Now Is Not the Time to Panic: A Novel

A teenage girl meets a boy her age in the small town she lives in. They each have an artistic bent and decide to create an artistic flyer that they put all around town. They make hundreds of copies and put it everywhere. Nobody knows what it means or where it came from.

People start to speculate on the origin of the flyer and things start to get crazy. Two teens who were up to no good claim the flyer was connected to some group that abducted them and forced them to do drugs. Others bring guns and start to shoot over them. Eventually a few people die due to the craziness of it.

The girl and the boy have a falling out and lose track of each other. The book then pivots to their adult life. She is now a successful author. An article will be written about the panic identifying her as part of it. She has not told anybody about it and feels stressed about doing so. She goes through the process of reconnecting and discovers it is not as bad as she thought.

The story is well written and hyper-focussed. Our teenage experiences can seem monumental to us. To others, they may not be nearly so important. Even our dark secrets may be known to others. Opening up can be very stressful, but does provide relief.