Do you know how it feels to float?

How it Feels to Float by Helena Fox follows Biz as she navigates through her life. Fox’s debut novel explores topics of mental health, PTSD, depression, sexuality, friendships, parental loss, and generational mental illness.

Biz is a carefully curated, realistic portrayal of mental illness. Throughout this novel, she heals from her father’s death. He died when Biz was seven and has been visiting her occasionally since then. A misunderstanding and bitter lie create a much larger issue, where Biz loses the majority of her friends. She then loses her best friends through an irrational and spontaneous act.

This sends Biz into a spiral. Everything that she had, the one person she was holding onto, she had lost. Biz enters a depression that is worsened when the ghost of her father stops visiting her. Only one thing motivates her, finding her father.

The way that Fox chose to tell this story is what makes the experience different. Fox tells Biz’s story in what seems to be a chaotic manner, however, this adds to the reader’s experience.

Fox wrote this novel from a first-person perspective. Her choice of perspective allows her to communicate the story in an effectively intimate and authentic manner. The immersiveness of the novel creates a mirroring in emotions between Biz and the reader. The rawness of Biz is what makes this story unique. Biz’s doubt and pessimistic mindset make her feel real.

With Biz, Fox approaches mental illness in a way that many authors are afraid to. She shows the reality of what it’s like to grieve. Still, there were points in the book where the writing felt forced. At times the dialogue felt a bit unnatural and unrealistic. Still, I felt that this book was overall an accurate portrayal of mental illness and is a step forward in the destigmatizing of mental health.