Nothing to See Here

This post contains affiliate links. This means when you follow a link and make a purchase, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you, the customer.

Nothing to See Here is a 2019 novel by Kevin Wilson. It was published in October of 2019 by Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins. It became a New York Times Bestseller and was named a Best Boom of the Year by New York Time Book Review, The Washington Post, People and several other newspapers and magazines. The novel can be purchased here from Bookshop.org.

The novel tells the story of Lillian, a young woman who works a dead-end job when she’s suddenly contacted by a close friend from her old boarding school Madison. Despite having not seen her for ten years, Madison reaches out to Lillian asking for help with her stepchildren who will soon be coming to live with the family. Lillian agrees to be the children’s caretaker and its only after agreeing to take the position that she learns the twins have a strange affliction- whenever they become upset or angry, they catch fire. Despite the strangeness of the situation, Lillian and the twins begin to trust each other and stay cool, but the machinations of Madison’s politician husband may ruin everything.

The story is, when boiled down to its basic elements, a family drama wrapped up in a story of magical realism. As a result, as with most family dramas, there aren’t an abundance of characters. There are only five or six characters that are seen often enough and given enough personality to warrant discussing. Lillian is the point-of-view character and at the beginning, she’s directionless. She has a dead-end job, a dead-end life and it seems like she agrees to Madison’s proposal because she doesn’t have a reason not to. Once the twins enter the picture, her interactions with them start to show the reader the person she really is. She’s also, seemingly, the only person in the story who isn’t overly perturbed by the situation. The twins are 10-year-olds Bessie and Roland, and they’re actually pretty sweet kids. When I read the blurb for Nothing to See Here, I was expecting the “kids who catch fire when they get upset” characters to behave sort of like Draco Malfoy. I thought I’d hate them; they’d be complete brats who use their gift to terrorize any nanny, teacher or authority figure who told them “no”. Instead, they’re just lost children. They both have issues they need to work through, mostly focused on their mother’s death and their father abandoning them when he divorced their mother, but from almost the first time they appear, it’s clear that the twins are just as scared of their abilities as anyone else. Madison is Lillian’s old friend and Bessie and Roland’s stepmother. She appears to be the perfect wife for a Senator and lives the perfect life. I won’t lie, I hate Madison. I was supposed to hate her. Madison is a character that’s all about appearance and meeting expectations. She went to a prestigious boarding school, because she came from a wealthy family; she went to an elite college because that’s what was expected of her; she married a politician and had an adorable, well-behaved son because that’s exactly what she was supposed to do. Everything she does in the story is about making sure that the family’s image, and her husband’s political ambitions, don’t run into any roadblocks. The twins need to be kept out of sight, with no one aware of their abilities, because it could cause the Senator some unneeded press coverage. Lastly, there is the Senator, Jasper Roberts. He’s a Senator, one who could become the next Secretary of State and by far, the closest thing this story has to a true villain. He’s a complete and total jerk and that’s the nicest way I can say it. if Madison’s main focus is split between the family’s image and Jasper’s ambitions, then his is solely on his political aspirations. He’s decided he going to become the next Secretary of State, and no one, not even his children, are going to get in the way of that. When first introduced, he just seems like an arrogant man, a stereotypical politician who talks a lot but means nothing, As the story progresses, you realize that Jasper only cares about Jasper. He divorced the twins’ mother and decided to pretend like they didn’t even exist and weren’t related to him anymore. He barely interacts with any other characters for much of the story, but when he does appear, I want to crawl into the book and deck him in the face. As I said, he cast of characters is very small.

Nothing to See Here is by far the funniest book I’ve read om 2019. Wilson does an excellent job of mixing humor into a story that would otherwise be a very somber, or downright tragic one. Rather than avoid illuminating the weirdness of the characters or the bizarreness of the situation they’re in, he leans into it, which not only makes the story unique, but compels the reader to keep turning the page. The characters are quirky and strange and the narrative embraces that before using the humor to hit the reader in a way they didn’t see coming. The plot is original in a way no other book I’ve read this year is. Wilson’s skills as a writer must be commended, as not many could take such a strange concept and make it work so effortlessly.

While I did enjoy the book overall, I did feel slightly let down by the ending. I was happy to see that the twins and Lillian all ended up in a situation that was good for them. The resolution of what should happen with the twins was the best possible outcome that the story could have. It was as close to a “happy ending” as one could hope for. The thing that disappointed me were the lack of consequences for other characters though. Jasper never gets what he deserves. Neither does Madison for that matter. They face some consequences, but not as many or as severe as I would’ve liked. While I couldn’t find a smug satisfaction at how Jasper and Madison’s storylines ended, they do reflect the most realistic outcomes. In the real world, a Senator and his wife would get off the hook with little to no real consequences. Still, I would’ve liked at least one of them to be hurt a little more by the result of their own actions. My disappointment at the conclusion is probably a sign of Wilson capturing the real world so effective. Things aren’t wrapped up neatly in a nice little bow, regardless of how much we want them to be.

Nothing to See Here is an inventive, hilarious story. It stands out as one of the best books I’ve read this year. I found the premise very refreshing and I could’ve read another 200 pages and still wanted more. Kevin Wilson weaved a unique, relatable story while also keeping it grounded enough to appeal to many different types of people. I’d recommend any fan of literary fiction or magical realism get it a read.

Rating: 4.8 stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads