I enjoy a good family drama and this was chaotic and dramatic in a lot of ways with a lot of Florida and climate change in the backdrop. I liked the sibling dynamics in this one and thought Strong did a decent job of establishing the why behind the tensions. This is definitely a very slow burn though and I thought about throwing in the towel multiple times, things come together in the end, and even though it wasn’t my favorite ending, I’m still glad I stuck with it. What Strong does differently is that all of the characters and events seem appropriately messy and mostly not very likable.The relationships are complicated, there are no neat resolutions or big character growths. All of this combined to feel very realistic, there are families and people like this. The omniscient narrator being one of the family members did throw me off a bit.

I didn't quite know what to expect from this book, and I enjoyed it a lot. The plot is definitely not the point of this book: four siblings deal with their mom's death, but really it's about their relationships and interactions. Jenn is the eldest sister who stayed in Florida with their parents and seemingly has it all together. Fred is the second-oldest sister who everyone thinks is "flighty" and "difficult." Fred and the third-youngest, Jude, were always close until an unknown betrayal meant they're no longer on speaking terms. George is the baby, and they treat him as such. After their mom's death, the siblings come home among personal turmoil.

This book made me think and feel a lot. It's a simultaneously beautiful and scathing portrayal of a dysfunctional family that deeply loves each other but doesn't understand each other. We get narratives from most of the siblings, which gives us insight into how they view themselves and each other. This book also explores what it's like leaving your hometown and coming back; how sometimes we only know our parents as parents and can't see them as real people; and how people don't always love us in the way we want them to. None of the characters are particularly likable, but they're not unlikable either - they're just flawed, scarred individuals. Florida is also its own character here, and I appreciated how the author wove in the oppressive effects of the heat and humidity, as well as the changing and deteriorating climate. This book also has some critique of white neoliberalism, which I always enjoy. But above all else, this is a moving family portrait.
 
Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

I love her work, but this book was very disappointing. I found it very difficult to stay engaged- it was a struggle to finish.

The matriarch of the Kenner clan, a driven litigator, dies of a stroke while running in the Florida heat. Her death is the catalyst which causes the four middle-aged Kenner children to return to their childhood home in an upscale enclave to commemorate their mother and to tend to their accountant father, a functioning alcoholic. The eldest, Jenn, the “meanest and also sweetest,” a married mother of six. Winifred, “Fred,” is separated from her husband, David, and is a published author of four novels that feature her family and her best friend, Maeve, but when we meet her she is no longer writing and feels too worn down and out of control to teach. Jude, the omniscient narrator, is a divorced attorney in New York who arrives with her teenage daughter Cass who connects with her aunt Fred despite her estrangement from Jude who finds Fred “petulant, performative, and absurd.” Lastly, is their brother George, who owns a $2 million home in Houston which is insufficient to keep his wife from walking out on him. He putters around his childhood home with his Lhaso apso, Libby, named for leveraged buyouts, in tow, and has a crush on Maeve.

The float test refers to the test that each of the siblings failed when they attended private swim classes. In Jude’s reckoning, “All of us were too obsessed with forward movement, with beating one another to some random destination. None of us had the patience, the ability, to lie back and be still like that.” Steger brings lots of swirling interpersonal drama to her novel, plus a Chekhovian suggestion of danger when Fred finds a gun in their mother’s closet and pockets it. Steger constructs vivid scenes and pitch perfect dialog in this engrossing family drama. The Kenner’s are an unusual family, and perhaps David sums it up best when he tells Fred, “It is so totally your family’s MO that you got a brand new car when you turned sixteen, but no one ever taught you how to drive the . . . thing.”
Thank you Mariner Books and Net Galley for a novel that reflects the complexity of the ties that bind families.

The Float Test is a complicated family saga of 4 adult siblings in the Kenner family, in the aftermath of the death of their mother. Filled with messy family dynamics, long standing grudges and hurt feelings, and an underlying current of family loyalty, fans of family dramas may enjoy this story. It took me a bit to feel invested in this tale, but I'm glad I stuck with it because I did enjoy it. Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.

Atmospheric and haunting, Lynn Steger Strong's The Float Test is a story of complicated families and the way that our obligations shape us. Brought back together to a sweltering Florida summer by the death of their mother, the Kenners must sort through their past to find a way to the future. A character driven story that will leave you thinking for many days after you have finished it.

