I read about 25% and wasn't clicking with the characters - I loved his last book but this one wasn't coming together quickly enough for me. DNF.

Thank you Ecco for a galley of this in exchange for an honest review!

Now is Not the Time to Panic is another slice of life novel from Kevin Wilson and this time we follow Frankie over the course of one unforgettable summer as she sets up a series of events with at times fatal consequences.

Wilson really does that slice of life story telling so well and this is no exception. I have a lot of admiration for authors who can effectively tell a story that takes place over a shorter period of time yet still make the world feel larger than that. I think all of this hinges on how well his characters are written and once again he does that pretty well…at least with his main characters.

The humor in this is also very quick and smart and a lot of it relies on those characters and their flaws. This will work for some and not for others. For me it really works and I did find myself smiling from time to time at some of the things happening.

The book does have its issues - Frankie and Zeke’s (Frankie’s new friend) escapades sometimes feel a bit tedious as the book goes on and the dialogue feels stilted for some characters in a way that surprised me…almost as if Wilson wasn’t quite sure who they were.

Still for the time spent on this and the fact that I really had a good time with it I would recommend this.

The ending to this book tied this story up nicely but I'm conflicted how I feel about the plot as a whole. A lot of time was spent focused on the past and not a lot on the present. This book is slow paced and there is a lot to learn before the story starts coming together.

I am not sure how I feel about this story. There were parts of it that I REALLY enjoyed, and I liked the writing style in general. However, there were parts where I felt like I was out of the loop, like I was missing something. Why was she so obsessed with the posters, and why did the town go crazy? Was this entire book supposed to be a metaphor for something else? If it was I definitely missed it. I took the story at face value and enjoyed most of it, particularly the retrospective pieces about what was happening around the globe in a pre-internet/viral era.

Being a teen in the 80's and 90's, I understand this book. I understand the characters. I relate to their boredom and angst, living each day to figure themselves out and struggling with it all. Trying to be heard, to be seen but then not wanting to be noticed at all. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I believe "the edge" saying can change and evolve into different meanings for everyone depending on the day. Thank you.

Thank you to Kevin Wilson, Ecco Publishing, and Netgalley for a digital ARC of NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC, in exchange for which I've offered my honest opinion.

In this much anticipated 2022 thriller from Kevin Wilson, two teenage artists make a piece of art that sends shockwaves through their community. The consequences of their actions loom large and profound, and hover much later than either of them expect. Their art changes them, their lives, and the world around them.

This is a book about the power of creation, of telegraphing, of messaging. It discusses the methods and ethics of exposing consumers to ideas in the same space as it explores the potential of the ideas themselves, making for an interesting tone and texture. I definitely think this book is mismarketed as a thriller. I don't like the author's handling of the topic of suicide, but then, I rarely do. Because so much of this story happens on a subtextual level, the plot suffers a touch of anemia. A cup of strong coffee will see a reader through the worst of the boring parts, though, and the thematic payoff is worth it.

Rating 🎨🎨🎨.5 / 5 messy paint palettes
Finished December 2022
Recommended? Sure, it was interesting.
Read this if you like:
🖍️ Art
👫 Teenage friendships
💭 Mental health rep
❤️‍🔥Young love

I've read all of Kevin Wilson's books and Now Is Not the Time to Panic was another amazingly moving and wonderful read

Loved this book! Kevin Wilson writes so much in what always feels like not enough pages. This book was so weird and wonderful and I have recommended it countless times since reading.

Now Is Not The Time To Panic seals the deal... Kevin Wilson is an auto-buy author for me from now on. I loved what his latest novel had to say about teenage alienation and connection, as well as the power of collaborative creativity to provide comfort and healing. The story is beautifully written... I highlighted many touching passages that really spoke to me. The book had just the right amount of mystery and uncertainty to keep me reading, and it's absolutely overflowing with heart. The author's note about his inspiration for the story and the book's central quotation is top notch, probably the more memorable author's note I've ever read. It actually added to my enjoyment of the novel!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Ecco for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I can't wait to read Wilson's future publications!

Oh. Oh my.

