Do Not Become Alarmed

April 3, 2017
A tropical vacation goes awry in Meloy’s (Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It) ominous, addictive novel. When hardworking, ultraprivileged cousins Liv and Nora decide to whisk their families away on a whirlwind two-week luxury cruise down the coast of Mexico and Central America after Nora’s mother dies, it seems like a win-win situation. Soothing sunshine; a friendly, attractive Argentinian couple with children around the same age as Nora’s and Liv’s; endless readymade shrimp cocktail. But when the groups separate for off-the-ship outings—the men for an impromptu golf excursion and the women and six kids for a zip line tour led by a local guide—and the children suddenly disappear, a stress-free trip away turns into an unexpected nightmare. The parents turn into helpless basket cases, while the kids—as they stumble onto a freshly dug grave, get kidnapped by a pair of drug-dealing brothers, hold on for dear life during a high-speed car chase, and get separated while on a freight train headed toward Nicaragua—grow ever more fearful when faced with life-threatening danger. 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 and the adults’ shoddy attempts to cope veer into soap opera territory, the story is nonetheless engrossing for all its nerve-racking twists and turns.

Starred review from February 15, 2017
Three families on a cruise are separated from their children during a shore excursion in Central America."On the walk to the buffet, Nora linked her arm through Liv's and put her head on her shoulder, making Liv feel excessively tall. 'I love you, ' Nora said. 'This was a genius idea.' "But the fun part of this cruise is almost over for these cousins from Southern California. After cautiously staying aboard in Acapulco for fear of "beheadings and food-borne pathogens," at the next port the husbands are invited to golf by a new Argentinian friend, while Nora, Liv, and their brood of young children sign up for a zip-line tour of the rain forest. The Argentine's wife and her teenagers decide to join them. When the van breaks down on the way, the guide suggests an impromptu swim at a nearby beach, and soon after, all six kids disappear. The remainder of the book follows the children and the adults separately, also bringing in a seventh child, an impoverished South American 10-year-old making her way north to New York with her uncle. The plot unfolds with terrifying realism, made even more potent by Meloy's (The After-Room, 2015, etc.) sharp and economical character development. Every one of nearly 20 important characters is clearly distinguished by some memorable trait--among the kids, a Type 1 diabetic and his big boss-lady sister, a spectrum-y genius and a bunny-loving 6-year-old; among the adults, a mega-hot black Hollywood movie star and a neurotic, high-strung white studio exec--yet achieves three-dimensionality. Even the Latin American characters, who could easily become stereotypes (the tour guide, the drug lord, the maid, etc.), are more than that. 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.

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Starred review from May 1, 2017
Meloy returns to adult fiction after her best-selling Apothecary series for kids, bringing her fluency in young characters to this propulsive drama about two movie-business-wealthy Los Angeles families on a Central American cruise. Producer Liv and her engineer husband, Benjamin, have an assertive 11-year-old daughter and a diabetic 8-year-old son. Liv's cousin Nora and Nora's husband, actor Raymond, the only African American adult in the group, have a smart 11-year-old son and an unflappable 6-year-old daughter. All is blissfully luxurious onboard, but when they go ashore, along with a couple from Argentina with two attractive teenagers, everything goes catastrophically wrong. As the six privileged children disappear in the pitiless jungle, Meloy splits the novel between their horrifying experiences and their frantic parents' harrowing struggles with the authorities. The Americans' nightmare involves a violent drug dealer and tragically impacts a young Ecuadoran girl's already perilous illegal journey to the States. Infusing literary fiction with criminality and terror in a mode similar to that of Ann Patchett and Hannah Tinti, Meloy compounds the suspense in this gripping and incisive tale by orchestrating a profoundly wrenching shift in perspective, and morality, as well-meaning tourists face the dark realities of a complex place they viewed merely as a playground. Meloy's commanding, heart-revving, and thought-provoking novel has enormous power and appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2017

A vacation cruise turns nightmarish when children from two families disappear after the ship stops at a Central American port. What follows is a story not just of guilt, blame, and the desperate struggle to retrieve the children but of race, privilege, and parenthood. From Aga Khan and PEN/Malamud Award winner Meloy.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017

Cousins Liv and Nora are thrilled that their brilliant plan for their families to take a Central American cruise together is unfolding so beautifully. Liv's children, ages eight and 11, get along famously with Nora's two kids, ages 11 and six. Once all four are happily ensconced in the onboard Kids' Club, the parents kick back and enjoy the food, the wine, the sun, their handsome families all spruced up for Christmas dinner. Then they decide to split up for a fateful shore excursion. The husbands go golfing, while the wives and the children join an Argentine woman and her family for a day of zip-lining. One mishap after another brings the tourists to a deserted beach, where tragedy strikes and all the children disappear. What ensues is a taut, gripping thriller as the parents desperately try to find their offspring. VERDICT Meloy's (Liars and Saints; A Family Daughter) third novel speeds along through its first two-thirds, then falters. Similarly, the astute character development and social commentary just fades away into disappointing blandness. It's an unfortunate ending to an otherwise entertaining examination of privileged, modern families. [See Prepub Alert, 1/4/17; library promotion.]--Christine Perkins, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Syst., Bellingham, WA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.