Florida woman A novel

Intrigue and entertainment abound in this lighthearted if somewhat bloated debut novel. As a stereotypical "Florida Woman," Jamie has gone viral with a video of herself burning down a tiki hut and saving a pelican. When she is given the opportunity to serve her house-arrest sentence at a local monkey rescue, Atlas, she jumps at the chance. But all is not as it seems at the shelter, with a suspiciously cultlike group of women running things. This far-fetched premise leads the reader on an adventure through sacred rituals, drugs, and family drama. Almost written as a love letter to Florida--"People flood to Florida because it is the end of the country, the end of the line, last stop, last call, last chance to start again"--the book features certain plot points that feel more like afterthoughts (an LGBT romance, for one). Still, Florida Woman triumphs in keeping the reader on the hook, its twists and turns successfully surprising at almost every point.

In Rogers's bewitching debut, a woman tries to start fresh after earning the internet moniker "Florida Woman." Jamie Hawthorne, rootless at 28, had enough of being harassed and shortchanged by her boss at a St. Augustine tiki bar. Her crime, which comes out in greater detail later in the narrative, involved a fire, autographed dollar bills, and a pelican. Now, hoping to live down her notoriety, she begins a sentence of residential service at the Atlas macaque sanctuary. Its founder, Sari, who takes care of the facility's 42 monkeys, hopes to inherit the property from her mother, Flora. Though Jamie thinks Atlas has a "grimy, isolated, snake-trap vibe" and her monitoring device chafes her ankle and soul, the place soon feels like home, and she hopes to make the most of her three-month stay. Then, awakened one night by simian shrieks, she witnesses Sari leading volunteers in what appears to be a cultlike ritual. After Jamie glimpses an emaciated Flora combing compost piles for food and is told never to go into the sanctuary's medical lab, she tries to balance her need for belonging with a growing sense of unease. In the tradition of Carl Hiaasen, Rogers relishes Florida's oddities and extremes, yet she makes Jamie quietly if quirkily sympathetic, lending the rollicking story a vulnerable heart. Readers will fall in love with this one. Agent: Hannah Brattesani, Friedrich Agency. (July)