Nothing to See Here

Nothing to See Here

By Kevin Wilson
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Published October 29, 2019 by Ecco

This book left me feeling frustrated and perplexed. I enjoyed it in the beginning. I enjoyed Wilson’s writing, and his odd but interesting characters. I wasn’t sure what to make of the main character at first, but she grew on me. But this book is so short (only 250 pages). And once I had passed the halfway point, the rest of the book felt tainted by a growing awareness that many of the concepts introduced here were not going to be fully explored. Why so short? Wilson created this unique story with interesting characters and so much potential, but I felt like so much of it was skimmed over and rushed through.

The last 50 pages in particular really fell apart for me. And this is exactly how I felt about Perfect Little World, which is why I initially hesitated to read this. I guess that means I’m done reading Wilson.

Let’s be real, these kids should have been in therapy. Lillian was in no way equipped for this situation, but ultimately that didn’t matter too much because the kids were remarkably well adjusted considering what they’d been though. They actually caught on fire, like, twice? Everything kind of seemed too easy. There wasn’t a whole lot of dramatic tension. They hang out and play basketball. Then there’s one dramatic event, which again could have been explored much more fully, and then there are some strange choices, and then it’s over.

I really wanted to like this. There was some good stuff going on here. I loved the commentary on how it’s so easy for mediocre rich white men to succeed in life, and the call to embrace our individual weirdness. It just could have had so much more depth if it were longer.

And why set the book in 1995? I remember reading once that authors often set their books in the 90s so they can avoid dealing with the plot complications caused by cell phones and the internet. I don’t see any valid reason for setting this story in the 90s. And that makes me feel like Wilson purposely put Lillian in a time period where she had less power. If she’d had access to the Internet, she could have done some research and gotten some answers for these kiddos, found other people with the same affliction. But Lillian is kind of lazy, and putting her in a position where she had more power would have required more of her. But that might have made it a better story too.