Love this series and this was another great installment :3

I really forgot how much of this book is of America just being hella indecisive. Maxon or Aspen? Hm idk how about the one who’s extremely down bad for you despite all your hesitation and who respects your boundaries? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Florence Adler Swims Forever is far outside the genre I usually read and right now I believe I needed that. The story follows a family who loses the youngest of two daughters, Florence. Florence's sister, Fannie, is pregnant and her mother decides to keep the knowledge of Florence's death from her to protect Fannie and the future grandchild. The story follows six people that were close to Florence through the summer of 1934, right after Florence dies.

Obviously, the year this book takes place is an incredibly tense time in world history, given the start/ramping up of WWII and the Holocaust. Although most of the story centers around grieving Florence and characters' struggle to keep her death from Fannie, one of the characters also has to deal with new and conflicting immigration and emigration policies from Germany to the USA as she is a Jewish immigrant from Germany trying to get her family to the USA. Reading about the policies, especially that Jewish immigrants couldn't work (as to "not take jobs from Americans") nor could they "be a drain on society" (benefit from social programs) made me feel incredibly disappointed (but not surprised) that opinions and rhetoric on immigration to the US has not changed over the last nearly 100 years.

Reading this, especially being in Minnesota with ICE agents (fuck ICE!) kidnapping people and detaining them, has shown me how Anna must fear for the safety of her family and has reinforced similarities I've noticed between Nazi Germany and the current US government.

Aside from connecting to current events, this book shows the depth of losing someone important and highlights the sacrifices people make for the ones they love. I also really enjoyed the author's note, basically explaining that the story was loosely based on the author's family history- mainly with Florence dying and the family keeping it from her sister and Anna (friend of the family) trying to secure visas for her parents. It's a great book and structured in an interesting way- I recommend!