Seek Immediate Shelter

One morning, the residents of Beckitt, Massachusetts all receive the same alert: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

In a moment, inhabitants are reduced to their basest and truest selves. Who flees, and who stays? Who thinks of themselves first?

Then, a second message comes in: FALSE ALARM. PLEASE DISREGARD. ALL CLEAR.

Vincent Yu’s novel, constructed as a series of interconnected short stories, explores the aftermath of several people's actions during the eighteen minutes between alerts. It is a provocative premise, and I was initially intrigued. Ultimately, however, this proved to be an incredibly difficult book to like.

Why? The stories largely follow the same repetitive pattern: someone does something regrettable, and those closest to them refuse to let it go. While conflict is expected—as a friend noted when we discussed the book, "End-of-the-world stories seem to bring out the worst in people"—Yu takes this cynicism to an exhausting extreme. His characters are relentlessly vindictive, and those in the wrong rarely take responsibility for their actions. There are a couple of sympathetic figures—notably the overprotective parents of a high school student acting out of pure love, and the patient husband of a cruel woman—but even they aren't spared once their uglier sides are exposed later in the book.

Yu also focuses almost exclusively on Chinese American characters (a surprisingly dense demographic for this small Massachusetts town), perhaps aiming to examine the multigenerational immigrant experience. Unfortunately, the characterization falls flat and repetitive. Several characters play string instruments, most have Ivy League affiliations, and at least one is a terrible driver. Even though Yu is of Chinese American descent, these portrayals feel uncomfortably close to broad, tired stereotypes.

I kept hoping for an insightful breakthrough to redeem the grim tone, but the final chapter ends on what might be the biggest head-scratcher of the entire book. Yu’s prose is respectable, and it certainly provokes a strong reaction—even if that reaction is predominantly frustration. Still, when a novel leaves you wishing the missile alert hadn't been a false alarm after all, it's one you should probably skip.