Florida Woman

by Deb Rogers

A gleefully dark and entertaining debut for fans of Kevin Wilson and Karen Russell, about one young woman’s sensational summer at a Floridian wildlife center for exotic monkeys

Jamie is a Florida Woman. She grew up on the beach, thrives in humidity, has weathered more hurricanes than she can count, and now, after going viral for an outrageous crime she never meant to commit in the first place, she has the requisite headline to her name. But when the chance comes for her to escape viral infamy and imminent jail time by taking a community service placement at Atlas, a shelter for rescued monkeys, it seems like just the fresh start Jamie needs to finally get her life back on track — until it’s not.

Something sinister stirs in the palmetto woods surrounding her cabin, and secrets lurk among the three beguiling women who run the shelter and affectionately take Jamie under their wing for the summer. She hears the distant screams of monkeys each night; the staff perform cryptic, lakeside sacrifices to honor Atlas; and the land, which has long been abandoned by citrus farmers and theme park developers alike, now proves to be dangerously, relentlessly untamed.

As Jamie ventures deeper into the offbeat world and rituals of Atlas, her summer is soon set to inspire an even stranger Florida headline than she ever could’ve imagined.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Horror, Audiobook, LGBT, Thriller

352 pages, Hardcover

First published July 5, 2022

Reviews

[Jenny Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it so much I picked it for July's Fantastic Strangelings Book Club pick, so if you're a member this is currently flying to your home. I won't spoil it but I will say it's a bizarre and wonderful escape...like a gender-bent Tiger King...but with monkeys.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Atlas Wildlife Refuge is a hidden gem in the heart of Florida, encompassing over eighty biodiverse acres of land bordering the Ocala National Forest. Thanks to the stewardship of our founder, Sari Sutherland, as well as the generosity of our community of volunteers, Atlas is home to a healthy troop of forty-two macaques who are cared for in peaceful, expansive enclosures. We intend to increase our capacity to serve five times this number by the end of the next three calendar years. We open our arms to welcome you to our vital work. Join the Atlas tribe!

After Jamie’s crime not only got caught on security cameras, but also went viral she was more than happy to go off the grid via an ankle monitor and live-in community service at the aforementioned Atlas Wildlife Refuge. But what exactly is going on there? Is it just some hippy dippy mumbo jumbo or is there more to the “rituals” and “sacrifices” that Jamie is unaware of?

Okay, first things first. I only read this because the first paragraph of the blurb (which is pretty much all I ever read) claimed it to be “gleefully dark and entertaining” and, even more importantly, named Kevin Wilson by name. To whoever wrote that I only have one thing to say to you . . . .



This is nothing like the magic which Kevin Wilson offers up to his readers. In fact, about the only other thing I have to say about this book is . . . .



Talk about NOTHING going on. Ever. For hundreds of pages. While I wasn’t sure until the end whether I was dealing with some creepy cult or the illegal animal trade or drug dealers, it turned out it didn’t even matter because I could barely keep myself awake while reading all of the no plot that was going on. And when things finally did get wrapped up it was all such a mess that only made me wish I had the ability to do a DNF. I rarely give out 1 Stars anymore, but this was simply awful and I would not recommend it to anyone.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

FLORIDA WOMAN BURNS DOWN BAR DURING ROBBERY, BLAMES PELICAN.

Ok let's see...

Jamie gets sentenced to house arrest/community service at a monkey reserve called Atlas that's run by group of monkey worshiping lesbian,(at least I got the sense that everyone in the book was), hippie drug trafficking cultists.

Sounds kinda cool huh? Problem is that the interesting part of that description is packed into only the last few chapters and rushed into a quick uneventful ending.
The idea is here, it's the execution that lacks. The story overall felt flat and I found it hard to connect with any of the characters.

[Karyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This debut novel by Saint Augustine’s Deb Rogers is a hoot! A mix of Florida woman scandal, some intrigue and mystery form a potent and humorous blend of sun tea in the deep woods of northeast Florida, a place that I know a bit about after living in Saint Augustine for a number of years ages ago. We always know that there’s something strange brewing in this state, and Ms Rogers led us into the thickets.

[Sunny Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

absolutely wild… wild like monkeys!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I found myself canceling plans and maybe even taking a sick day from work so that I could read this novel, that's what I mean when I say I couldn't put it down. It was the first book since Covid brain that kept me up wanting to read past my bedtime, until my eyes were too heavy and then dreaming vividly of being in the story. I was Jamie! I wanted to be Tierra.

Deb's phrases lead you with a soft, tanned Florida hand through the story of discovering freedom and belonging and redemption in a life of captivity. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough in the final chapters. LOVED IT!

