20 Oct Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy #BlogTour #Review

Hey guys, today I have the absolute pleasure to be part of this EPIC blog tour for DO NOT BECOME ALARMED, Maile Meloy’s new book. It’s a HUGE blog tour happening on so many fantastic blogs all through out June and July. Here’s my review and thoughts on the book but make sure you visit the other tour hosts for more awesome content and opinions. If you’re a fan of drama and psichological thrillers, make sure you add it to your TBR pile. Massive thanks to Josie and Penguin for the review copy and the chance to be part of the blog tour. Cheerio sweethearts!

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy
Published byPenguin Random House UK
Published on 6.7.2017
Genres:thriller, psychological thriller
Pages: 347
Format:paperback
Source: Publisher

When Liv and Nora decide to take their husbands and children on a holiday cruise, everyone is thrilled. The ship’s comforts and possibilities seem infinite. But when they all go ashore in beautiful Central America, a series of minor mishaps lead the families further from the ship’s safety.

One minute the children are there, and the next they’re gone.

What follows is a heart-racing story told from the perspectives of the adults and the children, as the distraught parents – now turning on one another and blaming themselves – try to recover their children and their shattered lives.

‘Do Not Become Alarmed’ is one of 2017 books I’ve been most excited about reading. The blurb sounds fantastic and truly intriguing and I did have high expectations. Now that I’ve actually read it, I have to say there were some truly excellent parts and some confusing things about this book.
But first, just a few words about the plot. Two couples go on a cruise together. Liv and Nora are cousins and their families have a great respect for each other. The cousins like each other a lot and have been there for each other in some truly hard times. Their kids get along nicely, and despite even having a celebrity in their family, they are pretty much normal couples. However, one day when they decide to go on a bit of adventure in Central America, something goes terribly wrong. The kids go missing and none of the parents or the guide were there when the bad thing happened.

The interesting thing about this book is that all along you actually know how the kids go missing, but the fascinating thing is how this impacts the parents, especially the mothers who were with them at the beach. This is not the fastest thriller, actually in my opinion the story is actually kind of slow (which was a surprise, as I expected something faster from the blurb). However, again, in my opinion, what makes this book interesting is the whole drama around the missing kids. Seeing the parents start blaming each other and slowly falling apart…that’s what made the book so fascinating.

There were times I wanted to give Liv and Nora a good shake and actually wondered HOW COULD THEY LET ALL OF THIS HAPPEN? What happened is actually something that we see it in the world all the time, sometimes we think the other one is watching and taking care while actually the kid is on their own. Scary yet it happens. I was truly trying not to judge just so I could see characters’ perspectives more clearly, but the book did get me mad sometimes (actually Liv and Nora).

Speaking of the characters, as I said it was really hard not to get mad at the parents, at least for me. But I applaud to the author for making me feel such intense feelings for these characters, despite the fact not all of them were good. Being a parent myself I was truly horrified with what happened. However, the kids were great! I loved how composed they were (most of the times), how smart and ready to survive they were. So, now that I think about it, I enjoyed their interaction and those scenes involving them more than the parents’ and their search.

However, this book does get something really important out there, sort of a message for every parent. At least I got it that way. Every reader will take away from the book what they want or feel, but for me, this book seemed like a small reminder of the role parents play and how serious of a job parenting is. From this point of view, it adds a new, deeper perspective.

While I don’t think there were many twists and I feel it’s more of a drama than thriller, it’s still a gripping read. The thing that bothered me slightly and is the reason why I can’t rate it higher than this, is that there’s another story which should have added more to the plot, however in my opinion it didn’t. Naomi’s story was (for me) not that interesting and in my opinion irrelevant to the missing kids story. It felt like it was burdening the plot cause I tried to remember all these situations and names, and there wasn’t a reason for that.

But overall, I’m pleased I read it and actually read it cover to cover in one day, which obviously means there were tons of stuff that I liked. The writing style is easy which makes the book very readable. If you’re not a fan of hard core, fast paced thrillers, but more of a fan of psychological ones and dramas, this is definitely a book to put on your lists. Especially if you’re looking for a thought provoking one, then you’ve found the right book for you.

About Maile Meloy

Maile Meloy is the author of the story collection Half in Love and the novel Liars and Saints, which was shortlisted for the 2005 Orange Prize. Meloy’s stories have been published in The New Yorker, and she has received The Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Rosenthal Foundation Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in California.