BOOK REVIEW

BOOK: Now Is Not the Time to Panic
AUTHOR: Kevin Wilson
FORMAT: Physical
GENRE: Coming-of-Age Fiction
DID I CRY: No
PUB DATE: 11/8/22
RATING: 8/10
4 stars

Thank you so much @eccobooks for my #gifted advanced copy of NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC, out 11/8!

MY THOUGHTS

Kevin Wilson’s NOTHING TO SEE HERE was the first audiobook I ever listened to and I absolutely fell in love with that book and with audiobooks. I was so so excited to pick this one up after that!

Kevin Wilson’s writing is absolutely fantastic. The way that he writes his characters and their inner dialogue, perspective of the world & relationships with other characters is truly unmatched. He packs in so much wit and quirkiness it’s impossible not to love them. With that said his characters are always so unique and weird and unapologetic you never know what you’re going to get. The plot of this book was unlike anything I’ve ever read, I couldn’t stop reading it.

I’m not quite sure I can put my finger on where my qualms lay. I think I wanted richer character development throughout to make the ending really hit home, and if I didn’t get that then I would have wanted the ending to continue on and let readers see what happens next. There was just something missing & I wanted more.

All in all this is one you definitely want to get your hands on for a quick, lovable & quirky read about teenage misfits who grow a beautiful friendship one summer bonded by a harmless-turned-fatal secret.

I loved this book! I was a huge fan of Nothing to See Here, so I was excited to read Kevin Wilson's latest. This book was endearing, original, and really thought-provoking. I loved the themes and discussion of how the intent behind art and its subsequent interpretation by those who encounter it played out in the story. One of the things I love about WIlson's novels is that they're unlike anything else I read -- quirky, unique, and ones I want to soak up.

I really enjoyed this novel. The idea that these characters as teenagers started something bigger than they ever thought possible was a great idea. I also enjoyed seeing hot it effected their lives in the future.

I don’t know how Kevin Wilson creates such weird and lovable characters, but he does it and he does it well! I loved this story! The concept of two bored teenagers accidentally creating a satanic panic is good enough, but top it off with a plot that makes me feel things?! Chef’s kiss!

Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson was the second book I had the pleasure of reading by him. In both books, Nothing to See Here and Now Is Not the Time to Panic, Kevin Wilson was able to create clever and well defined plots and unique and impressionable characters. Now Is Not the Time to Panic was a coming of age story. I usually do not enjoy coming of age stories but this one worked for me. The characters were well drawn and believable. Now Is Not the Time to Panic took place in a small and quiet town called Coalfield in the state of Tennessee. It was the kind of rural town where almost everyone knew one another but there wasn’t a lot to do there and absolutely nothing exciting ever happened there. That all changed during the summer of 1996.

Frankie Budge had lived in Coalfield her whole life. She was sixteen as the summer of 1996 unfolded. Since it was a very hot day and the air conditioner at her house had stopped working, Frankie found herself at the Coalfield Public Pool. The life guards had just ordered everyone out of the pool so they could start the steal the watermelon contest. Frankie noticed a boy from across the pool who was watching her. The skinny boy approached Frankie. He explained that he was new to Coalfield and he didn’t know anyone and that she looked like she didn’t know anyone either. Frankie’s problem was that she knew everyone but did not like any of them. The boy asked Frankie to be his partner in the watermelon contest. That was how Frankie and the new boy, Zeke, started a friendship that would change them in ways they never thought possible.

Frankie and Zeke had more in common with each other than either could have imagined. They were both loners. Neither one of them had friends. Both Frankie and Zeke were quite creative in an artsy type of way. Frankie was an aspiring writer and Zeke was an aspiring artist that enjoyed drawing weird things. Both of their fathers had left their mothers for other women. That was the reason why Zeke had come to Coalfield. His mother had grown up in Coalfield and Zeke’s grandmother still lived there. Zeke and his mother were staying with his grandmother for the summer until his mother figured things out. Frankie and Zeke hung out at her house most days since her mother and her triplet brothers were at work. They experimented with kissing since neither one of them had ever been kissed. One day they decided to make weird art. Frankie would come up with the words and Zeke would illustrate it. That was how Frankie came up with the saying, “The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are the fugatives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.” Zeke illustrated it with his dark art. Frankie and Zeke combined her words with his art and made an anonymous poster. The two started making copies of the original on the stolen xerox machine Frankie’s triplet brothers had brought home and put in their garage. It wasn’t long before Frankie and Zeke became obsessed with hanging their posters up all over Coalfield. Some associated the poster that Frankie and Zeke were hanging up all over Coalfield with Satanic roots. Then there were copycats and the poster started showing up in other parts of the country. No one suspected Frankie or Zeke as the masterminds or the creators of these posters. What started out as an adventure to cure their boredom ended up drastically changing the course of both Frankie’s and Zeke’s lives. This innocent act escalated so much that it became known as the Coalfield Panic of 1996.

