Kirkus
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The end of the world is nigh—or is it? Cellphones all over the small Western Massachusetts town of Beckitt light up with the terrifying announcement of an incoming ballistic missile, propelling some of the town’s citizens into radical action and leaving others frozen helplessly in place. After it turns out to have been a false alarm, the fallout of those first brief moments may, in some ways, prove almost as devastating as the disaster itself would have been. Yu’s debut novel follows many characters through the time before and after that life-changing moment. Some of the characters are closely related; others come together briefly by chance, but each, in their own way, is indelibly affected by that fateful day. Among them: a mother, struggling with a secret, impetuously texts her daughter something that might cause irreparable damage. A music-school dropout and budding bluegrass musician is starting to feel he has nothing to live for when a chance encounter with a kindly server at the Anchor Grill might turn his fortune around. Across town, a normally responsible husband and father acts out of instinct, convincing his wife she’s seen his true colors and may never be able to forgive him. In the midst of the rippling effects of that choice, the man—who has spent his entire career at the PR firm his father founded—desperately grasps for a narrative that will hold his once-picture-perfect life together. For some of the characters, it’s a dramatic action that changes everything; for others, it’s the failure to act. The novel twists and turns into the private and public lives of the characters, offering a quirky, often funny, and sharply rendered peek into small-town life and the moments, large and small, that ripple out beyond our horizon of perception. A quietly profound debut that asks what we would really do if we believed we would die within the next few seconds. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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Residents of an Asian American community in Western Massachusetts respond in consequential ways to a false alert of a “ballistic missile threat” in Yu’s resonant debut. The alert says to “seek immediate shelter,” but David Li, a family man who inherited his father’s public relations firm, gets in his car and takes off, leaving his wife and infant son behind. Nina Chang, thinking she’s about to die, writes a farewell text to her lesbian daughter, who lives in California, then spitefully adds, “I guess being selfish was worth it.” After Clare Hillden’s husband, Jacob, dies of a heart attack brought on by the stress, she is contacted by a woman claiming Jacob had raised a secret family with her. While these characters deal with the fallout of their actions, others act heroically, such as Nick Chen, a downcast musician mourning the breakup of his band, who rescues a waitress, hoping they can outrun the blast in his car. Behind it all is the problem-plagued state official who accidentally caused the alert, which is called off 18 minutes after it goes out. Yu handily juggles and resolves the many story lines, exploring the ripple effects of snap decisions and fully developing his characters as they face various consequences. Reminiscent of the Twilight Zone episode “The Shelter,” this layered novel pays dividends. Agent: Chad Luibl, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (May)

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

When an emergency alert blares across every phone in town, warning of incoming missile attacks and urging residents to seek immediate shelter, the people of a small Massachusetts community believe they may be living their final moments, and carefully constructed lives begin to unravel. Secrets surface, regrets sharpen, and long-avoided truths demand to be spoken. Then another alert arrives. The warning was a mistake. Disregard. Yu’s debut novel explores what happens during the panic and in the uneasy aftermath. Told through a series of interconnected stories, the narrative follows multiple characters whose lives intersect in surprising ways. Some confront the damage they have caused, while others chase a last chance at redemption, honesty, or bravery. A few decide that if time is ending, they will finally do what they have always wanted without restraint. The result is a character-driven story that asks two simple but unsettling questions: If you believed the world was ending, who would you become in those final minutes? And how would you live afterward, if you were given the chance?