The Float Test features the Kenner family in the midst of their grief after losing their mother. Four siblings, each with their own stories, struggles, and interpersonal difficulties are explored in this novel.

While I love family dramas and there was some interesting dynamics at play, this wasn't very compelling to me. I'm not sure if I didn't connect with the characters, but I failed to find any of them really sympathetic. Sometime a slow, almost lack of plot works, but in this case, it was too slow and I kept reading waiting for *something* to happen.

I think that the writer certainly has skill, maybe this just wasn't the story for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books.

Thank you firsthand foremost to NetGalley and Lynn steger strong for allowing me to read this book early exchange for an honest review! I gave it 3.25 stars

Thank you Mariner for the review copy! I loved Strong's writing style but I loved the idea and promise of this book more than the book itself. What worked for me along with the writing and the immersive intense engagement with characters, which I tend to love, are the themes on climate and siblings and family. What did not make this work for me overall was a pace that was a little too slow and characters who perhaps not unlikable but were hard to be immersed with through the writing and plot development... I didn't feel like I wanted to get back to the plot and see what happened and felt a little alienated, disengaged as times despite being invested in the promise of the book.
4 star writing and plot/character ideas, 3 star execution (so it's good but not really liked/loved it level).

The Float Test is the first book by Lynn Steger Strong that I've read. I was intrigued this title because I love family dramas. Centered around a group of four siblings who reconvene in their Florida hometown following the death of their mother, the book explores complex sibling relationships, grief, and personal struggles. This was a slow burn, and felt unstructured at times, but it still held my interest. However, there is a scene at the end that I found deeply unsettling and completely unnecessary which negatively impacted my overall feelings of the book.

I dreaded reading this book because it was so boring. It’s fighting to be The Family Stone or This is Where I Leave You but doesn’t measure up. I would not recommend.

This is the drama of a family with conservative parents and more liberal grown children around and after the Covid pandemic. The story is told by Judy even though she is not present in all of the events. That was a little confusing. The story was also presented as unstructured memories that felt random at times. It just bounced from place to place. Add to that the huge amount of character, in and out of the family, and it became difficult at times to follow. Why were some of the people included was never fully explained. The book is definitely more character driven and less plot driven; however, there was continued foreshadowing to an event that felt rather anticlimactic. As a slice of life family drama type book, this was a good read. I wanted more from it.

I think this author won't be for everyone but I love her slow, family centered stories. Her characters are so real to me and I love being in their lives so deeply.

This is a very dysfunctional family story with characters who were not very likeable. After the death of their mother, 4 siblings come home to Florida to be closer to their father. They definitely all have some pretty serious issues going on. The story seemed pretty meandering and I just could get on board with where it was going most of the time. I didn't like that 2 of the siblings were named George and Fred, one of which was a girl. I kept confusing who was who. Also, the main narrator is Jude, who we don't even find out her name for awhile. But while she is in first person, we switch to the other sibling's stories and it seems third person, but not straight forward. That part was also confusing and I didn't enjoy always trying to figure out who was telling. I thought the part about the girl from their childhood, Ellen's story was an odd choice and just seemed thrown in. The secret that was alluded to for the entire story was quite a let down once it was finally revealed. Now.........we get to the part that took this down a full star rating for me. The death at the end of the book. I can't go into details without going into spoiler territory, but it was completely unneccessary and quite graphic and disturbing. If I had been reading this in physical format I probably would have gotten up and thrown it in the trash, it made me that mad. If anyone wants to know what it was about you can DM me. Overall, this one just didn't work well for me, then the ending pushed it over the top for me.

Thank you to @netgalley and @marinerbooks for this #gifted copy. Publishes 04/08/2025

The Float Test tells the stories of 4 adult siblings a month after their mother passes as well as previous years. I really enjoyed the writing style, but I had a hard time sticking with it. The story bounced around a bit which made it hard for me to follow and by the time I got to the end I wasn't invested enough to feel like it redeemed itself. Three stars for the writing and finally getting to understand why the siblings were estranged.

The Float Test tells the saga of the Kenner family as they grapple with their grief from losing their mother, as well as all of their own individual triumphs and failures. This is a story about family and about secrets - both the ones we keep and the ones we choose to share. Overall, I found the story very entertaining and kept wanting to turn the pages to know what was going on. To find fault, I would say that there was a wide range of characters and while all were explored, some felt limited in depth and as though there was more to explore within them.