I grabbed this book because I was a fan of Nothing to See Here. And I was not disappointed.

I loved the commentary on the life art gains once it leaves your hands. How it’s no longer yours anymore.

I loved Frankie and Zeke. How well matched they were. How real they felt to me. I loved how chaotically hopeful they were. The aching feeling of wanting back one specific moment in your life was written really well.

The virality of photos and phrases is well known in today’s society where social media drives the spread of a wide range of photos and phrases, but the effects of viral art on their creators is not so well known. This is one of the things that Now Is Not the Time to Panic (Ecco, 2022) seeks to examine. The book follows two teenagers, Frankie Budge and Zeke, through their creation of an art movement around a poster with the phrase: The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us. As others in the town begin to participate in the movement, the consequences of hanging up the posters spiral out of Frankie and Zeke’s control, sometimes resulting in those others paying the ultimate price for their involvement. Frankie and Zeke not only grapple with the consequences of spreading the posters, but also with what it means to be a person and what the effect of art is in society.
This effect of art is poignantly addressed throughout the book. As the posters gather attention, Frankie and Zeke discuss its spread:
“‘We made the poster. So we can still control it, I think.’
‘I don’t think that’s how art works,’ he said, unsure of himself, which was disconcerting because, even though Zeke had always been kind of nervous, he’d always seemed really self-assured about what he thought he knew about the world” (92).
Unlike how Frankie imagines it, the spread of the posters does go wildly out of their control, but before it even happens, Zeke realizes that it’s possible for a piece of art to no longer be in the creator’s hands. Once the piece has been shared with the world, there’s no stopping how people interpret or use it. Art does not exist in a vacuum to be controlled by those who made it.
The prose is thoughtful without being overly complex. At times, it meanders away from the main plot, causing some confusion of focus, but Wilson reigns it in quickly enough that the story doesn’t go off the rails. The purpose of this wandering is clear: readers are firmly in the head of Frankie, and she has tangents when she thinks about what’s going on. After Zeke and Frankie have hung up enough posters that others are copying them, they see
“this girl, Madeline, hanging posters without any real fear of being caught, just stapling them to trees in the park. Madeline had been a cheerleader in junior high but then, I don’t know exactly why because I wasn’t aware of the complex negotiations required to be popular, she’d quit and started hanging out with he theater kids. She wasn’t a goth, not really, because I don’t think anyone really knew exactly what that was. I mean, she listened to Nine Inch Nails. She wore a lot of black eyeliner. We didn’t know what to call that, but we just knew that Madeline was suddenly not the Madeline who had been the sturdy base of the pyramid during pep rallies. She was transformed” (107).
There is a certain amount of deviation from the detail that is most relevant to the plot (Madeline hanging up posters) in order to demonstrate Frankie’s thought process as this is going on. The digression doesn’t last for long though. In the next paragraph, the story snaps back to plot relevant information, keeping the story moving and readers engaged.
The plot in combination with the prose draws readers in, engrossing them with anticipation over what will happen next. I could not put the book down. At least for most of it. The end drops the ball—the moments that should have tension lack it, causing disinterest. Because of the way that the plot progresses in the final quarter, readers know what the ending entails in full. They grow up—we get it, but where’s the nuance? What’s so different about Frankie and Zeke’s relationship with each other that separates them from every other young adult protagonist that matures at the end of the novel? Readers have seen this type of end before. There’s nothing exceptional about it.
As a whole, Now Is Not the Time to Panic thoughtfully engages with ideas surrounding growing up, young love, and art’s importance in society. The story is captivating for both the plot elements as well as the stylistic choices, and even with the end being on the weaker side, the book is still a wonderful coming-of-age novel.

Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I’d previously read Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang by the same author, so I was anxious to read Wilson’s newest book. It did not disappoint. He writes beautifully flawed characters and I loved the story of Frankie and Zeke’’s life changing summer. I’ll continue reading more by this author in the future.

Published by Ecco on November 8, 2022

The nature and consequences of art are the focal points of Now Is Not the Time to Panic. An act of artistic creation changes lives, including the life of its creators.

