How to Be Safe

Brilliant, tragically timely . . . . This novel is an indictment of gun culture, hot-take journalism, and social media, and if that sounds like a miserable premise for a novel, fear not: McAllister is a brave and stylish writer, and Anna is a singular creation. . . . Intensely smart. Sharply written.
This is one of those books you don't know if you can read, and then after you don't know how you lived in a world without it. It's chock full of the things that are killing us: mass shootings, misogyny, the internet, media frenzies, tribalism. And it's so wonderful - so furious and so funny and urgent and needed in this mad ugly space we're sharing with each other. I can't believe this book was written by a man - but I'm so happy Tom McAllister wrote it.--Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World
This darkly humorous primal scream of a novel takes as its subject the madness of modern American life. . . . this book is compelling from start to finish.
Combining a deep character study, prescient satire, and an unfortunately all-too-timely evisceration of U.S. gun culture, McAllister's well-voiced and remarkably observed page-turner is in almost all ways an anti-thriller--itself a comment on the current, terrifying mundanity of similar events.
Haunting.--O, The Oprah Magazine
It's heartening to see a male writer explore the issue [of toxic masculinity] with such nuance. McAllister deserves tremendous credit for his perceptive work here. . . . The author's indictment of a violent, paranoid society is searing.--Shawna Seed
How to be Safe is a blistering indictment of America's insanity: our devotion to guns, our addiction to masculinity, our obsession with muscling our way toward an exceptionalism built upon our own inflated sense of self. Tom McAllister is an exceptionally talented novelist: funny, biting, and bold. I'd be inclined to call him a satirist if not for the fact that every word in this novel is true.--Wiley Cash, author of The Last Ballad