Nothing to See Here

I should start off by saying that I'm not sure I would have loved this book as much as I did if I had read it rather than listened to it. Humor doesn't always translate across a page, but with a skilled reader employing a pitch-perfect dead pan delivery, the twisted humor of this one really came alive on audio.

Lillian is employed by her high school friend, Madison, to care for Madison's two step-children, a pair of twins who spontaneously combust when angry or agitated. Yes, yes, it's ridiculous, but somehow Wilson makes it work. And in these two "weirdos," Lillian recognizes outsiders like herself, ones who will never quite fit in or be accepted. Their relationship is really lovely to see develop, and Lillian's snarky humor, show more intelligence, and self-deprecation endeared her to me. There is also a lot in the novel about class, gender roles, and privilege, so it's much richer thematically than what I expected.

I think some readers didn't quite get the humor, or couldn't get past the bizarre premise, and the book fell flat for them. I wasn't sure it would be my cup of tea, but the audio was available from the library so I decided to give it a whirl. I am so glad I did - Lillian is a character that will stay with me for a long time. show less

Come for the gimmick, stay for one touching, and one puzzling, relationship. The gimmick of course is the children who periodically burst into flame, which doesn't do them any harm. The story doesn't try to explain how this could be, making it magical realism instead of science fiction. Also making it explainable as a mere metaphor for how children can be difficult. What, children can be difficult? It's true!

The puzzling relationship is between Madison, the two children's step-mother, and Lillian, her roommate for half a year of ninth grade at an elite boarding school. Madison is beautiful and was raised to be at home with power and wealth, and is now married to the kids' father, an important Senator, but has trouble forming show more relationships and has no real friends. Except Lillian? Lillian was a scholarship kid at the school before being expelled, taking the fall for Madison's actions after Madison's arrogant father wrote Lillian's uncaring mother a large check, sending Lillian back to a life of poor schools and dead end jobs. This relationship has all sorts of subtexts - a massive and uncomfortable power imbalance, hidden and repressed sexuality, dysfunctional families, thwarted ambitions.

The touching relationship is between these kids and Lillian. The children's mother, a paranoid recluse, has killed herself and tried to kill them as well. Their father, the Senator, has no feeling for them and wants them to be hidden away. They catch on fire. Safe to say, they've got some issues. Madison asks Lillian to leave behind her barely functional life to care for them in a guesthouse on their massive estate. It shouldn't work out but it does, and the kids and Lillian find love and redemption in each other. And it's actually written pretty well.

There's less done with the flammable aspect of the children than I was expecting, so I got a different book than I thought I was about to read, but it's an entertaining and solid read. show less

Lillian Breaker was born of an indifferent mother and absent father into a life of poverty. She worked hard in school, which led to a shining opportunity: a scholarship to the prestigous Iron Mountan Girls Preparatory School. That dream was torn from her, though, thanks to the machinations of the rich and the indifferent greed of her mother.

Fast forward roughly eighteen years: Lillian is doing whatever she can to get by when former Iron Mountain roommate Madison Billings, who is both the destroyer of Lillian’s dream and the object of her unrequited love, invites her to the home she shares with her husband, Senator Jasper Roberts, and their son Timothy. Madison has offered to pay Lillian to act as governess (warden, really) to the show more senator’s older two children, ten-year-old Bessie and Roland.

Bessie and Roland, you see, are fiery children – literally. They catch fire when experiencing strong emotion. The two siblings are immune to the flames, but the fire is real and dangerous for those around them. This is a liability for their father, who has set his sights on the post of Secretary of State, so Lillian has been asked by Madison to supervise the children while keeping them out of the public eye.

Nothing to See Here is a strikingly original story, filled with scenes and characterizations that are delightful in their uniqueness. Lillian, in particular, exhibits strength and acceptance that allows her to look beyond past betrayal and to free herself from the need for revenge. Her story is worth reading.

To say more would be to cross into spoiler territory, but keep an eye out for discussion questions in the very near future. And read this book, which earns an unqualified five stars. It’s not a funny book, but you are guaranteed at least one moment of laugh-out-loud triumph. show less

A compellingly readable book that I finished in one sitting. I could really relate to loser Lillian, who never manages to get her life in gear after getting expelled from the school she thought would be her ticket out of her small town and away from her alcoholic, wastrel single mother, who never seemed to like her. At one point she admires her friend Madison for always knowing what she wants, since Lillian herself has no idea what she wants.

