“Nothing to See Here” - Kevin Wilson

🔥This was a weird little book. I finished it in a day. It was a short read, but it kept me engaged the entire time. NB: the writing is excellent and I don’t regret reading it, but it just wasn’t for me.

🔥I don’t quite know what to make of it. I know it’s critically acclaimed, and well liked by many on bookstagram and Goodreads. I, however, didn’t love it. It reads like a fantastical autobiography involving self-combusting children, and the broken people who step in to care for them. The children seem to represent all the many ways that life doesn’t go according to plan. Sometimes when we try to force an outcome, all we do is increase the volatility of circumstances beyond our control.

🔥 I wouldn’t say it has a particularly satisfying conclusion. Wilson walks the line between gritty realism and the magic of fire children in a way that keeps the reader on their toes. I did enjoy the current of dark humor throughout.

🔥 The themes of belonging and redemption remind me of T. J. Klune’s “The House in the Cerulean Sea” but with a slightly one-dimensional presentation here.