Now Is Not the Time to Panic

Kevin Wilson's previous book, Nothing to See Here, is one of my favorite books in recent years. This latest book doesn't quite get into that category for me, but it does cement Wilson as an author for which I will read basically anything he puts out at this point.

Now Is Not The Time To Panic is a great little book about things like obsession and art and relevance and meaning. The story follows a familiar trope in the vein of something like Stand By Me as it is about fleeting events of a summer that profoundly affect the rest of the lives of a few teenagers, but as with other Kevin Wilson books I've read, everything is a bit heightened and strange, while still occuring in a grounded reality. I just really dig his style.

I listened to this via a library audiobook narrated by Ginnifer Goodwin, who captured the tone perfectly and injected a great energy into the story. The author himself also narrates a section that comes after the book and talks about his writing process here, including the origin of the book's repeated mantra, which is an interesting and touching story on its own.