Frances Budge, known to all as Frankie, is a wife and mother when she tells the story of the summer she met Benjamin Ezekiel Brown, known for the summer as Zeke. Frankie was sixteen, living in Coalfield with her mother and hell-raising triplet brothers. Zeke’s mother moved from Memphis to Coalfield to stay with Zeke’s grandmother after his father took up with another woman. Frankie and Zeke bonded over their status as the children of cheaters and their interest in artistic expression. Frankie wanted to be a writer. Zeke liked to draw and planned to go to art school.

Frankie tells the story to the reader because Mazzie Brower, an art critic, has discovered the role that Frankie played in the Coalfield Panic of 1996. Mazzie has only uncovered part of the story but she plans to write what she knows. Frankie will need to decide how much of the full story she is willing to reveal to a national audience.

Frankie and Zeke decided to spend the summer making art. Frankie remembered a copy machine that her brothers stole and stashed in their garage. The two teens decided to make and distribute a letter-size poster. Frankie wrote two sentences: The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us. Zeke added drawings of shacks with collapsing roofs and beds occupied by children in twisted sheets. Two giant hands with withered fingers almost grasp the children but the hands are suspended in motion, never quite able to touch them. Frankie and Zeke each contributed drops of blood to the poster, drops that looked like stars when the poster was copied. They made hundreds of copies and surreptitiously hung them on walls, telephone poles, and bulletin boards. They vowed to keep their roles as creators a secret. They wanted to observe the public reaction, if any, to their art without sullying the reaction by revealing themselves.

Frankie had no idea what the sentence meant when she wrote it. Zeke didn’t know what the drawing meant. True art, the novel suggests, comes from the heart or soul, not just from the mind. That’s why it doesn’t always turn out to be what the artist envisioned.

The story also suggests that what art means to the artist may be less significant than what it means to its audience. A local reporter, who happens to be dating Frankie’s mother, believes the posters are nefarious. His reporting is fueled by a preacher who imagines the posters originated with a satanic cult. Within a few weeks, the mysterious posters have gained national attention. Kids in other cities are making and hanging their own versions of the posters. As they do when they recognize something that speaks to them, people arrive at interpretations of the words and art that are relevant to their own lives, interpretations that never consciously occurred to Frankie or Zeke.

Events get out of hand in Coalfield when a couple of kids who were screwing in the woods claim they were kidnapped by the satanic cult to explain why they didn’t come home. Fat old men get beered up and patrol the streets with guns. Tragedies ensue on a couple of fronts, leading to national headlines about the Coalfield Panic. Frankie and Zeke feel vaguely responsible for the unintended consequences of their art, although Zeke is mostly worried about going to jail.

Apart from its commentary on the unexpected forces that art can unleash, Now Is Not the Time to Panic is remarkable for its insightful portrayal of two lost kids, each damaged by a cheating father, who are drawn to each other yet terrified of the prospect of having sex. They can kiss for hours, but they channel their sexual energy into art. “We’d kissed and our prudish brains couldn’t handle it, so we invented some mantra that would unlock the mysteries of the universe.” Zeke shows signs of a manic-depressive disorder. Frankie has a fear of intimacy, yet her larger fear is that she’ll lose Zeke when the summer ends.

Frankie and Zeke have the kind of relationship that cannot last but is perfect for its moment, a relationship that can never be forgotten, that defines part of the life that follows. As they are making the poster, Frankie has the sense that she “would trace my whole life back to this moment, my finger bleeding, this boy’s beautiful and messed-up mouth on mine, a work of art between us. I knew it would probably fuck me up. And that was fine.” Near the novel’s end, as Frankie thinks about speaking to Mazzie Brower, we learn how the poster has affected the next decades of Frankie’s and Zeke’s lives.

Kevin Wilson tells the story in understated prose that is perfect for a novel that undersells its drama. Wilson proves that prose doesn’t need to be flashy and a story doesn’t need to be histrionic to be spellbinding. In a series of carefully crafted scenes during a single summer and a few additional days in the present, Wilson delivers more intensity and insight than most writers manage with twice as many words.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I really loved this author’s last book “Nothing to see here”. So, when I saw this on Netgalley, I immediately requested this book.

