachment to these unfortunately, horribly damaged children. Don't miss this unique book by the author of the highly regarded "The Family Fang".

Once I realized the male author was writing as a female main character, I had a really hard time getting into it. I know that sounds stupid but it’s just the way it is. Initially it seemed interesting but I didn’t read too much of it.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley.
Nothing To See Here is certainly an unique storyline. Twin stepkids that combust into flames when agitated?!
Outside of that, the book certainly is comical and yet still serious and actually believable. I'll definitely be checking out other books by this author.

I truly loved this book. Some lines made me laugh out loud and the snark value was high. At the same time the relationship that Lillian creates with the twins Roland and Bessie made me believe that there could be a better future for us all. Sometimes all someone really needs after being repeatedly let down is someone they can rely on. So many emotions while still being so much fun to read.

Lillian had "a desire to be superlative...a sterling representative of this backward county"... when she won a scholarship to prestigious Iron Mountain Girls Preparatory School. Lillian and her roommate Madison became fast friends despite the fact that upper crust Madison "...had been raised since birth to recognize importance. [Lillian] was not that." However, Lillian and Madison needed each other. They strived to "tamp down their weirdness." Madison acknowledged that rich people "... had to be composed in public...were supposed to act a certain way." Lillian was treated like a poor,"strange" scholarship kid. Lillian's fallen from grace occurred when she took the rap for Madison and was expelled from the prep. school. More than a decade later, Madison was "a mover and a shaker", married to Senator Jaspar Roberts. Lillian worked two cashier jobs and smoked weed. She and Madison became pen pals communicating solely by mail. Fifteen years had passed since Lillian was forced to leave the school..but...change was coming!

Change arrived in the form of a request from Madison to visit the Roberts Estate in Tennessee. A job opportunity. Jaspar Roberts was being vetted for the position of Secretary of State. Since Jaspar's ex-wife had died, he was responsible for ten year old twins, Bessie and Roland. Madison offered Lillian the job of governess for two unsocialized, home schooled children. As governess, she would spend the summer with the kids in the estate's guest house and, by the way, the children had a "unique" affliction. If they got really agitated, they would spontaneously combust. Senator Roberts wanted the children "safeguarded" until the vetting process was completed. Lillian was currently living with her mom and mom's "rotating cast of her boyfriends". Lillian felt needed by Madison and accepted this daunting job.

Bessie and Roland were angry children. They previously had been expelled from Jaspar's Estate after their parent's divorce. Will their bitterness dissipate when they live in the estate's guest house with Lillian? Lillian was searching for direction in her life. How could she, unfamiliar with the needs of children, prevent the twins from overheating and fully bursting into flames?

"Nothing to See Here" by Kevin Wilson brings many issues to the forefront. These challenges include finding one's inner strength, friendship and loyalty, money and power ...dark humor included! Author Wilson does a superb job. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you HarperCollins Publishers/ Ecco and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Nothing to See Here".

A twenty-something stuck in a deadend job takes the job of her life when she agrees to nanny for her best friend's unconventional stepchildren.
A decade or so ago, Lillian worked hard to leave her disadvantaged past behind to attend a prestigious girls school in Tennessee. There, she met best friend Madison and in an act of selfless love and friendship, takes the fall for her and is expelled. Years later, Madison is married to an up-and-coming Tennessee politician with his sights on the White House while Lillian is living in her mother's attic, smoking weed, and working at Big Lots. Now Madison needs a favor from Lillian: be a nanny to my stepchildren who are wild and cutoff from society and, oh by the way, catch fire when they're upset.
This unconventional, sardonic story is about how its quirky and flawed narrator begins to learn what it means to create a family of our choosing rather than live with the one we were born into. It's also about the resilience of children and their naked, tender need to be loved and accepted regardless of hand their dealt. Banter-filled and at times laugh-out-loud funny, I thought this story was terrific and highly recommend it to readers who love human stories told in outlandish ways.

I fell for Kevin Wilson reading his Perfect Little World and getting caught up in the all-too-real voice of his characters. Nothing to see here is even more my kind of book, and Kevin Wilson does not disappoint. I will continue to seek out his books based on my experience living in his stories.

