The moving and suspenseful new novel that Ann Patchett calls “smart and thrilling and impossible to put down… the book that every reader longs for.”“This summer’s undoubtable smash hit… an addictive, heart-palpitating story.” —Marie ClaireThe sun is shining, the sea is blue, the children have disappeared. When Liv and Nora decide to take their husbands and children on a holiday cruise, everyone … take their husbands and children on a holiday cruise, everyone is thrilled. The adults are lulled by the ship’s comfort and ease. The four children—ages six to eleven—love the nonstop buffet and their newfound independence. But when they all go ashore for an adventure in Central America, a series of minor misfortunes and miscalculations leads the families farther from the safety of the ship. One minute the children are there, and the next they’re gone.
The disintegration of the world the families knew—told from the perspectives of both the adults and the children—is both riveting and revealing. The parents, accustomed to security and control, turn on each other and blame themselves, while the seemingly helpless children discover resources they never knew they possessed.
Do Not Become Alarmed is a story about the protective force of innocence and the limits of parental power, and an insightful look at privileged illusions of safety. Celebrated for her spare and moving fiction, Maile Meloy has written a gripping novel about how quickly what we count on can fall away, and the way a crisis shifts our perceptions of what matters most.
more
This was a fast-paced read about parents whose children go missing during an excursion on a cruise somewhere in Central America (I don’t think they ever name the country). Nothing particularly ground-breaking about the plot, but it was definitely a page-turner and I liked its reflection on the privilege of being an American abroad and the relative value we place on people’s lives based on where they’re born and the color of their skin.
Very good
I loved the realism of it – the believability that we could read this playing out on a friend’s FB post. Thoroughly engrossing!
Predictable story about children disappear from a cruise ship in an unnamed South American country.
It held my interest from start to finish; inattentive parents who allowed the whole tragedy to occur were impossible to sympathize with but the children made up for this is spades and are who drove the story forward with intelligence.
It reads like a teen book. Some of the content doesn’t seem appropriate for younger teens though.
None of the above, do not recomend this book
A good beach read but strong subject matter in parts, Several threads of the story not really resolved. Raises interesting issues on parenting styles.
Very refreshing & suspenseful.
Couldn’t put it down! A great thriller!
This book was marketed as a psychological thriller, but it’s really more of an action/adventure thriller. Psychological thrillers make you wonder about the characters, but there was no mystery here and there’s never any confusion as to who the bad guys are. Still, once the kids go missing the story is so compelling I found the book hard to put down. It’s well-written, good entertainment that doesn’t insult the intelligence.
Hated it. Great story, but TERRIBLY written. Like a first grade primer. Just too bad to continue; I didn’t finish it, someone told me the rest of the story.
I liked this book well enough when I was reading it – mostly because the premise about losing your kids on vacation – or ever – is so heinously fascinating. The kids’ characters were better developed than the adults, I thought. It was a nice entertaining read for end of the night before bed or during the kids’ many practices.
1/2 stars
Do not become alarmed is the first book that I have experienced by Maile Meloy and as a whole, I found it ok.
It wasn’t awful and I did finish it but it failed to grab, falling a bit flat for me, I found myself emotionally uninvested in the characters, in fact, I actually down-right disliked some of them.
So overall this really made it pretty hard for me to connect with the story.
I am actually rather disappointed with this one considering how much I was looking forward to it as the description is what initially pulled me into this, it made “Do Not Be Alarmed” sound so much more than what it is.
First things first this review is going to be a bit spoilery, so fair warning. look away now folks, you have been advised.
and also a trigger warning, (view spoiler) in this tale so avoid if this is an issue for you, it’s not graphic but it’s there all the same.
So the general premise is that Nora and Liv (who are cousins) and there hubby’s, along with their four kids take a cruise and during a ship excursion they go missing along with a couple kids they have met on the holiday.
The story then flits from parents to children, so you really get to see this incident, which is every parent’s worst nightmare, from both sides.
So what worked for me with this, Well the whole scenario is really imaginative and as I said earlier the synopsis itself is a real puller.
You get to see the vast contrast between the lives of our families and the poverty surrounding them while lost in Central America, it’s such an eye-opener in that respect.
Also, some of the inner monologues are fairly amusing, there was one in particular that made me smile when Nora is thinking of Penny.
“Nora recognised this for the humble brag it was and thought she had never known a more slappable child.”
We have all known a child that just rubs us up the wrong way while in their parent’s eyes there such little angels.
actually, I found Penny a right little know it all madam as well so completely got you, Nora.
We get to see everything collapse inwards and disintegrate with all the players then seeming to turn on each other.
It’s a complete car crash as the two once close families fall apart at the seams each blaming the other for this disaster.
Now for the negatives, the characters themselves were an unlikable bunch which made it hard for me to find that initial connection with them, this, in turn, makes it, oh so hard to empathise with their current situation.
Yeah, I felt for them but with a very disconnected vibe.
I also found the kid’s reactions odd,
I’m a mum of five and I know if this sort of thing happened to any of mine they would be totally freaking out I mean major meltdowns and my kids are not drama queens at all, in fact, I would imagine most children would be like this.
The kids in this were so calm and collected it was unreal and a bit scary.
(view spoiler)
I also didn’t understand the relevance of Neomi and her uncle it felt like they were just included to show the contrast of wealth and poverty between our characters. overall I found them a pretty pointless addition to this book.
One final gripe was Poor Gunter I really thought at some point during this story we would have revisited him properly, not just assumed his fate he really got a crappy deal in all this.
And I know I said final but I’ve just thought of one more. the ending I didn’t like it at all it seemed so unconnected and abrupt.
Anyway that’s all folks.
So my overall verdict was that I found this was an alright read, It kept me amused for a few hours, but it just didn’t quite do it for me.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK and The author for supplying me with an advanced reader copy of “Do Not Become Alarmed” this is my own honest unbiased opinion.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9460945-bex-beckie-bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
http://www.beckiebookworm.com
As a mom, this book chilled me to my core. The story is about more than abducted children, though, and the rich telling of the couples left to find their children in a foreign country was extremely well done. I loved the complexity of the issues this book brought up, and the author did a fantastic job of crafting a realistic story with an appropriate ending.
Two families of four decide to celebrate the holidays and take a cruise for Christmas. During the cruise they meet another family of four and decide that after spending so much time on the safety of the ship they would take an excursion. The three men go to play golf and the three women and six children take a cruise arranged excursion to go zip-lining. This is where the leisurely safe cruise turns into a nightmare for three sets of parents and six children who go missing on the way to the excursion. The story is divided into parents and children chapters telling what happens to them each day after the children go missing in Central America. You will be drawn into the lives of the children who no longer feel safe and the parents who no longer feel they kept their children safe. There is a separate storyline of a little girl leaving her grandmother and traveling with her uncle to meet her parents in New York which brings hints of possible child selling into the storyline. This is a page-turner which weaves seamlessly from fear, loss of innocence and the inability to choose the right decision when lives matters.