I really appreciated the author notes and sharing his personal story in the writing of this book. That being said, I just really couldn’t connect to the characters or the story in general.

Thank you Netgalley for extending me an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Kevin Wilson’s novel Now Is Not the Time to Panic is built around the relationship between two loner teenagers in the small, drab town of Coalfield. It’s 1996, and 16-year-old Frankie lives with her mother and rowdy, older triplet brothers. Frankie is a loner while her brothers move in a mass of testosterone-driven mayhem. Frankie’s mother works hard to support the family since her husband departed with a much younger woman and established a whole new family. He even had the nerve to call his new daughter Frankie–as if the original just faded away or died. This is a period of great confusion for Frankie. While other girls talk nonstop about boys and sex, Frankie doesn’t relate at all to other girls’ interests, and consequently she becomes even more mentally isolated. Then into her life comes Zeke. He moved to Coalfield after his father took up with a younger woman (women as it turns out), so right away the two teens bond over their fathers’ abandonment. Zeke comes from Memphis and now lives with his depressed mother and grandmother. He doesn’t understand what Coalfield people “do for fun.”

“This town is weird,” he said. “It’s like a bomb was dropped on it, and you guys are just getting back to normal.”

Frankie, our narrator, admits “I lived inside myself way more than I lived inside this town,” while Zeke is emotionally distressed by recent events and goes “into some trance […] and gets destructive.” They realise that they are “both alone in the same way.” They “both had dads who sucked.”


The two teens start hanging out, and out of boredom, they create a poster. Zeke is the artist and Frankie creates the words:

The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.

Using a copier stolen by Frankie’s brothers, the two teens makes 100s of copies of the poster and then begin hanging them all over town. Two local teens use the poster as an excuse for staying out and drinking; they claim they met the devil-worshipping “fugitives” who made the poster. Nothing ever happens in Coalfield so the news that devil worshippers are on the outskirts of town, drives many of the residents into a frenzy. Soon, there’s a “poster posse” a “dad militia” guarding the streets and all hell breaks loose.

The plot follows Zeke and Frankie in 1996, and then some chapters take place twenty years later when Frankie, now a successful author, is contacted by a journalist regarding the “Coalfield Panic of 96.” There’s a sweetness to this novel, and the sweetness dominates any humour. These are two very sad teens, good kids who are struggling to adjust to their new lives, and for a while at least they think they can help each other. The novel also has an amazingly sincere introduction from the author explaining the genesis of the novel. There is something about Wilson’s approach to life: it’s fascinating, fresh quirkiness that appeals to me. I am not a fan of books about teens but I enjoyed this, its exploration of moral responsibility, individuality and friendship. I particularly liked the idea that nonconformity and creativity are right there for these two teens, and the plot shows how these two teens shaped each other for the years ahead.

Our life, which was so boring and normal was still happening. Right at this moment, as everything was changing, it was like my life didn’t know it yet. It didn’t know to just stop, to freeze, because nothing was going to be the same. Let the pizza burn,. Forget about that stupid, shitty latch on the window. Pack up your stuff. Let’s get the hell out of here. Let’s burn down the house and start over.

I am definitely in the minority here, because I know tons of people who follow Kevin WIlson religiously and love everything he writes. Unfortunately, I have not had the same experience. I am not a fan. I thought if I heard the whole "shantytown" phrase one more time I would scream. That being said, we will definitely get a copy for the collection.

Two teenagers, a Vaseline-greased watermelon, and a Xerox machine: all these things unite to create the story of a summer-long pursuit of art and belonging that spirals out of control.

Now is Not the Time to Panic is a novel by Kevin Wilson that takes place in the summer of 1996 in Coalfield, Tennessee. Two teenagers—Frankie, a loner and writer, and Zeke, an artist with a dark side—are drawn together by an itch for companionship. The teenagers decide to collaborate on a poster that will be hung up all around the town, featuring Frankie’s writing and Zeke’s artwork. The phrase featured on the poster, “The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us,” becomes a mantra for Frankie and Zeke, consuming both of their psyches to the point of obsession. The teenagers, caught up in their desire to create anonymous and impactful artwork, learn the consequences of what happens when something you create is swept up out of your control when the entire town, oblivious to Frankie and Zeke’s involvement, becomes hysterical over the suddenly-materialized posters.

