Do Not Become Alarmed: A Novel

“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 .”xa0—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.”xa0— 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]xa0talent 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.”xa0— Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Ominous, addictive…xa0In 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.”xa0— 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.”xa0— 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 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. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 7. The kids were engrossed in a complicated game with the three inner tubes, making a kind of raft that they could stand on. It required a great deal of concentration. Hector was the master of the game, and he kept everyone involved. He didn’t leave Sebastian and June out, or cut them any slack just because they were little. Penny admired that in him. xa0 He tossed his wet hair off his face. If Hector had been in a band, Penny’s friends would have fainted over him. And he could be in a band. He played guitar that well. xa0 He was good at building a structure, too, like her father was. He gave directions, saying, “Hold there. Now, Penny, you sit there. Okay, now you can stand up there. Now Penny, too.” He kept the whole three-ring raft stable. She loved hearing him say her name. His stomach was tan and slick above his pink-and-green checked shorts. xa0 Every few minutes, someone would slip or step in the wrong place and everyone would go crashing into the water, screaming with delight, the inner tubes flying. Hector would make sure everyone was safe and afloat, and then they would start rebuilding. xa0 They were so focused that they didn’t notice when the tide changed. It must have paused when they were first in the water. Then it reversed, and began to flow inland. No one noticed that the water from the sea was pushing them upstream, slowly at first, and then with surprising force. xa0 When they finally looked up, waterlogged, each with an arm slung over a tube and legs treading the silty water, they were in a different place. There was no beach. There were no mothers on towels. The river was starting to narrow. It was overhung with trees. xa0 Penny squinted against the sun. She was hanging on to an inner tube with Isabel, and had one arm over the smaller tube June and Sebastian were on. Her fingertips were pruned. She felt her little brother’s arm slide against hers. Hector and Marcus were on the third tube. Birds sang, and insects buzzed in the trees, but there were no human sounds. xa0 “What do we do?” she asked. xa0 They all looked to Hector, their leader. He frowned. Then he said, “We hold on and kick back.” He rolled his long body over and started to kick. xa0 They tried, all six of them, to propel themselves back toward the beach. But it was pointless, the tidal current was too strong. The little ones spluttered, water in their faces. xa0 “Stop!” Hector commanded. xa0 The song of insects and birds returned. On they floated, with the muscle of the river. xa0 “Will they come find us?” Sebastian asked, in a small voice. xa0 “Of course they will,” Penny said. And really, what was keeping them? The jungle on the bank looked impenetrable, but their mothers would find a way. xa0 “Should we shout?” Marcus asked. xa0 Together they cried, “Mom,” “Mommy,” “Mami,” in one shrill, beseeching voice. Then they stopped, as if with the swipe of a conductor’s wand, and waited in the silence. There was no response. The river swirled around them. xa0 “I have to pee,” June said. xa0 “Just go in the water,” her brother said. xa0 “I can’t.” xa0 “Why not?” xa0 “I just can’t. What about those fish that swim up the pee, inside you?” xa0 “That’s in the Amazon,” Marcus said. xa0 “Why couldn’t they be here?” June asked. xa0 “Because the Amazon doesn’t connect to here,” he said. xa0 Penny already had peed, and hoped those fish really weren’t in the water. On the left bank, there was a tiny sloping place. They all kicked to it and clambered out. xa0 It felt good to be on solid ground. As soon as they stood up, it seemed clear that they should wait here, rather than traveling ever farther away from their mothers. It had been smart to get out. xa0 Penny helped June find a place to peel down her wet bathing suit, behind a tree. The trees were like something out of fairy tales: thick, twisted, hung with vines. June peed into the damp ground, looking up. xa0 “Are