I thought it over. Dollywood. “Islands in the Stream.” That body. She was the best thing that had ever come out of Tennessee. Jesus Christ, it wasn’t even close. ― Kevin Wilson, Nothing to See Here
I’ll admit it. I chose this book because of its cover. The combination of the title plus a cartoon wrapped in flames immediately made me curious to see if the author shares the same dark sense of humor as I do. It turns out, they do.
Nothing to see here follows Lillian, a bright, driven girl who, in the typical fairytale-type way, earns a scholarship to attend an exclusive all-girls private school near her hometown. She meets her beautiful, competitive, WASPy, covergirl roommate Madison and the two of them become two halves of a powerful basketball partnership. Lillian gets swept up in Madison’s life, even though she is a bit fearful of how far Madison will go to win. Madison’s push to rebel against her mother’s insistence of perfection leads to escalated levels of risk taking. By nature, Lilian is not a risk taker. Nonetheless, she is tugged along by Madison and suffers the fallout of a combination of bad luck and the misfortune of being the scholarship kid in a world of super rich teenage girls.
I make it sound like Madison is the villain, but she is, in my opinion, one of the heroes. Years later, Lillian receives a letter from Madison asking if she will come work for her. Lillian is working part-time and living at home with her self-involved mother, so she jumps at the chance to find out what scheme Madison has concocted. She is flattered that Madison still considers her a good friend, and she is dying to to find out what Madison is really like since they have only communicated in letters for the past decade. Madison is now married to a senator, and lives in one of his family’s estates in Tennessee. Up until this point, everything is normal. However, we find out that the job Madison wants to hire Lillian for is to be a nanny to her twin stepchildren….who burst into flames. Lillian has never taken care of kids before but she is convinced that if Madison thinks she can do it, then she has to make it work. In the months they are together, Lillian becomes the loving family the children never had, as their politician father is more interested in protecting his reputation than doing what is best for his kids. To add to this, Madison and her husband have a toddler of their own, whose creepy and fussy personality endears him to Lillian as well.
This book is a weird, delightful little read. I loved that Lillian and Madison embrace their weirdness. Lillian is the slacker friend who wants to finally prove herself. Madison is pretending to be the perfect mom, but in private, she wholly embraces her competitiveness and mildly sociopathic nature. The descriptions of Lillian’s interactions with the children are beautiful and troubling and hilarious. How does one keep flaming children safe? How can you make them understand love and patience when they have lived behind fireproof fences their entire lives?
The good: Lillian is the embodiment of every slacker impulse and improvised plan that ever crossed my mind. I feel bad calling her a slacker because she wants more. But every attempt has disappointed her or ended up worse than when she started. So much of this book is about surviving and what we have to give up or just plain ignore to make it through the day. Madison is a jerk, but you understand where she is coming from. And, even if you don’t, you still want to root for her. The chef is terrifying and hilarious. Oh, and don’t forget all of the Dolly Parton love.
The bad: Madison gets away with so much. She does suffer but, with her ability to control the narrative, I wonder how she got to where she is at the beginning of the story. To me, she suffers no consequences. And maybe that is the point. That with money and her ability to spin the story to her advantage, she will always prevail. I wish there had been more blowback from the way she treated Lillian. Perhaps, in her own way, this is her attempt to atone for her past behavior. But it feels half-hearted at best.