I dont think I'll be giving this a rating. It feels too slippery of a book, and I don't think I'd be able to settle on a number.

I think I overall enjoyed this? Focus on "I think" because I'm honestly still unsure and it's been a day since I've finished. If you broke down the story into it's parts, the short stories that make up the book, I'd clearly be able to point out which stories I loved, which I liked, and which I disliked, but as a whole? I don't know what to say about it.

I enjoyed the general vibe of this book and I have to say it did feel quite 'Floridian', even if a lot of narrators were Florida born (like the recurring mother character). There was the constant mention of the heat and the snakes and the alligators, but beyond those obvious details reminding you that the book was in Florida, there was this vibe that came with each story, it seemed to hang over the book like Floridian humidity. The pace was also fitting, and everything read like a slow-moving haze. It felt like Florida turned into a feeling, and somehow each story seemed to carry it, even when the characters found themselves in not-Florida.

Overall though, this book had a few underlying messages (like the perpetual worry of the end of the world, generally through climate change) but honestly? Almost nothing actually happens. This isn't a book you read for excitement or thrill, it's an experience and I cannot say if it's a good one. Many stories feel like they're on edge of a breakthrough the entire time, the second before you reach clarity and understanding, and then they end, leaving you without it. I both liked and hated this.

On an individual level, I generally liked all the stories. They were slice-of-life stories, with some hints of what would happen to these characters later, but generally focused on the now. I honestly ended up really loving the one recurring character, a mother who actually gets to use the 'I' term when narrating (the rest are narrated in third-person). There was only one story that I actively disliked but mainly because I didn't get it, and spent too much time trying to figure out if it was the same mother character (due to the use of 'I') even though nothing lined up between this story's narrator and her. I still don't know what to make of it honestly.

Overall, I think I liked this, and I would probably give another one of the author's works a try if the premise interested me, but I don't think I'll ever come to a concrete rating on this specific book.