The Floating Girls by Lo Patrick

 

The Floating Girls by Lo Patrick is being billed as the next Where the Crawdads Sing with a modern-day Scout Finch as its narrator. To approach this book that way will lead to disappointment as the only thing it has in common with the other book is that it is most definitely Southern literature, with this story taking place in the fictitious Bledsoe, Georgia. Kay Whitaker is no Scout as boy-crazy Kay constantly disrespects her father Clay, and she could really use a bar of soap to wash out her mouth. Touted as “wickedly funny,” this book is not the least bit humorous as readers learn about the Whitaker family: Clay, Sue-Bess, Sarah-Anne, Kay, Peter, Freddy, and the late Elizabeth.

The Floating Girls is a book in which the marshy setting is as much a character in the book as any other. The description throughout the book is luscious, and the writing is superb in this debut novel. Kay leads the reader into the marsh where she discovers a father and son living in what she calls “a high heel house,” a house on stilts. For some reason he does not explain to her, Clay forbids Kay from seeking a friendship with Andy Webber, who has just returned to the marsh after living for some time in California with his father Nile.

Kay begins to understand that she does not know all about her family and the life they live. She cannot comprehend what might have happened in the past that should keep her from being a friend to Andy. She does not identify with the super quiet ways of her mother Sue-Bess and the strange ways of her sister Sarah-Anne. She is puzzled about the death of Andy’s mother 10 years ago, which may be solved with the arrest of her own parents, which causes Peter, Freddy, and Kay to be shuffled off to foster care while both parents await a trial for kidnapping and murder.

This novel stands alone as a piece of Southern fiction with a smart-mouth, 12-year-old girl leading the reader through the marshes and the complicated life of her backwoods family.

Lo Patrick, born and raised in Georgia, is a lawyer-turned-novelist who lives in the Atlanta suburbs. Her debut novel was published on July 12, 2022.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting July 14, 2022.

I would like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark, an imprint of Sourcebooks, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.