you scared, Penny?” she asked. xa0 “No,” Penny lied. xa0 “Because they’re going to find us?” “Yes,” Penny said. She helped June pull up her swimsuit straps and felt very grown-up. Isabel might be the oldest girl, but Penny was the one June knew and trusted. Her mother had told her to keep an eye on Sebastian and she had, but she hadn’t known this would happen. xa0 “I’m hungry,” June said. xa0 “We can go back to the buffet on the ship,” Penny said. “When they find us.” xa0 They rejoined the group, and Hector announced, “I’m going to swim back.” xa0 “You can’t swim against the river,” Marcus said. xa0 “I can,” he said. “If I stay to the sides. Where the water goes the other direction.” xa0 Penny had been whitewater rafting with her grandparents. “You mean in the eddies,” she said. xa0 Isabel said something protesting. xa0 “I’ll come back for you,” Hector said. He waded out, lowered his body in near the bank, and started swimming. He was very strong. His arms slashed through the water. They watched in silence as he disappeared around a bend. Then they were alone. “We should be on the other side of the river,” Marcus said. xa0 “We can’t get up that bank,” Penny said. xa0 They studied the other side of the river and the steep mud bank. And then the bank moved. At least it seemed to move. There were tangled roots, and a section of the mottled mud was sliding. xa0 “Oh!” Penny said. xa0 Isabel said something under her breath. xa0 It was not mud sliding, but an enormous crocodile, sunning itself on the bank. It had moved its big sinister head, split by a row of teeth, but now it settled again, motionless.Isabel put a hand over her mouth.“Hector will be okay,” Marcus said.Sebastian and June weren’t paying attention. They had started making a small mud castle in the soft ground. No one said anything more to alarm them. Penny imagined her mother picking her way through the trees on the opposite bank and coming across that monster. They had to get back before that happened. But there was no reason crocodiles wouldn’t be on this side of the river, too. Penny stepped backward. She wanted to get away from the water, away from the muddy banks. xa0Isabel put a hand over her mouth. xa0 “Hector will be okay,” Marcus said. xa0 Sebastian and June weren’t paying attention. They had started making a small mud castle in the soft ground. No one said anything more to alarm them. Penny imagined her mother picking her way through the trees on the opposite bank and coming across that monster. They had to get back before that happened. But there was no reason crocodiles wouldn’t be on this side of the river, too. Penny stepped backward. She wanted to get away from the water, away from the muddy banks. xa0 In the trees behind them, they heard an engine noise, and turned. xa0 “There’s a road!” Penny said. She started toward it. xa0 “We have to stay here,” Isabel said. “And wait for Hector.” xa0 “We should find the road,” Penny said. xa0 They looked at each other. A battle of wills. Penny had read the phrase in books and knew that this was what it meant. Isabel was older. But Penny was smarter. She could not say in front of the little ones that they might be eaten by a crocodile if they stayed here, but she beamed the argument into Isabel’s eyes. xa0 “I’m hungry,” Sebastian said. xa0 “Me too,” June said. xa0 Penny thought of how her mother would panic when she saw they were gone. Sebastian needed food or his blood sugar would drop, but he also needed insulin or his blood sugar might go too high. And he didn’t have his pump. xa0 Marcus said they should hang the inner tubes on a branch, to show where they had left the river. Isabel clearly wasn’t happy about the plan, but she didn’t want to stay alone, so the five of them set off into the dense forest. The crocodile on the other bank hadn’t moved again. Hector would be fine, Penny told herself. xa0 There was no trail, and it was painful, climbing barefoot over roots and fallen trees. Beneath the undergrowth, things scuttled away. Penny saw ants marching in a column, carrying green pieces of leaves over their heads like sails. She took Sebastian’s hand, a thing he would not usually tolerate. xa0 They stumbled out into a clearing, where a Jeep was parked. Two men sat on the ground drinking bottles of Coke. They stared as if the children were fairies, materialized from the woods. xa0 “Say something Spanish,” Penny whispered to Isabel. xa0 “No,” Isabel whispered back. xa0 “Hola!” Penny called. xa0 The men just stared. There were two shovels on