I really enjoyed reading Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson. It was about friendship, art and memories. Kevin Wilson included in his author notes the origin of the saying, “ The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.” I felt happy for him that he was finally able to incorporate the saying into one of his books and was able to wrap the plot of Now Is Not the Time to Panic around the saying that is still so special to Kevin Wilson. This book was clever and well written. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Ecco Publishers for allowing me to read Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Now Is Not the Time to Panic was a quick book for me to close out 2022. The premise intrigued me and I liked the angle of 1990s hysteria over a piece of art haphazardly made by some teenagers, but I was ultimately left wanting more. It felt as though we were supposed to believe it was full blown hysteria, but I wanted more examples of the town in chaos. Wilson often brings the quirky reads and I loved Nothing to See Here, so my bar may have been exceptionally high for this one.

This was a quick and surprisingly good read with an interesting concept. I really the ties back the satanic panic era with the drawings and the voice of the main character.

I enjoyed how this novel captured the urgency of teenagers, especially artsy ones trying to find their place and make something meaningful. I felt that the second half was less impactful than if we had left Zeke and Frankie as teenagers but that may be a personal preference.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to,read this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is the story of two lonely awkward teenagers who find each other and though their boredom one summer, end up creating a work of art that goes viral- before there was such a thing as “viral”. I found the Frankie and Zeke realistic in their awkwardness, and obsession as teens can become over a summer activity.
SPOILERS BELOW
Unfortunately, the peril never quite materializes to the degree expected. I would like to have seen more of the implications of their actions directly impact Frankie and Zeke, instead we just have them hearing about it from others. In fact they were evidently so invisible, that in the thousands of posters they put up, not once did anyone ever see them do it, or question them about it. The terrible triplets were a missed opportunity, and just caricatures of teen boys, with no depth, and evidently no purpose to the story. Im sure this story has an audience that will describe it as their favorite book, but it felt flat to me.

After reading the author's note, I was so moved that I burst into tears. For me, that's a strong indicator of an enjoyable reading experience coming my way. Kevin Wilson does not disappoint. With his brilliant premise and clever yet understated prose, he's crafted a beautiful yet bittersweet coming-of-age tale. I really liked his perspective on what it means to create art that matters, how our perception of the past bends and shifts with time, and how we can find our place in the world even when things haven't gone the way we expected. Or hoped.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary copy. All opinions shared here are my own.

This book didn’t live up to the hype for me. The story and Frankie’s perspective weren’t quite believable for me, d I didn’t like the ending at all.

I enjoyed "Nothing to See Here," so I was excited to read this latest offering by Kevin Wilson. I didn’t resonate with the phrase on the poster or the main character. The story was unique and well-written. I will check out more of Wilson’s books in the future.

My mother loved to tell me to "make a statement"—with my life, art, writing, clothes. To be honest, I think she mostly meant clothes, but when I read Kevin Wilson's new book, I was thinking about her. Wilson offers us the angsty teenage artists greatest dream, and worst nightmare. When they make their statement, panic ensues. As you may already know, I love Kevin Wilson's work, so I was predisposed to request this on NetGalley, and to love it. And of course, I did.

Now is Not the Time to Panic is, according to its author, Kevin Wilson, “a book about friendship, about memory, and about what it means to hold on to the person who we were, even as we become someone else. It’s about the ways in which art is the door that lets us walk into a new life, one that never seemed possible.”

