Book Review: Now Is Not the Time to Panic

Now Is Not the Time to Panic is a coming-of-age book written by New York Times bestselling author Kevin Wilson. Its story follows Frankie Budge, a teenager living in a remote Tennessee town of Coalfield.  After meeting and quickly becoming friends with a new boy who moved to town called Zeke, the pair quickly set forth on a creative endeavour.  With Frankie’s writing skills and Zeke’s artistic skills, the pair set forth to pin up a ton of posters all over town with their own unique art.  While the intent behind the idea comes from a place of sincerity, Frankie and Zeke soon learn their artistic message has far reaching consequences they couldn’t foresee.  As the messaging and posters begin to lead to mass hysteria and even fatal shootings, the pair must face the weight their words have in the present and far into the future. 

I say this with no level of hyperbole; this is the most shallow and pretentious book I’ve read in my life.  From start to finish, this narrative projects an obnoxious sense of self-importance in its sequences and characters that genuinely got on my nerves. Frankie and Zeke’s supposed loving relationship is so artificial and mundane, there’s no sense of relatability to these people or their love for one another because they act far outside the typical behaviour of a pair of teenagers.  So, the fact you have to experience the course of the book story through the lens of these two tedious people is not at all appreciated.  The actual story in itself is so ridiculous too, it tries to present itself as this deep, thought-provoking trek through the unpredictable impact our creative aspirations can have but it never rightfully deserves the morale high ground it claims to stand on.  It’s a truly aggravating story because of how clueless it is in how it hollow it actually comes across. 

Tonally it’s such an overly safe product too, there’s no tension or actual stake behind their relationship or the impact of their actions.  These characters are written with such self-aware dialogue yet they never talk about anything remotely insightful despite being framed in such a way.  In terms of pacing, the book moves so quickly which is both a blessing and a curse when you think about it.  None of the sequences are ever truly expanded on to give you much time to get any sense of immersion.  The positive of the quick pacing though is you don’t have to suffer this mundane story for too long, as it’s a thankfully short book.

Now Is Not the Time to Panic is probably one of the worst books I’ve read in recent memory. I can forgive a bad book that attempts to be good, but I cannot forgive a bad book that doesn’t even try.  There’s no sense of effort from this book or it’s author to deliver anything remotely engaging.  It’s a book that has somehow convinces itself that it’s deep and insightful when in actual fact, it’s just a shallow and ultimately boring book to read through.