Like every Kevin Wilson book I've read, it feels like visiting an old friend. Now is Not the Time to Panic does an excellent job of bottling the feeling of being creative as a teenager and everything that comes along with it. The inner struggle of being authentic, the self-important feeling you get for developing your art and ultimately how your ego can get in the way. Kevin Wilson is such a brilliant writer and has such a skill of making a massive impact in a small novel.

#NowIsNotTheTimeToPanic is a quirky coming of age story, described as "An exuberant, bighearted novel about two teenage misfits who spectacularly collide one fateful summer, and the art they make that changes their lives forever". After loving #NothingToSeeHere, this one was high on my list for 2022, and it was great, especially on audio!⁣

Thank you to Ecco Books for my gifted copies.

Two bored kids, Zeke & Frankie, create art with an old copy machine and cause a local uproar and a cultural phenomenon. The stress contributes to the demise of their relationship and years pass with no communication. Twenty years later a journalist tracks down Frankie to expose her as the artist. This sets Frankie on a quest to find Zeke.

I enjoyed the exploration of a friendship, the razor sharp examination of small town life and descriptions of the era. Having grown up in a small town in the midwest, I could easily see the hysteria and the wrong conclusions the controversial poster sparked.

For anyone who experienced the intense feelings of young, formative friendship, lost touch and wondered what happened to that person, this book is for you.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Ecco for the advanced digital copy in consideration of my honest opinion,

Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson is a unique work of fiction about two teenagers named Frankie and Zeke who decide to make posters one summer and post them around town. "The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us." These posters end up causing a lot of trouble, and it changes Frankie and Zeke's lives. I really enjoyed Wilson's previous novel, Nothing to See Here, but this one was just fine. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

In 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰, Frankie is a loner who meets Zeke one summer when she’s in high school. He’s just moved to town to live with his grandmother. They are bored one day and decide to make a poster with this distinctive quote, but they do not sign it or say who made it. ⁣
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The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers, we are the new fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us. ⁣
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They post this flier everywhere and people are quick to make assumptions about who created it and what it means. They don’t tell anyone who has done it. People start to go wild with judgement and they even think it’s the work of satanists. People are killed when they think they have something to do with these (innocent) posters.⁣
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20 years later, Frankie is a well known author and a wife and mother. A journalist finds out she’s behind the famous poster and threatens to expose her. She must deal with the outcome many years later. ⁣
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If you are looking for a quirky, unique book, this is a great option. This is my first Kevin Wilson book and I really enjoyed it. I thought the hysteria created by these little posters seemed very realistic in this day and age where everyone overanalyzes things. The book is narrated by @ginnifergoodwin who I just adore and I hope she does more! I also think the title of the book is just perfect.⁣
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Thank you @librofm and @harperaudio for my gifted ALC.

Frankie is not looking forward to another boring summer in her small town in Tennessee...and then Zeke comes to town. He's an aspiring artist and she's an aspiring author and together they create a poster that they decide to post up all over time. Not long after they start, the poster takes on a life of its own and it has dangerous consequences. But will Frankie and Zeke stop putting the posters up?

I loved Wilson's "Nothing to See Here" so I was excited to read this one. Unfortunately, I feel like this was lacking the heart that Nothing had. I just didn't care about the characters as much. The premise was great but it didn't reach me.

This book was unique, interesting, and fun to read. While I enjoyed reading it for personal reading, I will not be adopting it for my classroom. Thank you to the publisher!

Kevin Wilson is one of my favorites. his ability to write the real and raw feelings of his characters keeps me coming back for more. In this story, the contrast between youth and adulthood, and showcasing the ways that we carry things with us into adulthood, was so very powerful. I loved the way we view our own past and the ways that things that may seem small stick with us, and the way that things that are large seem different when viewed through lenses of different ages. It's a wonderful book and a powerful read.

The introduction to this book is really poignant and gives the back story on a phrase that provides the premise for a poster that is splattered all over town by two teenagers and creates quite an uproar. The writing is so beautiful and Kevin Wilson really captures the sentiments, anxiety and fears of teenagers, particularly those with troubled home lives and difficulty fitting in. The book goes back and forth in time so we do get glimpses into the two as they become adults as they held on to this secret about them being the ones behind this poster. This was a fun and poignant read and I recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a wonderfully written book about two awkward teens who find friendship for a single summer. The two create a work of art in the form of a poster that changes their town and then the entire country. The mystery of the poster and its meaning and creation spark panic and more. It's a beautiful story of reconciliation and closure.