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I have read several underwhelming thrillers about women-only groups or secret societies, books that don't seem to really know what they want to say or what thrills they want to provide. FLORIDA WOMAN is not one of those books, but weirdly it is somehow. I know that a small monkey rescue is not the same as a women's professional networking group, but I kept thinking while I was reading it that those other thrillers could read this book about women and bonding and finding purpose and maybe finding too much purpose for some pointers.

Jamie has just been the kind of Florida Woman to make headlines, the kind of ridiculous story people roll their eyes at. Somehow she has found herself not spending her short sentence in jail but in a strange kind of house arrest, where she will stay at Atlas, a preserve and rescue for Macaque monkeys, for the summer as a volunteer. She wears an ankle bracelet. She has no idea what she will do when the summer is over.

Jamie is lost, but she starts to find herself. Not just through the work or the monkeys, but through the three women who run the rescue. They are passionate and devoted, they seem to want to bring Jamie into the fold. Jamie starts to imagine that maybe her life after these months may stay just like this. Except for all the weird little things she keeps encountering, which get weirder and weirder.

This is a pretty solid page turner, it does run together for the first half of so where it's hard to tell how much time has passed, but that feels very intentional, making us feel how Jamie feels. Honestly the biggest issue is that there is no B plot, we have nothing else except Jamie getting up and interacting with these women each day, and I think the most effective thrillers let us have some other thing to pull us in and out of the main tension.

There's some strong wait-is-this-a-cult vibes, so if you like those kinds of books this is definitely one for you.

Note: I know the author, and tried my best to read without that in mind. Honestly it's a relief when a person you know wrote a good book because if it's bad you will have to come up with all kinds of excuses lol.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just captivating! From the description I wondered if this would be comedic (the whole “Florida Man” meme flipped to the female); this was more thriller perhaps but mostly just highly readable. I’m going to categorize this genre as “Whoa.” I can’t really describe the plot without bordering on spoilers, but just go with it.

As a former Florida resident, the setting was so spot on and evocative. I could feel the humidity in this book. It absolutely made me nostalgic and want to hang out with some monkeys.

(I read an ARC that a friend passed on to me, but according to my copy looks like this is coming out July 5, 2022. I don’t have any connection to the author/publishing company but just truly loved this one; it’s going to make an amazing summer read).

[Collin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still don’t know if the stilted, unnatural dialogue was actually stilted and unnatural or if it was just a stylistic choice that I didn’t vibe with. I thought it would become clear once I got far enough into the book but after 350 pages, I still can’t tell if it was intentional or just amateurish.

[alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

be gay! run a cult! maybe a drug ring? who knows!

“florida woman” was funny and unhinged, much like regular florida women but make it a thriller. i was pleasantly surprised at how good this book was. i started it out thinking it was going one way and then the plot twist came. it really drew me in and i felt like i could read this non-stop. there was a great balance between it being predictable and unpredictable which i appreciate in thrillers so 5/5 for that.

i can’t give it a full five stars because i wish the pacing was a bit better. i feel like the first half was a bunch of nothing but the second half HIT THE GAS PEDAL. such an insane ending but i’m happy with it. perfect read to start out march! 🌴

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darkly comic and emotional Florida gothic story of Jamie, who lands a plum spot as a live-in worker at a monkey refuge as her get-out-of-jail-free community service, only to find herself in a chaotic jam. She has to figure out what is going on (and readers have to figure out if we can trust her interpretation of things, including her slow-burning love interest in one of the staff members), then she has to decide what she wants to do about it all. As The Clash said, if she goes there will be trouble, if she stays there will be double.

Problem is, the three women who run Atlas have sucked her in with love bombing friendship and promises of safety, community, housing, important work, and most importantly, meaning. Other problem is this is Florida. Everything is imperiled, off-kilter, and to some degree hiding something.

The book sucked me in, too. Complex, twisting, well-written, totally nailing the ending, engrossing. As much as it’s Jamie’s story, the star of the show for me was Sari, a compelling and oddly relateable character who is singleminded about her grand vision… if only the dying universe and her squad would oblige. It made me think about the people behind the viral true crime headlines, and about how weird it is that we crave utopias, but then we always show up a mess and smash our own ideals, time and time again.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes compared to the Joe Exotic/Carole Baskin/saga/fiasco (the blurb from Joe himself helps), Florida Woman at first checks all the boxes: rural and muggy American setting, animal sanctuary, bizarre happenings, dangerous (and a little absurd, in a good way) intrigue. While this book is a great fit for those who want something along the same lines as Tiger King, this book is really so much more. Rogers' writing, filled with empathy and winking self-awareness, hooked me from beginning to end.

