The best books that feature Florida in a big way

The devastating story of two boys unjustly sentenced to serve time in a nightmarish juvenile reform school, The Nickel Boys won a Pulitzer Prize and became a New York Times bestseller.

It is a must-read for anyone sampling literary works featuring Florida. The boys in the story, Elwood and Turner, endure and witness hellish abuse at the Nickel Academy. The boys’ haunting story, exquisitely told by Colson Whitehead, is based on Florida’s real-life Dozier school where thousands of children were tortured, raped, and murdered for more than a century.

Whitehead’s unflinching descriptions of terror and abuse can be tough to take, but they serve an important purpose, by forcing the reader to confront the hellish reality that was America under Jim Crow laws. Long after the last page is turned, if ever, this novel won’t leave you.

Award-winning Florida author Connie May Fowler writes vividly and with intense emotion.

Best known for her six novels, including Before Women Had Wings, which became a film featuring Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Barkin, Fowler’s memoir, A Million Fragile Bones, describes the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Fowler was living a peaceful, luminous existence on Alligator Point, enjoying all the natural wonders that Florida has to offer, when a BP-operated oil rig exploded.

The disaster killed 11 men and spewed an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the sea. Her detailed and deeply personal account of the resulting catastrophic environmental damage is riveting, heartbreaking, and informative.

On a remote island off Florida’s southwest coast, the Bigtree family survives by wrestling alligators for tourists at Swamplandia!, but a brand new amusement park threatens their livelihood.

Southern Gothic at its most extreme, with elements of magical realism, Swamplandia! features a teen sister who courts ghosts following the death of her mother, a predator named Bird Man, a restless brother named Kiwi, and vulnerable thirteen-year-old Ava. Stephen King, whose work influenced Russell’s style, praised Swamplandia! as “brilliant, funny, [and] original.” 

Deb Rogers turns the classic “Florida Woman” meme on its head through her protagonist Jamie, a lost and desperate soul who winds up working at the bizarre Atlas Wildlife Refuge for macaques.

Three women in charge of the sanctuary soon seem to be creepy; they perform strange rituals and caution Jamie to avoid the medical lab. The novel’s setting, at the edge of the Ocala National Forest, immerses the reader in a tactile way into Jamie’s dark and ominous world. The plot races along at a fast clip and it avoids predictable twists, offering a fresh take on the story of a Florida woman whose mistake turned her into a viral punchline.

Readers will be rooting for Jamie to transform into a more empowered young woman. Think Carl Hiaasen meets Karen Russell.

Anyone interested in literature featuring Florida must read Hurston’s enduring master work.

The novel describes Janie Crawford’s coming-of-age journey, especially in Eatonville, Florida, which became one of the nation’s first all-black cities, incorporated in 1887. Janie, a child of slavery and rape, flees an oppressive arranged marriage, and later, she survives abusive lovers. Originally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God challenged gender stereotypes and presented a strong black female protagonist.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the novel is Hurston’s use of the Florida setting to both set the mood and drive plot choices. When protagonist Janie escapes violence, she flees the Panhandle for the more secluded, dense wilderness of Central Florida. There, complex waterways follow the characters’ various movements.