the ground and their clothes were dirty. xa0 “Can I have a Coke?” Sebastian whispered to Penny. xa0 The door of the Jeep opened, and a woman got out. She had strong brown arms, and she wore a beige tank top and cargo pants. Penny thought she looked like the girl action figure that goes with the toy Jeep. The woman asked them a question in too-fast Spanish. xa0 Isabel didn’t answer. xa0 Penny said, “We’re Americans.” That seemed important to say. xa0 “How long you stand here?” the woman asked in English. xa0 “We just got here,” Penny said. “We walked from the river.” xa0 “Why?” xa0 “We were looking for a road.” xa0 “Is no road,” the woman said. xa0 “We heard an engine,” Penny said, looking pointedly at the Jeep. xa0 “Where are your parents?” xa0 “At the big beach, down the river,” Penny said. “We came from the ship, a big cruise ship, but then we had a car accident. We were swimming. Mi hermano es diabético.” She’d been taught that sentence before they left, for emergencies. xa0 Sebastian leaned into her. “Can I have a Coke?” he asked, louder than before. xa0 The woman in the tank top frowned, then reached into the Jeep, brought out a bottle, and twisted off the top. Sebastian ran forward to grab it, then ran back to Penny’s side and drank. She wished her mother were here. If Sebastian was low, the Coke would be good, but if he was high, it could make him feel worse. xa0 “Will you give us a ride?” Penny asked. xa0 They were not supposed to get in cars with strangers, but there were five of them. And they were asking for a ride. That seemed to make it safer. And the driver was a woman. You were supposed to ask a woman for help, if you got in trouble. Preferably a mother, but this was who they had. And maybe she was a mother. Although Penny doubted it. xa0 “Okay,” the woman said, waving toward the Jeep. xa0 Penny and Sebastian got in front together. The Jeep had an open top. Isabel looked toward the river and seemed like she might run, then got in the back seat with Marcus and June. The two men with the shovels crouched in the cargo area behind them. The woman reversed the Jeep. xa0 Penny pulled the seatbelt over Sebastian’s bare chest and buckled it over herself, too. “Are you okay?” she asked him. xa0 “I’m a little sleepy.” xa0 “You should stay awake.” xa0 “Okay.” xa0 His blond hair was limp and damp on his forehead. Penny pushed it off his face. xa0 “I have to poop,” June said, in the back seat. xa0 “Hold it,” her brother said. xa0 Penny looked back and saw June with her hands clamped on the crotch of her blue swimsuit, Marcus looking anxious beside her. xa0 When she looked out the windshield again, they didn’t seem to be going in the right direction. “We’re going back to that beach, right?” Penny asked. xa0 The woman nodded. xa0 “I don’t think this is the right way.” xa0 “We call them,” the woman said. xa0 “But their cell phones don’t work here.” xa0 “We call the ship.” xa0 “But they aren’t at the ship.” xa0 The Jeep was driving down a paved road among trees, just like the one where the tire had blown up. That seemed like a long time ago now. Would her mother have gone back to the ship? xa0 “I really have to poop,” June said. xa0 “Keep holding it,” her brother said. xa0 “I am!” xa0 The Jeep stopped at a place where another road crossed, and the two men hopped out of the back, leaving the shovels. The woman waved to them. Then the Jeep was climbing a mountain, and a few houses appeared on the side of the road. The road wound and twisted and then a man on a tall white horse was riding toward them. The Jeep slowed. Penny thought she might be imagining the horse, it was so white and bright. But then June whispered, “He’s beautiful ,” and Penny knew that the others could see it, too. xa0 The Jeep stopped, and the man on the horse looked down at them. He had dark, frowning eyebrows, and he spoke with the woman in Spanish. It was all too fast to understand. Penny looked to Isabel in the back seat for a translation, but Isabel ducked her chin toward her yellow bikini as if trying not to be seen. xa0 The horse snorted. It had soft nostrils, gray and pink. The man on the horse smiled. His teeth were white and straight. “Welcome,” he said. xa0 “We need insulin,” Penny told him. She felt blinded by embarrassment and confusion, the heat rising to her face. “Insulina. My brother is diabético. Also we need a bathroom.” xa0 “I have to poop!” June said. xa0 “Pues, vámonos,” the man said, turning the horse with the reins, and the Jeep started up the mountain again. Read more