Do Not Become Alarmed (Meloy) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[A]n earnest and surprisingly generic children-in-jeopardy novel, one that makes few demands on us and doesn’t deliver much, either…[although] Meloy pokes around in some profound subject matter.… Meloy’s portrait of well-meaning but still ugly Americans resonates.… Near the end of this novel, one of the luckier parents thinks: "He and his family had escaped, leaving chaos behind them. It was the American way." 
Dwight Garner - New York Times


[I]t should be a literary event, a big summer book.… [I]t has a strong premise…; it addresses big topics…. Its writing is uniformly excellent. So what happened?… [D]espite these moments, the book is essentially a write-off. To begin with, it’s a thriller without thrills.... Again and again, Do Not Become Alarmed trots out a vague sense of social responsibility, while focusing emotionally on a handful of nervous Americans.
Charles Finch - Washington Post


This is one of those can’t-stop-turning-the-pages novels, which quickly reveals itself to be something more than a page-turner… [Meloy] writes with breathless tension yet lets her characters breathe; you believe these children and their desperate parents, and find yourself utterly entrenched in their fate.
Seattle Times


A taut, nervy thriller.… Meloy has a keenly intuitive ear for family dynamics, first-world privilege, and all the ways that human nature can adapt to the unthinkable.
Entertainment Weekly


A marital reboot becomes a zip line to disaster in Maile Meloy’s holiday cruise-set thriller Do Not Become Alarmed, in which the children’s moral complexity outstrips that of their parents.
Vogue


Nothing pairs better with summer than a suspense that will keep you guessing (especially when it involves a cruise ship). The pulse-inducing unputdownable tale about the disappearance of four children on a family cruise, Do Not Become Alarmed is a powerful suspense that will leave readers asking themselves if family truly keeps us safe.
Redbook


In crafting this high-stakes page-turner, Meloy excels as a master of suspense. Though some of the circumstances seem piled on for the sake of melodrama…, the story is nonetheless engrossing for all its nerve-racking twists and turns.
Publishers Weekly


A taut, gripping thriller…[an] entertaining examination of privileged, modern families.
Library Journal


[A] propulsive drama…infusing literary fiction with criminality and terror.…Meloy compounds the suspense in this gripping and incisive tale by orchestrating a profoundly wrenching shift in perspective…. Meloy’s commanding, heart-revving, and thought-provoking novel has enormous power and appeal.
Booklist


(Starred review.) The plot unfolds with terrifying realism.… This writer can apparently do it all—New Yorker stories, children's books, award-winning literary novels, and now, a tautly plotted and culturally savvy emotional thriller. Do not start this book after dinner or you will almost certainly be up all night.
Kirkus Reviews