Nothing is quite as it seems as world-weary protagonist Jamie begins her community service at a monkey rescue. Desperate to renew herself, she works at Atlas, where a bevy of unusual characters at Atlas introduce her to the bizarre, uncomfortable world of those who devote themselves to caring for animals. Things get... weird. With many twists and eerie turns, the reader is taken along on Jamie's unexpected and honest ride through reinvention and rediscovery.

I don't know another book quite like this one!

I read an ARC of this book (thank you, Deb!).

[Amber Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a ride! A suspenseful book about a woman whose worst moment is caught on video and goes viral and who ultimately ends up doing community service in a monkey rescue sancuary with dubious, cult-like practices. Great psychological insight into the human mind.

As a reader who lived in Florida for a short while, the setting of this book really spoke to me--such a sensory experience. I felt like I could taste all the delicious vegans foods described, smell all the scents (the monkeys, the warm fruit, herbs and incense), feel the humidity and sun and mosquito bites. Really well done! Highly recommended for anyone interested in Florida, animal rescues, cults, suspense novels, or stories about complex female relationships. I think this would make a great book club book--lots to talk about!

[Deedle · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It would have been so easy to snatch the key chain from Sari’s neck, break the lock on the macaques’ enclosure, and follow the monkeys as they ran wild into the palmetto woods.”

This is how an absolutely provocative, twist-filled, and atmospheric story begins, in an unlikely setting: a Floridian wildlife center for exotic monkeys.

The writing is delicious, and while I rooted for Jamie, had very mixed feelings about the three women who run the center (and couldn’t help but be drawn in by the twist-filled, cultish narrative), it is the evocative setting (in places reminiscent of Where the Crawdads Sing, and Swamplandia!) that kept me hooked.

The thriller aspect is well-paced with an end I knew was coming but not in the way I thought it would. But most of all, I loved the weirdness, the fantastic creepiness of the story, and can’t wait to see what Rogers comes up with next!

[pchb · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny, absurd, and straight-up good. After a bizarre, only-in-Florida crime that makes headlines, Jamie narrowly escapes jail time by instead serving a sentence on house arrest at an isolated macaque sanctuary run by three beautiful, cult-y women.

Jamie is all too relatable, particularly her love of the women and the sanctuary even though she knows something feels off. This book made me realize how rarely I have read a book with a lesbian protagonist whose sexuality wasn't the basis of the plot. Hooray for Florida Woman, the perfect summer read.

I read an ARC that was sent to the bookstore I work at from the publisher.

[Meredith Hambrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It’s a very sinister, cultastic read about a woman who is forced to live at a monkey refuge in the jungley, wilds of Florida to atone for her criminal past. The setting of this novel really shined, adding so much creepiness to an already strange and fantastic environment. There’s a mysterious pull to the prose that had me up late several nights, unable to tear myself away. It’s got a blurb from the Tiger King himself, so worth checking out if the idea of a literary mystery set in a wild Florida jungle makes you salivate!

[Desiree Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

I always read the Author's Note and Acknowledgments first.

Page 347 Acknowledgments:
"First and foremost I want to acknowledge that this book was written on land that remains scarred by the histories and on-going legacies of colonial dispossession and is the ancestral and traditional territory of the Republic of Timucua and the Seminole Tribe of Florida."

🤦‍♀️
Oof... there is just so much wrong with this statement. I can't even.
🤢 Exiting pronto 🪂

[Estela González · Rating 5 out of 5]

Florida Woman is a thoroughly satisfying tale. Intriguing, imperfect characters, including an incredibly relatable protagonist—I love characters that show their human imperfections. This is a real page turner that at times reminded me of Hitchcock, at times of Coraline. I appreciate the deep research that went into the book about monkey conservation in Florida. I’m beginning my re-read right now!

[Michaella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is SO. GOOD. I could not stop reading!!!

[Liz • りず · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really captured Florida's unique brand of wildly unhinged🙈🙉🙊
🌴Full review to come🌳

[Kara (Books.and.salt) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was... not what I expected. I think Florida Woman has some fun elements and creative ideas, but the execution fell so short. From the characters, to the plot, to the atmosphere - I just kept thinking "wow this could have been so good!"

Being a lifelong Floridian, I loved Rogers' initial description of Central Florida and the macaque reserve. So many Florida novels talk about the gorgeous beaches and #SaltLife whimsy that people expect when they hear "Florida," so the raw portrayal of Central Florida as it truly is - a sweltering hot, mosquito ridden swamp - was really refreshing. I constantly found myself wishing that there was more description of the scenery and general atmosphere of the location.

