Floating in Austin

The Lifeguards
by Amanda Eyre Ward

New York: Ballantine, 2022.
368 pp, $18.00 Paperback.

Reviewed by
Katelyn Davis

When their teenage sons discover a young woman’s corpse, three affluent suburban moms in Austin, Texas, find their friendship and families tested as the mystery of what happened to the victim unravels. The novel focuses on the inner lives and secrets of each woman. There is Liza the single mom who hides where she is from; Whitney, the one who seemingly has it all, but whose family and marriage are dysfunctional behind closed doors—including a potentially psychopathic daughter; and Annette who has suppressed her emotions to conform. All try to keep their sons away from the crime, even as their boys become suspects. The book alternates between each woman’s point of view, as well as their sons, and Salvatore, the investigating detective assigned to the case.

   Ward’s writing is best with her humor. The narrative is broken up by messages from the neighborhood group chat featuring characters known only by their usernames, characterizing the neighbor and social stakes. These moments showcasing the vapidness of the women is the best bit of satire in the novel, making flatness of the main characters more pronounced. 

   Beyond the satirical humor, the book is tonally confused. Each chapter shifts from character to character, none of whom have a clearly defined voice. The only difference between the several characters is that Liza’s chapters are told in first person while the others are all in third, marking her as the pseudo protagonist.

   There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. Ward tries to convince readers that the plot and characterization are leading somewhere, yet the author dedicates entire chapters to Salvatore’s reasoning behind the process of getting a nanny from a website, whose background checks are later revealed to be possibly negligent. This plotline should lead to something bigger, but it is never referred to again after Salvatore meets the nanny for the first time. So many refracted pieces of the plot never come together, leaving readers confused and without answers to questions that never needed raising.

   The characters blur together, and the writing style and tone create an undynamic group. Each mother is obsessed with her son to an uncomfortable degree, with lines such as “Oh, how I loved this boy in the red shorts I’d bought for him when he’s forgotten to buy his own pair at the end of the six-week Lifeguard Training sessions! His knees. His hair. The hair on his knees.” This could be the setup for an exploration of the unhealthy relationships these women have with their sons, but instead these ideas are depicted as beautiful, with Liza declaring “only my son knows me truly, and that is enough.” The lack of development is a hallmark of the characters in this narrative, with only one going through any changes, sloppily added at the end. 

   The most misused character in the novel is the city of Austin, Texas. The book notes the city in the blurb and continuously reminds the reader where the story takes place but lacks any reasoning behind it, making it a distraction rather than enhancing the themes. The author passively name drops surrounding areas and famous Austin shops without details or action. The most detail given is a scene set at brunch restaurant Kerbey Lane, coming away with the detail that they have good pancakes. It might as well be IHOP. The story is missing the heart of Austin, the fascinating political dynamics, the constant changes that everyone complains of, the mix of cultures and backgrounds that are not explored or analyzed. Drop these characters into any affluent neighborhood in a major American city and the story could continue unhindered. It is not a flaw that the city is not a character, but the constant pigeonholing of notable Austin names takes readers out of the story if they do recognize it or is completely ignored, unimportant if the reader is not already familiar with the reference.

   The book’s premise is promising, but the execution lacks the jolts the genre requires. The author pulls punches when the plot requires an increased intensity. Overall, the story does not deliver on the promises of the blurb, the mystery’s resolution frustrating and the characters largely flat. While not the worst of the genre, this is not the book to put near the top of your reading list.

^{Katelyn Davis is a graduate student in the MA Literature program at Texas State University.}