3.5 rounded up. For fans of Claire Lombardo's "The Most Fun We Ever Had."

Tolstoy said “ All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way and that is true for this privileged Florida family in The Float Test. The Float Test follows an unhappy family after the sudden death of the matriarch. Strong weaves a serpentine storyline that made me struggle to make sense of the plot. A gun is introduced early on and taken from the deceased mother’s underwear drawer. An unhappy young mother who the daughters went to school with is introduced, but she seemingly has little involvement with the family. I guess the fun was introduced as a way to increase tension in the story? The reader is just waiting for someone to use the gun. The four siblings are not close at the time of their mother’s death but the reason for their distance is not revealed until 90% of the novel has passed and by that point I didn’t even care. There was a great deal of climate change and environmental damage angst perhaps thrown into make readers more aware of Florida’s particular damage, but it really didn’t serve to improve the already slow story.

Lynn Steger Strong’s "The Float Test" is a family drama that explores grief and relationships in the aftermath of loss. Set over two summer months in a wealthy area of Florida, the story focuses on the four Kenner siblings as they come together following the sudden death of their mother, who passed away after a stroke. It captures the complexity of their lives and the challenges they face while regrouping as a family.

The youngest sibling, George, stays in the family home, while second sibling Winifred becomes a central figure. One key element of the story is a gun that Winifred discovers in their mother’s dresser drawer after the funeral. The mystery of the gun connects past events with the present and becomes a subtle thread running through the novel.

What makes this novel truly unique is that it's told from the perspective of Jude, the third-oldest sibling. He is the "omniscient" narrator even though he is away in New York for much of the book. He shares details about the other characters’ thoughts and actions, filling in gaps with imagination or information he learned later. While this choice gives the story an interesting and creative structure, it can sometimes make things feel disjointed or a bit confusing.

There are subplots incorporated for each sibling which add layers to the story with backstories and details about their late mother’s life. However, with so many characters and storylines, it can feel like there’s not enough focus to tie everything together. Additionally, while the book touches on environmental issues in Florida, this aspect doesn’t play a major role in the overall plot and could have been eliminated altogether.

While "The Float Test" is a beautifully written novel that delves into themes of family, loss, and unresolved tensions with moments of insight and emotional depth, its fragmented structure can feel challenging to follow at times. However, for readers that enjoy character-driven stories and don’t mind a more open-ended narrative, this could be a thought-provoking read.

I absolutely loved the writing in this book. The insights were sharp and well-rounded. I really enjoyed how the author illustrated the difficult childhoods of each of the characters without spoon feeding her reader. Because each sibling brings their own baggage and unresolved issues to the table the story is rich and layered narrative. I had just enough information to fill in the gaps of each of the siblings. While I appreciated the credit Strong gave her reader, I did have a hard time keeping track of all of the characters and backstories because of so many subplots and backstories. I could have done without Maeve and Tallulah. I disagree with some reviews that have noted "environmental issues" or "climate change" as a plot point. I think these elements are central to the character of Florida. Climate change has and is seeping into every aspect of the human experience. It would be like telling a story about California without mentioning wildfires.

I really appreciated the story and detail about the client of Deborah and how she came to be in possession of the gun. There are unresolved questions (why didn't she turn it in? why did she keep it?) that I don't feel needed to be resolved but did linger at the end for me.

Strong's writing is immersive, capturing the oppressive heat of Florida along with the emotional intensity and upheaval of the family's interactions. However, some readers might find the abundance of storylines and characters a bit overwhelming. Overall, The Float Test is a testament to Strong's skill as a writer that she can weave together so many threads into a cohesive and engaging story.

The Kenner family has some real challenges. After the sudden death of their mother, the four adult children and their father find themselves unmoored, each in a very different and unique way. Their upbringing was very comfortable, never wanting for anything, and all are/were in professional careers. However, they all seemed to be living very messy lives and there's really not one likable character in the whole book.
Their story, and secrets and grievances, unfolds over the course of a steamy Florida summer. Lynn Steger Strong does seem to like to focus on family relationships in her novels, although I did prefer the ones in her earlier novel, Flight.
The Float Test tackles themes of dysfunctional families and secrets, along with threads about climate change and deforestation of land.
Thanks to Netgalley and Mariner Books for the opportunity to read The Float Test. I received a complimentary copy of the book and opinions expressed are completely my own.