Now Is Not the Time to Panic A Novel

"Wilson has developed a story that is a precise capture of adolescence and of two vibrant teens whose everyday dilemmas, weaknesses, and triumphs are utterly endearing . . . Crisp dialogue and [a] zipping story line." - Booklist (starred review)

"Now Is Not the Time to Panic plumbs both the intensity of an early creative experience and the strange way such experiences get preserved in the amber of our minds. The result is another tender, moving novel by an author who understands how truly bizarre ordinary life is." - Ron Charles, Washington Post

"A witty and charming coming-of-age story...[a] lighthearted examination of teenage tomfoolery, identity and the power of art." - BookTrib

"A book destined to become a cult classic, if not just a classic, period. . . . Now Is Not The Time to Panic departs from the comic surrealism of Wilson's previous novels . . . in favor of a kind of sepia-toned realism that never ceases to entertain. Frankie and Zeke are wholly original characters, their lives painful and true, and while this is a novel you can read in a single sitting, it is best devoured slowly, a treat for the heart and mind." - USA Today (four stars)

"[T]he Tennessee native spins tales so droll and clever and casually surreal, it feels less like reading than falling in with a delightfully subversive new friend." - EW.com

"Wilson's fiction will have you laughing so much that you're not prepared for the gut punch that follows. . . . Now Is Not the Time to Panic is the heartfelt culmination of many years (and many pages) spent probing the tension between the urge to make a mark on the world and the costs of doing so-and the push-pull between art's disorienting and generative powers. . . . Go read Wilson's books. You'll discover one-of-a-kind worlds opening up." - The Atlantic

"Now Is Not the Time to Panic is a quirky, complicated story about the power of words and art, and the importance of adolescent friendships." - TIME (A Must Read Book of 2022)

"A charming coming-of-age novel brimming with nostalgia." - People

"Full of compassion and gentle humor, this is a wise and winning novel about how youth haunts and defines us." - Esquire

"It's the kind of book your cool English literature teacher would recommend when you showed an interest in writing, the type of coming-of-age story that would have been equally destined for a banned books list and a summer reading list." - Vulture

"This is a wildly funny, wonderfully sincere - and a little bit devastating - story of art, our limitless past, future nostalgia and all those perfectly imperfect ways we continually come of age. Kevin Wilson's books are so full of heart. They're utterly indelible." - Courtney Summers, Washington Post

"[Wilson's] most emotionally nuanced and profoundly empathetic novel yet. . . . Wilson meaningfully crafts formed characters, allowing his work to register as a universal document of teenage turmoil as blessedly compassionate as it is cunning. Highly recommended as a sincere, sometimes brutal, but always sturdy study of the burden of both art and adolescence and a wonderfully evocative treatise on how we imprint ourselves on the world and learn to survive in that tumultuous wake." - Library Journal

"Wilson occupies a unique niche in literature. He is a master of creating indelibly peculiar characters with odd passions and traits.....All those peccadillos have a purpose, though. They give shape to the characters' humanity and fuel narrative arcs that tell evocative tragicomic stories about family, friendship, love and art that end on a note of cautious optimism. And honestly, isn't that the best we can reasonably hope for in life?" - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A seductive, highly imaginative story that testifies to the transformative power of art." - Associated Press

"Kevin Wilson's Now Is Not the Time to Panic (Ecco) has the feel of a long-gestating work: a novel about creativity and childhood that seems as though its author has been mulling it since his own youth. It bears the markers of Wilson's style-cleverly cute without tipping over into saccharine territory....Though the book has an earnest heart, it's colored by Wilson's appealingly offbeat prose, so that even the most straightforward coming-of-age moments have a funky freshness." - Vogue

"Kevin Wilson once again deploys his customary humorous, off-center storytelling to artfully delve into deeper matters...[his] deceptively transparent prose, with a touch of humor, a dash of satire and a good bit of insight, carries the reader to a humane and satisfying conclusion." - BookPage (starred review)

"[A] bighearted novel." - Vanity Fair

"[T]he latest glorious novel from Kevin Wilson. Now is Not the Time to Panic is about oddballs and misfits; it's about art, and how the making of art turns what's weird about you into what's magical about you." - OprahDaily.com

"Wilson's latest novel shows us again that he is at the top of his game, infusing this coming-of-age tale with his trademark sharp wit and deep understanding of love and the uncertainty that comes with fading youth." - Chicago Review of Books

"What Wilson so eloquently captures is that unique time in one's life when one small gesture of artistic self-expression - a madcap sentence about living on the fringes and embracing your eccentricities, come what may - really does have the power to change the world, or at least your perception of it." - San Francisco Chronicle