Do Not Become Alarmed

Do Not Become Alarmed (2017), a thriller by Maile Meloy, utilizes multiple points-of-view and short chapters to tell the story of a family vacation gone horribly awry, exploring issues of privilege, poverty, and how thin social bonds prove to be under pressure.

The story begins as cousins Liv and Nora check onto a cruise ship bound for an unspecified South American route. Nora’s mother recently passed away and the cousins see the trip as a way to pull Nora from her depression. Liv has two children, eleven-year-old Penny and eight-year-old Sebastian; Nora has two children as well, eleven-year-old Marcus and six-year-old June. Sebastian has diabetes, requiring regular insulin shots. Liv’s husband, Ben, is admiring the quay. Nora’s husband, Raymond, is black and a somewhat famous actor; Nora is a bit jealous of the attention he gets from the female staff, feeling overshadowed and sexually ignored. She is jealous because she was once an actress and now no one remembers or recognizes her.

The cruise begins unremarkably. The two families are fearful of the unknown and do not leave the ship for the scheduled excursions, always finding excuses as to why the countries they’ve docked at are too dangerous. They meet an Argentinian couple, Gunther and Camila, traveling with their daughter, Isabel, who is fourteen, and son, Hector, who is fifteen. When the ship docks in an unnamed country, the families finally decide to leave the safety of the ship, thinking this to be the most stable country on the itinerary. The husbands go golfing, while Nora, Liv, Camila, and the children hire a guide named Pedro to take them zip-lining in the jungle.



The zip-lining doesn’t work out, and Pedro suggests a nearby beach for some inner tube fun as a substitute. Nora is attracted to Pedro, and as the children cavort in the water and Liv falls asleep on the beach, she goes with him on a short hike on the pretense of spotting a rare bird, but really because she likes being lusted after. When she returns from her tryst, the children are gone, having been caught in a hidden current and swept away. Hector swims for the beach but does not survive, and the other children are captured by Raúl, a low-level drug trafficker who takes the children to his house, where they meet his housekeeper Maria and her son Oscar. Maria is sympathetic to the children. The American kids are considered more valuable on the assumption that they will be ransomed, while Isabel, treated much more harshly, is sexually assaulted by Raúl.

The point of view switches between the children and other characters from this point forward, including Noemi, a young girl traveling with Chuy, whom she refers to as her uncle, hired to get her across the border and safely to New York City where her parents are living illegally.

The parents contact the US Embassy and work with a diplomat named Kenji, as well as the police detective Rivera. They squabble among themselves, channeling their sense of powerlessness and horror through violent emotions directed at each other. Family ties and friendships begin to fray as they struggle against their powerlessness—despite their wealth and technology, they can do little more than rage and complain as the authorities, such as they are, work the system as best they can in a country dominated by wilderness and poverty.



Raúl is killed in a car accident. Oscar and Maria help the children escape, Oscar taking his folding knife with him. They become separated. Penny and Sebastian, picked up by a woman in a car, promise their parents will reward her if they are returned. Oscar leads the others through the jungle until they come to the train that is carrying Noemi and Chuy, which has been stopped by thieves. Chuy and Noemi lead the kids away from the train to avoid the thieves, but in the darkness, Oscar drops his knife and Isabel picks it up. Confused, Isabel kills Chuy when he emerges from the shadows near her. The children take Noemi and escape.

Everyone is reunited. To protect Isabel, Gunther convinces Oscar to take the blame for Chuy’s murder and offers to hire a lawyer for him. Noemi, whom Penny has become very fond of through their adventure, is brought to America by the family and given a new start. At the end, the parents reflect on the fact that, like all Americans, they somehow escaped the worst of the trouble; while the South American kids and adults all suffer in some way, the American children are unharmed and relatively healthy because they are regarded as valuable in a way the other people are not.