Writing: 4 Plot: 4 Characters: 4

Lillian Breaker has a huge chip on her shoulder about rich people, but when the beautiful and very wealthy Madison Roberts springs up out of her distant and checkered past asking for help, Lillian goes running. The job? To care for Madison’s husband’s children from a previous marriage. Sounds simple enough except for the minor detail that these children spontaneously burst into flame when upset. While they are completely unharmed by the fire, everything around them, including their clothing, is torched. And an additional detail — Madison’s husband Jasper is a U.S. senator under consideration for Secretary of State, so discretion is critical.

What sounds like a silly premise is actually a cover for an intriguing, humorous, and psychologically interesting book. Lillian is an angry, bitter, person who insists on seeing the worst in people (and usually doesn’t have to look far to find it). The children’s fire bursts are an external manifestation of a toxicity that Lillian feels internally. As she helps the children deal with their own anger and bitterness towards the hypocritical, self-serving man who is ostensibly their father, she also gains a deeper understanding of herself.

Hugely enjoyable. The writing is excellent — tight, sardonic, and hugely streaked with wit. I found it much better than I expected from the marketing blurb and now plan to go back and read one of his previous novels — I’ll start with The Family Fang.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on November 5th, 2019.

Having only ever read a collection of short stories by Kevin Wilson, “Tunneling to the Center of the Earth” (which I loved), I was very excited to pick this novel and explore his longer fiction. I must say that it did not disappoint! As with my previous experience, the concept was quirky but it ended up being a lot darker and more grounded—“real”—than the setup implies. He has a wonderful way of creating a framework for a story that appears high-minded and using that as a device to tell a different sort of story. While this book is indeed about two children who catch fire, it is also really about friendship, forgiveness, and finding a way to live generously despite the circumstances dealt in life, even when these circumstances are so trying you are not certain that you can.

Wilson’s voice is very strong, even biting, here and the narrative is better for it. And though it is often harsh in this way, it is ultimately hopeful. think it suited me especially because I feel that the times dictate a need for a biting-yet-realistically-hopeful outlook. I very much enjoyed this book and was happy it fell into my lap.

A very odd premise, and I’m not sure how I feel about this book. It involves some very spoiled rich people used to getting their way, and Lillian Breaker who is used to nothing going her way, and always playing the victim. After meeting Madison at a posh boarding school, they become best friends, until Madison is caught with drugs, and her father convinces scholarship student, Lillian to take the rap and be expelled. Years later, Lillian going nowhere, hears from Senator Roberts wife Madison who asks her to care for her two stepchildren. And they can spontaneously catch on fire from within. Lillian of course, moves to their estate, and the plot moves crazily along. It’s a fast quick read with lots of undertones, and I found it still really unresolved at the end.

I went through this book like it was food. Like Kevin Wilson's other novels, Nothing To See Hear brings to mind food analogies because it is just so delicious. In this book, Lillian is tasked with caring for 2 children who happen to spontaneously radiate flames. Wilson handles the more fantastical elements very well in that they enhance the character driven story while never getting in the way. The ending felt a bit too saccharine for me, but it satisfied me all the same. I would give this book 8.8/10

The author had been one of my favorites since The Family Fang. Like his other work, the stories are weird, the characters are so wrong, but so likeable. And his writing puts so much humor and so much heart on the page. Loved it.

I'm a little conflicted about this book. I liked it and then I didn't. But I liked it more than I didn't. The premise is great: a young woman basically going nowhere is summoned by her rich high school friend, now a senator's wife, to take care of her friend's stepchildren. But there's a caveat: the twins, Bessie and Roland, catch fire sometimes. Wait, what??

Lillian, the down-on-her-luck protagonist (maybe) of the story asked to be caretaker for the summer to her friend Madison's twin stepchildren. Lillian has no clue what's she's supposed to do with these kids, but she loves Madison and tries to take care of the fire twins. Things happen, some sweet, some scary, but Lillian doesn't give up. I kept expecting her to because she's not always a nice person (thank goodness) and neither is Madison. The two friends have their own history, which makes for a complicated relationship.

The story is actually pretty good and kept me engaged. The only thing I found a little off-putting was some of the dialogue. It was a bit frenzied at times, but I think that was done on purpose. Lillian is all over the place at times, which matches the situation she finds herself in. No one knows what makes the twins catch fire, why it happens or how. That's never explained. But there is a twist that pops up midway through the book that made me pretty happy, which changed things. I liked the addition of the twist because it changed the stakes for everyone.

I wouldn't mind reading the finished book to see if anything changes, specifically with the dialogue. But all in all, it was a fast read that kept my interest. I would recommend it.