Florence “Florida” Baum is not the hapless innocent she claims to be when she arrives at the Arizona women’s prison—or so her ex-cellmate Diosmary Sandoval keeps insinuating.
Dios knows the truth about Florida’s crimes, understands what Florence hides even from herself: that she was never a victim of circumstance, an unlucky bystander misled by a bad man. Dios knows that darkness lives in women too, despite the world’s refusal to see it. And she is determined to open Florida’s eyes and unleash her true self.
When an unexpected reprieve gives both women their freedom, Dios’s fixation on Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles.
So I’ve definitely been trying to get way back into reading crime/mystery/thriller novels, and I had the incredible experience of finding two new-to-me authors that I fell completely in love with, in the same week!
I just posted my review for Liz Moore’s gorgeous LONG BRIGHT RIVER, but prior to picking that one up, I had started Ivy Pochoda’s SING HER DOWN. And admittedly, it took me a bit to get into this one. To find the rhythm of the words.
But oh my. This fucking book. I was absolutely mesmerized by this one. It is just raw, unflinching, gritty as fuck, and so starkly beautiful. This is haunting crime fiction at its absolute best, and I could honestly not have been more amazed.
Set in the early and deeply paranoid days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the story follows Florida & Dios, two women recently released from prison (because of the pandemic), and Detective Lobos, who will soon be tracking them all over Los Angeles.
Florida (Florence Baum) presents herself as a rich party girl who got a little mixed up with the wrong people, and was convicted of being an accessory to murder when she really just drove the getaway car. Florida is a privileged character and she’s engaging in a pretty deep form of denial and self-deception. She’s in a lot of emotional pain & doesn’t have any kind of healthy support system.
Dios (Diana Diosmary Sandoval) is locked up on an aggravated assault charge, and kind of relishes her role as a sort of bully in the prison. She’s really perceptive about people & she has a way of emotionally manipulating everyone around her. The women of the prison seem to simultaneously worship, fear, and loathe Dios. All that said, Dios knows some shit & sees it as her personal mission to get people to kind of own up to their own transgressions. She’s a deeply complex character.
Dios obsessively follows Florida after their early release from prison. The two end up on the same bus, and something nightmarish occurs, which triggers a chain reaction that ultimately puts Detective Lobos on their tail.
For one reason or another, I felt like this book really came alive when Lobos was introduced. I think in a way, she grounded the story for me. As she tracks Florida & Dios, she is also scouring Skid Row for any sign of her estranged husband. He became extremely isolated & physically abusive towards her during lockdown, and she’s really grappling with a lot of messy feelings around it. I just loved this character so damn much. She’s really complicated & funny & so painfully human…this whole book could have been from Lobos’s POV and I would have loved it just as much. No clue if we’d ever see her in another of Pochoda’s books (and admittedly, I wouldn’t know if she’s already appeared in one before this) but I’d be thrilled if that were the case.
I’ve done a bit of a terrible job here explaining what this book is even about, while somehow spending more time rehashing the plot than I wanted to. I haven’t really read anything like this. The prose in this novel feels simultaneously sparse, yet so haunting & gorgeous. Everything about SING HER DOWN just feels completely electric & unpredictable. This book also screams Los Angeles…like this is a gritty, propulsive, unforgettable L.A. noir masterpiece. It takes a real wide-eyed look at the pandemic, at racism, classism, domestic violence, addiction, and the tragic number of unhoused people in Los Angeles.
I was awestruck by SING HER DOWN. This book felt like a challenge initially, but the more I read, the more I got so lost in it. And by the end, I knew I had found an author that I just loved…I can’t recommend this one enough. A fucking incredible novel, one of my favorite reads of the year!
Grimdark Dad 