Madison, now a senator’s wife, hires Lillian to look after her husband’s two children from his first marriage, who have the inconvenient trait of spontaneously combusting when they’re upset, which threatens to complicate the process of the senator’s being vetted for Secretary of State. As show more poorly mothered as Lillian was, she seems like a dubious choice, but her relationship with the “fire children” is tender and empathetic. It seems the broken child in Lillian knows how to relate to the messed-up fire children. The fire children themselves are also believable and charming, particularly if you understand the combustion as an expression of their suppressed rage at the horrible things that have happened to them.

Lillian’s relationship with Madison is also fraught, and lends another layer of surprising depth to a book with such a silly premise and such humorous writing. I listened to the audiobook, read perfectly by Marin Ireland. show less

Lillian and Madison are the most unlikely of best friends. Having met at an elite boarding school where only one of them really belonged, their fortunes have diverged significantly over the subsequent years. Lillian, now working dead-end jobs and living in her mother’s attic, has seen her life head further south while Madison, married to a wealthy U.S. senator with loftier political aspirations, has moved steadily upward. An out-of-the-blue offer provides Lillian with a hopeful escape: would she being willing to become the caregiver for Bessie and Roland, Madison’s twin ten-year-old stepchildren whose mother has recently committed suicide? But there is a catch—Bessie and Roland are prone to bursting into flames whenever they show more become agitated! Can Lillian form a sufficient bond with the children to save both them and herself?

That is the basic frame of Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson’s quirky and affecting novel of dealing with loss and isolation, friendship and finding family, and, well, spontaneous combustion. The book offers the reader an appealing combination of humor, insight, and genuine emotional depth while telling a story that is unquestionably unique. Although the kids’ incendiary tendencies provide the impetus for the entire tale, there is no doubt that this is Lillian’s story. Indeed, beyond its fantastical premise, the twins’ condition really serves as a metaphor for the flaws and insecurities that plague us all. It is when Lillian finds a way to connect with the children and accept them for who they are that she finally comes of age herself and finds her own place in the world. This is an enjoyable and unexpectedly thought-provoking novel that is an easy one to recommend. show less

Lillian is living in her unpleasant mother's attic working dead-end jobs at grocery stores when she gets a call from her best friend from high school, a woman with whom she has a very complicated history. Madison is now married to a senator and lives in a big, fancy mansion, and she has a job offer for Lillian: looking after her husband's two kids from his previous marriage. The kids, it turns out, are a bit of a handful, kind of wild and weird. But that's okay, maybe, because so is Lillian. Oh, and also, when they get emotional, they tend to catch on fire.

I'm a little amazed by how well this works. It's zippy and readable, with situations and characters that feel wonderfully, realistically messy and some entertaining, slightly dark show more humor. And the catching-on-fire thing, somehow, feels like the most natural and easy-to-accept thing in the world. Yeah, sure, the kids catch on fire sometimes. Of course they do. Hell, my suspension of disbelief was a lot more tested by the presence of a character named Madison who would have been born in the 1960s -- the story is set in 1995 -- when that basically didn't exist as a girls' name until 1984. Everything else, I was completely on board for. show less

This is an odd and wonderful book about Lillian, a woman drifting through life, still living at home in her mother's attic, when her best friend, Madison asks her to visit. She married a Senator, one with an eye on the presidency, but they have a problem. His ex-wife has died and someone is needed to care for Madison's stepchildren. There's a twist; when they become agitated, the twins will burst into flame. Caring for them requires quite a bit more than love and patience. And Lillian is woefully unqualified, except for the most important thing, as Madison's best friend, and one who has kept her secrets for over a decade, Lillian is someone they can trust to keep the incendiary nature of her stepchildren quiet.

Lillian's a wonderful show more narrator. She's jaded and lazy, but determined to do a good job. And Wilson writes with such compassion and wit about all of his off-beat characters, from the pompous and essentially empty Senator, to the enigmatic Carl, to Madison, who may be Lillian's friend, or just someone who is willing to use affection as a way of getting what she wants. There's so much to love in this novel, from the way it establishes that Dolly Parton is the greatest Tennessean of all time to the way Wilson understands a child's rage at their own powerlessness. show less