This book didn't work for me. I found it to be repetitive and kind of boring. I couldn't muster much interest in the story as a whole.

Boy am I lucky I remembered my NetGalley e-ARC because this was a great book, and just the kind I like to read electronically: a quick, engrossing, page-turner. I liked the first two-thirds more than the end but thought the ending was plausible all the same.

I wasn't a huge fan of Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here but the description of Now is Not the Time to Panic intrigued me so I went ahead and gave it a shot. Boy am I glad that I did. Now is Not the Time to Panic is a masterful coming of age story, centered around two teens, Frankie and Zeke, who dedicate the summer in a small Tennessee town in the 90s to trying to create "something".

When Frankie and Zeke take their "something" into the world, it unexpectedly blows up (90s era viral), featured on morning talk show segments and in national newspapers. Lives are shaped by the whole experience and Frankie and Zeke must navigate how it feels to have created something that changed lives and their community. Wilson manages to write about the experience and thoughts of being a teenager so realistically that it's easy to forget who the author is.

I loved this book. The story was weird, but not too weird. Each of the characters was so well developed (but I do kind of want a spin-off about the triplets.) I previously loved the Family Fang and Now Is Not the Time to Panic has cemented Kevin Wilson as one of those authors where I'll read anything he writes.

This was a five star read all the way up until the end. What a disappointment. I don't actually know how it should have ended but I feel cheated somehow. However, the first 85% or so is excellent!

I love Kevin Wilson and I’ll read anything he writes.

I did enjoy this. All of Wilson’s characters are so real and jump off the page.

My only disappointment was the ending. I definitely recommend.

16-year-old Frankie lives with her mom and misfit, triplet brothers in a small town in Tennessee in the 1990s. She's kind of a loner and plans to spend the summer hanging out at home and keeping to herself. When she meets a boy named Zeke, the two decide to combine their writing and drawing skills and make a poster to hang all over town. It was just good, clean fun - until it wasn't. Somehow, their mysterious posters have incited panic throughout their town.

Fast-forward twenty years. Frankie gets an out-of-the-blue phone call from a reporter who wants to write a story about the so-called "Coalfield Panic". Somehow she has connected Frankie to the decades-old hysteria. Will Frankie finally break her silence?

I really enjoyed this book. In some ways, it reminded me of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow because it's a story of teen friendship but also so much more.

Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

Now Is Not the Time to Panic is a story as remarkable as its title. When two teenage outsiders, Frankie and Zeke, meet one fateful summer day in the late 90s, they decide to spend their break creating art together. But what sounds like a quirky way to pass the time quickly snowballs into something much bigger than either of them ever expected, and the fallout changes the trajectory of their lives forever.

I love novels centered around art and creativity, so I was interested in this one from the get go. Add to that my favorite decade, a coming-of-age story, and a couple of misfits, and you have a recipe for my favorite type of plot. This book definitely lived up to my expectations; it’s compelling and feels very realistic - while I enjoyed the chapters set in the 90s more, I appreciated how Frankie’s and Zeke’s lives unfolded once the summer ended. The story is bittersweet, even more so after reading the author’s note (I really recommend not skipping that one!), and confirms my soft spot for books about once-in-a-lifetime friendships and the way one tiny thing can completely turn the world upside down.

I went in totally blind (thanks for the ARC Netgalley) and I have no idea what I was expected. I LOVED “Nothing to See Here” by Wilson, so I was interested to pick up another one.

Two teenagers, Frankie and Zeke, become friends when Zeke moves to Coalfield in 1996. Frankie, a writer, is working on a darker version of Nancy Drew and Zeke is an illustrator. Together, they end up creating an anonymous poster and paste it all over town. The townspeople are totally confused and start to believe it’s terrorism or kidnappers. Twenty years later, Frankie gets a phone call and the secret of “the panic of 1996” is out..

This book was good overall. It was funny with lots of dry humor. All the characters felt “off” and quirky. The story focuses on unlikely friendships, family relationships, propaganda, and the spiraling of speculation. If you’re into character driven stories, this one’s for you! Also.. I’m gonna go with 3.5 ⭐️.

This was a really good book. I enjoyed the two main characters and especially the mom and the older boy siblings. It was an enjoyable book. I appreciated to truthful look at friendship and the idea that there isn't always a happy ending.