whitneydaniell

Summary

Billie and her husband, Cole, are drowning in debt while trying to save their son. After Billie’s local radio station—also her employer—is sold to a big corporation, she loses her radio host job and runs out of options. When Cole’s hometown HBCU, and his alma mater, offers him a position he can’t refuse, the Jordan family leaves Oakland behind for new possibilities in the Lone Star State.

But once in Texas, Billie can’t shake her city-girl roots. The small-town politics and corporate culture at her new job are suffocating. She wants to make a difference in her community and stand on the side of justice, but in Calderville, word travels fast—and instead of making a change, Billie just rubs everyone the wrong way and lands on the bad side of the town’s power players.

Though she’s floundering in both her personal and professional life, Billie is desperate to save her son Dylan. Once a high school swim star, Dylan is now battling an opioid addiction after a rotator cuff injury. Billie and Cole put everything aside to help him: they mortgage their home, max out their credit cards, and send him to expensive rehab programs. But when Dylan doesn’t want to get clean, Billie must face the painful challenge of caring for her son while still caring for herself.

As drama heats up, tempers flare, and everything and it seems, everyone in Calderville are working against her, Billie is left with no other choice.

Character Summary

Billie Jordan is insufferable. Everyone around her tells her about herself, but she takes zero accountability for her actions. She has no emotional intelligence (or any intelligence, for that matter), is purposely obtuse, and is just… an overall bitch. She’s immature and inconsiderate. She calls Cole selfish multiple times when, in fact, she’s the selfish one. She complains incessantly and never—and I do mean never—shuts up.

Her husband of however many years, Cole, should’ve left her back when he had an affair. He wasn’t perfect either, but he was honest about the world around him and didn’t want to play any save-a-hoe superhero games with Billie. He was far more pragmatic, and the only one saying what needed to be said when it came to Dylan and his (lack of) treatment. He stayed with Billie for all the wrong reasons.

Dylan, Billie and Cole’s youngest child, is addicted to opioids after surgery. At just seventeen, he spends most of his time in and out of expensive rehab centers, only to relapse. Their oldest child, Kendra, is a petty officer in the Navy. She enlisted out of high school, moved away for basic training, and never looked back. She and Billie have a strained relationship, largely due to Billie’s coddling of Dylan.

Monroe, Cole’s older brother, is a business owner in Calderville with a vested interest in the town’s economics and instability—he owns the company that rents porta-potties to the school. His wife, Joellen, works for Ross County Water Works, and her brother is running for mayor. So yeah—she also has a lot riding on the status quo staying the same around town.

Maya, Billie’s younger sister, and their mother, Zuri, both still reside in California.

My Thoughts

I want to choose my words carefully, because I’m not in the business of tearing people down without extending a hand to lift them up—but I truly disliked this book. That half-star is me being generous. Very generous.

This story is all over the place. From an objective standpoint, I can see that the author, Dixon, really tried to draw attention to two major societal issues plaguing communities across the country: the water crisis and the opioid epidemic. But to me, she missed the mark on both by being too ambitious in her execution.

Yes, the water crises in places like Flint, Michigan, and Baltimore, Maryland, have made national news. And yes, the opioid epidemic is widespread and deserves more attention and resources. But this book didn’t raise awareness—it distracted from it.

I think the best way to organize my thoughts is to list my main issues:

Pacing and Timeline
The timeline is all over the place. They move in winter, there’s a “spring” frost in March when the first signs of the water issue arise—but then I lose track of what season we’re in. Suddenly, they’re talking about getting back to the hotel in time to watch the football kickoff, which would mean it’s September or later. Chile, I gave up trying to keep up.

Extensive Dialogue
There’s a reference to Billie’s life feeling like a Tyler Perry movie, and the irony is: this book reads like a TP script. It’s all dialogue, no character development. Everything you learn about the characters comes from endless talking. It’s like Dixon doesn’t trust readers to pick up context clues or use deductive reasoning. There’s no scene-setting, no descriptive prose, no creative expression—just nonstop talking.

Unlikeable Characters
No one is likable, except Kendra—and even she’s barely present. Dixon treated Kendra exactly the way Billie does in the book: like an afterthought. I almost liked Billie’s sister, Maya, but there’s a massive twist involving her that makes absolutely no sense—and it ruined her for me.

Unrealistic Situations and Expectations
So many plot holes. Maya is the younger sister who went to USC, returned home pregnant after two years, and… I’m trying not to spoil anything, but the timeline and logistics of how she ended up pregnant by who she did? Make it make sense. Treated way too casually, too.

Dylan somehow gets from California to Arizona at seventeen—but how, Phyllis?! Nobody under 21 can rent a car. HOW?! I’m not stupid, and these kinds of plot holes make me feel like you think your readers are.

Resolution
The book just ends. There’s an epilogue, but it doesn’t resolve anything.

Needless to say, this book had potential—but it was too ambitious and poorly written. It needed to pick a lane: drugs or water. