Ahh, Florida. Home of Disney World, sunny beaches, the Everglades, alligators, “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, and Ron DeSantis. If you have been following my blog, then you know that Lauren Groff’s The Monsters of Templeton is one of my favourite novels and I reviewed her latest release, Matrix, which was one of my favourite reads from last year. Groff lives in Florida and Florida is a short story collection about people who live in Florida. I do not usually read short stories (don’t ask me why; I just don’t), but since I am a fan of Lauren Groff, I decided to give Florida a try. I wanted to like it, but it left me feeling too unsettled to enjoy it.

Groff is a gifted writer, and she does a fantastic job of creating an authentic collection of characters of different ages, genders, socioeconomic statuses, and behaviours; however, there is this underlying thread of darkness that weaves through the stories. None of the stories in this collection could be considered joyful or likely to leave you with warm, fuzzy feelings. People vacation in Florida because it is a fun place to be. It is home to Disney World! (I do not care much for theme parks, but even I love Disney World. When you are at Disney World, it does not even feel like you are in Florida.) People retire to Florida for the warm, sunny climate. But Florida is probably a place that should not have been populated by people, with its dangerous creatures, sinkholes, and tropical storms. Some of the characters in Florida seem to not like living in Florida, but they also do not seem to want to leave it either. Florida is a complicated place, and people’s relationships with it are also complicated.

There is a recurring character in Florida, a wife and mother who suffers from anxiety (and thinks a lot about climate change), who hit too close to home for me. By the time I finished reading Florida, I found myself thinking too much about how there is no safe place in this world, and that there are probably no genuinely happy people either as we each having an underlying thread of darkness weaving through our lives. I feel like I need to scrub Florida from my brain by re-reading The Monsters of Templeton, or even visiting “The Happiest Place on Earth” again.