Similarly to the atmosphere, I thought all of the characters were really interesting and unique and was very excited to learn more about them... and then I didn't. There was so little flesh to them that I really didn't care about them. Even the main character still feels unknown to me - her personality was hard to pin down and her "humor" felt so clunky. Truly my favorite character was Bee the macaque.

The "twists and turns" were not twists in my opinion. Nothing about this plot surprised me or made me feel any sort of strong emotion. Again, it was an interesting story... but not a thriller by any means. 3 stars purely for Bee.

Many thanks to the publisher for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review!

[Carol Dunbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Once a peacock had tried to mate with its own reflection on the door of my car, and that’s the energy Kayla had as she bounced back and forth from the shiny mahogany glow of her desk to her own reflection in the plate-glass office window.” Descriptions like this are just one reason why I fell under the spell of this enchanting debut by Deb Rogers. The flora and fauna, daily monkey antics and—most of all—the evocative behavior of a tribe of women trying to do good in an imperfect world make for a delicious and memorable read. I found myself unable to put it down and ready to cancel plans just to finish this book and see how it would end. Rogers has created a heroine to root for in her Florida Woman and is a writer I would follow anywhere. Highly recommended.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 This book had promise - a young Florida woman who went viral online for a crime is sentenced to community service in a monkey reserve that turns out to be a weird cult. But the pacing was off and the reveals were slow and not really satisfying in the end. I did enjoy the character of Jamie and the setting.

[Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh! So entertaining!!! Read this amazing book!!!

[Stacy40pages · Rating 3 out of 5]

Florida Woman by Deb Rogers. Thanks to @htpbooks for the gifted Arc ⭐️⭐️⭐️

After an incident that leaves Jamie in legal
problems and in the news as a “Florida woman”, she does community service at a monkey rescue.

We all know the Florida Woman. She makes the news for some strange reason. I loved the plot. It was very unique. I felt like her backstory could have been a bit odder to qualify as “Florida Woman” but the story was still strong. The whole book is different and unique. I really don’t want to spoil anything so just read it!

“We are a supportive circle, but remember: circles are closed for safety and wholeness. You are either with us or against us. There’s no other way.”

Florida Woman comes out 7/5.

[Stephanie (aka WW) · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) Living in Florida, I am very familiar with the saying/prompt “Florida Man”. For those of you not familiar with it, the challenge is to type the term “Florida man” into an online browser, followed by a male name. The result will (almost always) be an article or two about a weird Floridian with that name. See, as a state, we’re full of weirdos. This book is about a Florida woman, one who accidently set a tiki bar she was working at on fire and who prioritized saving a pelican over saving the tiki bar. This woman, Jamie, is sent to jail until an agent working on her behalf finds an entity that is willing to oversee her during a period of probation. This entity happens to be a monkey habitat in central Florida, a place where macaques are rehabilitated following capture.

At first, Jamie is happy with her position and longs to be taken into confidence by the three women who run the habitat. But she gradually realizes that all is not as it seems. The three women act mysteriously, the macaques often scream at night and, most puzzlingly, Jamie comes upon what looks like a secret sacrifice held late at night. Jamie is torn between wanting to join the three women and wanting no part in the strange goings on. She longs for acceptance, but does not want to jeopardize her legal situation. Soon, things come to a head and Jamie is thrust back into the headlines.

I listened to the audiobook of this title and it was very well-done. The story is easy to follow and has enough twists and turns to make it exciting. It’s a strange tale, but that’s what one should expect out of a book that references the Florida Woman challenge. Recommended for those who are looking for something a bit different.

[Melisa Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down! About one-third of the way through I started feeling a knot in my stomach because I knew SOMETHING WAS HAPPENING and hoo boy, something did! The suspense was intense in the best ways, and the end was so fulfilling.
Rogers writes so descriptively that the book played like a movie in my head as I read along, and I was sad to finish it because I enjoyed it so very much!

[vicki honeyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I thought was going to be an annoying novel because of the three beautiful over-the-top back-to-nature cult-like women who run a sanctuary for exotic monkeys in Florida turns out to be a page-turner chiller of a story. It’s full of creepy crawly things that appear in the night that aren’t anywhere near as creepy as the three women. Great build-up to a truly surprising ending.

[Caron McKinlay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like nothing I've ever read before! The setting, the characters all so fantastically new to me. And written so beautifully, in fact the power of the prose transported me right into the heart of Atlas.
And what I journey I had!
Such a wonderful story full of wit, tension and surprise. I never wanted it to end.
This needs to be televised and soon!

[Kizz Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect that. Or that. Or that!!!! Compelling, suspenseful, brilliantly paced to make you feel like you know exactly what’s happening then surprising you yet never making you feel cheated or tricked. A wonderful read by a marvelous writer. I look forward to her next work!