Honestly, I don't feel qualified to review this after reading the ARC. It was weirdly formatted and it was hard to tell if I was supposed to know how stories were connected and things like that. I couldn't always tell until a few pages in if I was in a different story.

I did like the last part about the woman in Frances with her kids and Guy de Maupassant a lot.

Lauren Groff is a wonderful author. Some of these stories were perfect and haunted me after. However, there are some that made me go 'that's it?'

Laura Groff has written a book of short stories about the Florida that most visitors never see. The Florida where danger lurks everywhere and that will probably be covered with water if future decades. The protagonists are all insecure, fearful women who put their wants and needs before others. Groff uses beautiful language to describe the natural beauty of the state as well as the lives of its inhabitants. I usually avoid short stories but find the ones in this book to be memorable.