Do Not Become Alarmed

By: Maile Meloy

Narrated by: Maile Meloy

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

From a beloved award-winning writer, the much-anticipated novel about what happens when two families go on a tropical vacation - and the children go missing.

When Liv and Nora decide to take their families on a holiday cruise, everyone is thrilled. The ship's comforts and possibilities seem infinite. The children - two 11-year-olds, an eight-year-old, and a six-year-old - love the nonstop buffet and the independence they have at the Kids' Club. But when they all go ashore in beautiful Central America, a series of minor misfortunes leads the families farther and farther from the ship's safety. One minute the children are there, and the next they're gone.

What follows is a riveting, revealing story told from the perspectives of the adults and the children, as the once-happy parents - now turning on one another and blaming themselves - try to recover their children and their lives.

Celebrated for her ability to write vivid, spare, moving fiction, Maile Meloy shows how quickly the life we count on can fall away and how a crisis changes everyone's priorities. The fast-paced, gripping plot of Do Not Become Alarmed carries with it an insightful, provocative examination of privilege, race, guilt, envy, the dilemmas of modern parenthood, and the challenge of living up to our own expectations.

©2017 Maile Meloy (P)2017 Penguin Audio

I should have known

The story was ok, but an author should never read their own story: it never goes well.

6 people found this helpful

Good book

I didn't care for the narrator, she didn't do well with different voices. Honestly, I almost didn't finish after the first few chapters. However, I was already interested and wanted to know what happened, so I endured. I'm glad I did, as I enjoyed the story. Some areas were a short on detail (for me) and in others too much, but overall it was good. I would have enjoyed it more had I read it rather than listened to the audible version.

6 people found this helpful

Wanted to Love This

But I just didn't. I heard a review for the book on NPR and it sounded compelling. I actually really like the concept of the story. I also enjoy the story telling device of alternating narrators every chapter. But there was much I didn't enjoy. A variety of characters were introduced for absolutely no reason. Some prominent characters stayed woefully underdeveloped. The last third of the book was forcefully contrived. And yes, the narration was really awful. I feel terrible saying so because it came across as an earnest effort, but this author should really stick to writing and hire a professional for her audiobooks. The author had some great ideas and some of this book is beautifully written, but ultimately it fell annoyingly flat.

7 people found this helpful

Better to read the book

The story was really good but the narration is awful. Its narrated by the author, authors should stick to writing and find a great narrator to tell the story.

The bad narration really made it hard to stick with this book and really over shadowed the overall story telling.

14 people found this helpful

Don't waste your time!

Would you ever listen to anything by Maile Meloy again?

No!

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

This is the worst book I've ever listened too. The characters were not credible, the story line was weak. There were moments when it was so bad, that I heard myself groaning from pain.

6 people found this helpful

Holds nothing back.

This novel goes every single place you are afraid it will go and more. Brava!

2 people found this helpful

Read the book, don't listen

interesting story line, ok characters - no real development but moments of personal truth. but the narrator- not good! nasally and whiny and same terrible South American accents! the narrator is the author and that was a mistake. for so much of the book being spoken from Spanish speaking characters you would think they could get someone who could do an accent properly. the author's accent is almost racist, just slurry English. shame.

7 people found this helpful

gripping story

I loved the story but feel it would have been better with a professional narrator.

1 person found this helpful

Did Not Want To Finish Reading

There are certain aspects of this book that made me sick. Finished for book club.

1 person found this helpful

Kept my interest

Did not realize the author was the reader. She did a good job with the Spanish pronunciations and the accents of Spanish speakers speaking English.

1 person found this helpful