Now is Not the Time to Panic is Kevin Wilson’s fourth novel, and his second novel to take place in Tennessee. Looking at Wilson’s previous work, it’s worth noting that all his novels feature a female narrator or protagonist, and Now is Not the Time to Panic is no different, with Frankie acting as narrator.

This novel is an entertaining and quick read; it’s easy to fall into the world that Frankie presents, and one can’t help but feel sympathetic towards her goals as a writer.

However, the story lacks believability. The entire plot consists of one unlikely event after another, with a sitcom cast of characters that all seem to check an archetype box: the well-meaning but clueless mom, the teenage-dirtbag brothers, the dark and mysterious love interest, and the “not-like-other-girls” girl. None of these characters feel real, and it’s impossible to buy into the conflict when you expect a laugh track to sound off.

There’s a disappointing lack of suspense in this novel. Moments of escalation in the story are told without any gravitas, making it feel as if the reader is bouncing from one plot point to the next. The reader is left waiting for something to happen that will monumentally impact the tone and pacing of the novel, making it difficult to tell when the climax of the story occurs.

Frankie’s character is shockingly unlikeable: despite her direct involvement in the events that unfold that summer, Frankie is emotionally void of any consequences for her actions towards others, claiming, “I didn’t care if I was a bad person anymore.”

Frankie shows that her focus is on her own self-fulfillment and glorification—when things get hairy, and Zeke wants to back out and move away from Coalfield, Frankie threatens to expose them as the authors of the poster to coerce Zeke into staying with her. At another point, Zeke, who struggles with his own emotions, declares “I wish I was dead.” In response, Frankie threatens to kill herself if Zeke dies, asking, “You think your life is worse than mine?” Frankie doesn’t care about Zeke’s well-being or his concerns about their futures. Instead, Frankie displays a deranged obsession with the poster and “the phrase,” which is never scrutinized by the adult version of Frankie as the narrator. In fact, her obsession is held on a pedestal and is maintained into adulthood.

Speaking of the “the phrase,” the novel relies on it far too much, repeating it countless times to string the reader along till the end of the novel, keeping us tethered in case we float off. The story behind “the phrase,” as revealed in Wilson’s introduction to the novel, is that a dear friend of Wilson’s made it up in undergrad, and it became “hardwired” into his brain. Because of Wilson’s sentiment towards this phrase, its role in the novel feels forced—as the “heart of the book,” the entire story was crafted around this phrase, making the plot and characters seem like devices for the phrase, not the other way around.

I remember the days when the “young adult novel” reigned supreme—zingy, sexy, but ultimately shallow, relegated to the shelves of my middle school library. Now is Not the Time to Panic, despite its own insistence that it’s saying something profound, is actually a few YA novels stacked in a trench coat, attempting to sneak onto a college reading list. If you want to be entertained with a story about friendship, art, and memory—as promised by Wilson—I suggest you look elsewhere.

This was a strange one to me. I am still processing how I felt about it. I liked the premise of two outsiders who felt like they made something happen but the whole story was a bit slow moving for me. I felt like there wasn't anything that really kept me engaged. I can see how some would love it but I just don't think that this one was for me.

Another top read in the books for me, I absolutely loved it. The audio is also fantastic, just as an FYI. Wilson has a way of drawing you in with a great story and then endearing you to the characters, Frankie and Zeke were wonderful, I loved their trajectory and growth throughout the story. This plot was so creative and while it was a bit unbelievable but I could totally see it happening at the same time. This book has stuck with me long after I’ve read it, and Wilson is a top author for me at this point, I just love his work.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for the digital copy to review. This one needs to be on your radar for sure, and do not miss the author’s note at the end.

I really liked the story line and the characters. The book wasn't as quirky as I have come to expect from Wilson and it moved a little slower than I would normally like. However, I was totally invested in it and enjoyed reading it and Wilson holds the honor of being one of my favorite authors.