Frankie is kind of a quirky kid, friendless and grieving her parents’ divorce and her father’s abandonment of his kids. She has nothing but time this summer, and so when Zeke, an even quirkier new kid, moves into the tiny town of Coalfield, Tennessee, the two are drawn together.

My thanks go to Net Galley and Ecco Publishing for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

Frankie invites Zeke over one day; her dad has flown the coop, and her mom is at work, so in order to make it clear that she hasn’t invited him over for carnal purposes, Frankie talks to him about her love of writing. Zeke says that he likes to draw, and so together, they make a poster. The words are Frankie’s, and they are indeed well written for a kid of sixteen years: “The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.” Zeke fills in the rest of the page with his artwork, and for good measure, they prick their fingers and comingle their blood on the poster. Then they dig out an old photocopy machine in Frankie’s garage, and make copies with which to furtively festoon the whole town. (After all, Coalfield isn’t a big place.) They don’t tell anyone it’s theirs, and enjoy the reactions to their guerilla art as sly observers.

The two teens share a lot in common. Both are outsiders; both are creatives; and both are living through the implosions of their families, with fathers that cheat and then leave, and mothers that are beside themselves with anger and shame.

Once the posters become noticed around town, rumors begin, and then copycats come along and make improvements, sometimes. There’s a hysterical piece in the local paper suggesting that their work is Satanic. Frankie and Zeke don’t say one word to anyone. They watch and they listen; they talk about it only with each other.

The crafting of these two characters, and their relationship, is well done, and I ache for both of these kids. The only time I see character slip is with regard to Frankie’s attitude toward sex. Her dispassionate take on it—she isn’t sure she really wants to, but maybe she should just do it and get it over with? Is not a mindset I’ve ever seen in a teenage girl, and believe me, I’ve known plenty of quirky ones. No, that’s a male attitude, and I suspect that Wilson would do better to use male protagonists, or else run his female ones by several very honest females in his chosen field, prior to publication.

As the summer goes on, I keep expecting the two to launch another joint project, but they don’t. She does some writing, and he draws, but there is no sequel, no follow-up. The poster is the poster. Shantytown, gold seekers, fugitives, hunger. Boom. That’s it. But years into the future, Frankie is still putting these damn things up. The heck…? I believe this of her; she is one strange person. Zeke’s mental health deteriorates that summer, and where that goes is completely credible. Those that work in the field will recognize Zeke, who is by far the better drawn of the two main characters.

This fascinating novel can be enjoyed by young adult audiences, because both of the protagonists are teenagers; however, this is also fiction that can be enjoyed by anybody. If you don’t read YA—and the truth is, I don’t, not anymore—you can still appreciate this one, and I recommend it to you.

This was disappointing. I loved loved loved his previous book and this just felt like a throwaway. There was soooo much poster talk and I just didn’t care. It was all meh.

After reading Nothing To See Here, I was really excited to read Kevin Wilson's newest release. This is a coming-of-age novel about two teenagers who create an art project that shakes up the town. The book reads almost like a YA novel with Frankie and Zeke's relationship being a central focus of the book - does he like me, does he not type of thing. Kevin's writing is able to transport you, perhaps because we all know the average American house on hot summer day as a teen.

While I found the author's note really interesting, I wish it was perhaps included at the end of the novel. I felt it already let me in to the story before I was ready.

I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it, however I did not feel as captivated by this story as I did Kevin's previous novel.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco for an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

It’s summer in Coalfield, Tennessee, and art is seizing the city with an ironclad grip. Mysterious posters have surfaced across town, emblazoned with a haunting illustration and mystifying script: “The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers,” it reads. “We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.” The residents marvel and the paranoiacs speculate, but no one knows that the posters’ origin is just a pair of teenagers with a Xerox machine and a dream.

So it goes in Kevin Wilson’s fourth novel “Now is Not the Time to Panic,” published Nov. 8. Told in alternating timelines, the book tells the story of how teenage outcast and aspiring novelist Frankie Budge meets budding artist Zeke Brown one fateful summer in 1996. When the two create the cryptic poster that sends Coalfield spiraling, it snowballs into a flurry of whispers and whiplash that alters their lives forever. Twenty years later, a reporter searches for the truth about the Coalfield Panic of 1996 in an investigation that threatens to overturn Frankie’s life once more.

