Maile Meloy is the author of the novels Liars and Saints and A Family Daughter, the short-story collections Half in Love and Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It (named one of the 10 Best Books of 2009 by The New York Times Book Review), and a bestselling middle-grade trilogy. Her fiction has won the Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the PEN/Malamud Award, and the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Meloy was shortlisted for the UK's Orange Prize and chosen as one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists.
"A very smart work of literary fiction... Meloy is such a deft
writer that she keeps the adventure plot whizzing along even as she
deepens our sense of the characters and the unfamiliar culture they
have to navigate." --Fresh Air, NPR "Meloy is a subtle and
sophisticated writer...Meloy pokes around in some profound subject
matter...[her] portrait of well-meaning but still ugly Americans
resonates." --New York Times "[Do Not Become Alarmed has]
characters that are fully rendered and original, and writing that
is beautifully spare and understated...while feeding us high
drama." --Los Angeles Review of Books "[Meloy delivers] a wild,
propulsive plot with tight prose and a constant current of
suspense. It's a thrilling novel, well constructed and hard to put
down, a sharp reminder that the tide can take us anywhere, even
when the water looks fine." --Los Angeles Times "[For summer
reading] I'll want a book that's thrilling and artful, a true
page-turner that will leave me feeling smart, so I'll read Maile
Meloy's Do Not Become Alarmed." --Ann Patchett in The Washington
Post "Meloy reels you into the story with her cool and fluid
prose." --The Christian Science Monitor "Our advice: Don't read
Maile Meloy's new adrenaline-driven thriller of class, race, and
disappeared children after dark... Do Not Become Alarmed will keep
you up all night, compelled by the book's twisty plot and
seductive, tightly wound suspense." --Elle "This summer's
undoubtable smash hit... an addictive, heart-palpitating story."
--Marie Claire "If there is one must-read book this summer, this is
it." --Real Simple "Seen on pool loungers and beach towels from
Nantucket to Santa Monica since the hardcover's debut in June, this
thriller has become the page-turner of summer 2017." --Forbes
"Enthralling and terrifying." --Town & Country "Fast-paced [and]
engrossing." --People Magazine "A heart-racing tale." --O, The
Oprah Magazine "Stressful and yet still sexy, complete with
jaw-droppingly beautiful imagery." -Glamour "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 "Seen on pool
loungers and beach towels since June, this thriller has become the
page-turner of summer 2017." -Forbes "Meloy, whose short stories
were the basis of last year's indie film Certain Women, writes a
tense book in her signature sparing prose, and may have the book of
the summer on her hands." --Conde Nast Traveler "The tension will
keep your heart racing with every page, as you become increasingly
invested in the uncertain fate of each narrator." --InStyle "Glides
along with a clarity that's almost uncanny... readers of Do Not
Become Alarmed get Meloy's warmth and her even-tempered, protean
imagination. Her view of human nature is almost Olympian in its
refusal to take sides, in the consideration it affords to
characters who would be mere bit players in a more conventional
work. This novel is a bait and switch in the best possible sense.
It promises readers easy-to-identify-with protagonists in a pair of
mothers going through a parent's worst nightmare. Then it presents
them with so much more, a richer, broader palette of people to
believe in and to understand." --Slate "[A] smart, suspenseful
page-turner." --W Magazine "'Page-turner' would be an
understatement." --Travel & Leisure "This book is smarter than your
average thriller." --Fodor's "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
"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 "An original, expansive story that is memorable and
vibrant...Throughout all of this propulsive action, Meloy's ability
to write about children and teenagers shines on the page. Their
authentic dialogue and observations produce illuminated pockets of
insights and innocence amid the escalating chaos." --San Francisco
Chronicle
"[An] intelligent thriller [with] a dramatic high-stakes plot."
--Newsday "[A] fast-paced thriller." --Houston Chronicle "A
suspenseful mystery." --The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Ambitious...the deft plotting of this literary thriller unfolds
like a journey through a maze in the dark." -Portland Press Herald
"It features taut prose and timely explorations of privilege, race,
and parenthood." --San Diego Magazine "Riveting...Meloy's
well-crafted, suspenseful tale...is amplified by issues of class
and race." -Tampa Bay Times "Rapid and absorbing." -Harvard
Magazine "[A] well-written, suspenseful story... that makes for an
irresistible summer read." --Deseret News "In Do Not Become
Alarmed, Meloy has harnessed [her] gift for writing from diverse
perspectives tenderly and intimately... this novel is a moral
reckoning for our time, our culture, and our Cali-king-sized
American dream." --Southeast Review "Do Not Become Alarmed is not
only ripe with tension, it's also a terrific character study."
--Myrtle Beach Online
"[A] relentless new thriller...[Meloy has a] talent for crafting
high-tension fiction that compels readers to turn the page."
--Paste Magazine "This is a book you won't be able to resist
finishing in one sitting." --Bustle "Thrillers are having a moment
right now, and Do Not Become Alarmed is at the top of our list...
We didn't know it was possible to be so moved and feel such intense
suspense at the same time." --HelloGiggles "For thriller fans, the
novel by Maile Meloy is the perfect summer pick...so realistic and
gripping." --Catapult "[A] tale that will have you reading all
night long...Meloy ratchets up the suspense until you'll beg her to
tell you what happens. She does, at the end of the book. Don't skip
ahead. You'll be sorry if you do." -20somethingreads "A highly
anticipated new book...Though it's a thriller, it also addresses
race, privilege, the uncertainty modern parents feel in raising the
'perfect' child, and what it matters most in life." -NerdHQ "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, starred review
"Ominous, addictive... In crafting this high-stakes page-turner,
Meloy excels as a master of suspense." --Publishers Weekly
"It's Meloy's razor-sharp execution that makes the book
unforgettable. Spellbinding, terrifying and keenly observed, this
one checks all our boxes for a can't-put-it-down, addictive read."
-BookPage "A taut, gripping thriller...[an] entertaining
examination of privileged, modern families." --Library Journal "[A]
propulsive drama...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." --Booklist, starred review "Meloy's writing is
literary but also page-turnery (my highest compliment), and Do Not
Become Alarmed, about a vacation gone awry, promises to be both."
-Parnassus Musing "Gripping...[Do Not Become Alarmed] is one of
those books that you will stay up late to read." -Emma Straub,
author of Modern Lovers and The Vacationers on PBS NewsHour
"This is the book that every reader longs for: smart and thrilling
and impossible to put down. Read it once at breakneck speed to find
out what happens next, and then read it slowly to marvel at the
perfect prose and the masterwork of a plot. It is an alarmingly
good novel." --Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth, State of
Wonder, and Bel Canto "Here is that perfect combination of a
luminous writer and a big, page-turning story. This hugely
suspenseful novel will speak to anyone who has ever felt
responsible for keeping a loved one safe, whether it was a child, a
partner, a parent, or a friend. Meloy's characters--the adults and
the children--feel to me like real, living people I'll never
forget." --Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones's Diary
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