Though Wilson’s prose is emphatic and resonant with narrative voice, Frankie’s ceaseless inner monologue demonstrates why the age-old writing maxim of “show, don’t tell” continues to persist as craft advice. While her pedantic explanations can be partially justified by the novel’s split temporality and retrospective reflections, they rapidly grow monotonous in places where more dynamic plot points might flourish. Wilson’s candid writing style is keen, but it isn’t enough to outstrip its unnecessarily explicative tendencies.

The novel’s dialogue attempts to display a veracious representation of teenage speech — peppered with “like,” ellipses, and overly juvenile uncertainties. While it demonstrates an admirable attempt at realism, Wilson is unable to decide between the stilted oral verisimilitudes of a transcript and traditional fictitious stylization. Instead, he settles for a murky in-between that more often distracts than rings true. Wilson, at times, writes in ways that portray Frankie and Zeke as younger than they actually are.

Wilson’s combination of precarious dialogue and static prose only serves to further flatten the novel’s one-dimensional characters. In theory, Frankie and Zeke have enough distinctiveness to be compelling: flush with unique interests, wrought family dynamics and ambition, the two teenagers have all the quirks of a John Green protagonist. Yet, their trajectories through the book’s plot render them as flimsy caricatures, more half-finished concept sketches than flesh and bone. Youthful self-importance and artistic exigence might be plausible motivations to fuel a narrative the length of a short story, but the book can’t seem to muster enough steam to cover the bases of a novel that encompasses decades.

The phrase that adorns their poster, too, feels washed-out by the time its closing chapter reams past. Too flowery to be catchphrased and too contextually weightless to be grounded by the novel’s specificity, it capitalizes on ornamentation in the vein of a viral Tumblr quote. Though Frankie mumbles it in her sleep even decades after its initial conception, there’s little to support its sense of primacy; in fact, its blissful ambivalence is perhaps the book’s most disillusioning component.

Despite its inspired premise, “Now is Not the Time to Panic” is unable to convince its audience of the magnetism it so fervently strives to evince, leaving the reader at somewhat of a loss as to why the bygone summer of 1996 lingers so heavily in Frankie’s consciousness. However, the novel’s attempt to broach themes of art’s power and once-in-a-lifetime human connection is commendably audacious, even if its most engaging elements — family, growing pains and adulthood — are relegated to the back burner.

Charmingly ambitious yet prosaically pedestrian, “Now is Not the Time to Panic” carries just enough poignance to casually rivet, but falls short of the charisma, depth and execution necessary to be truly incandescent. Though rife with the bursting imagination of a seasoned writer, the novel’s pitfalls dangle dangerously close to the edge of panic, grasping for a foothold above a precipice of disenchantment.

Since I'm a fan of pretty much anything Kevin Wilson writes, I had to read Now Is Not the Time to Panic. The foreword of the book explains some of the meaning behind the story. It was really moving - much more than I expected. There are so many layers to the characters that I really enjoyed exploring each of them in the two families represented throughout the story. Well done!

I am sad that I am finished reading this book, because now I am not reading it anymore. I so very much enjoyed it. I love the quirkiness and all the odd details and the feelings and images in the writing as well as the story, which I can't tell or explain because then I'd ruin the experience of the readers. I shared lines from the book with my son, who needs to read it, and with an online group, and I immediately got responses from many people in that group who were touched with the quote that I shared in the same way that I had been touched. So freaking much awesomeness! This story is set in 1996 before the internet could spread ideas and things like wildfire, but some things still did. Frankie and Zeke, two 16 years olds accidentally set off something so much bigger than they could have imagined. And this is the story of how that happened.

Kevin Wilson is.a favorite, so I was excited to read Now is Not the Time to Panic. It took me awhile to get into it. The angst of the lonely days of summer were difficult to connect with. However, once Frankie and Zeke began their experiment I was hooked. I was transported back to a time when people used land lines to call each other and news was shared via the daily paper or the evening news. When the protagonists innocently shared their art, the message took on a life of its own. Wilson creates characters that seem like someone we all know. He bounces from thirty years ago and current day with ease and brings the reader into the lives of Frankie and Zeke. If you like a bit of nostalgia combined with teenage days of self identification, this one is a must.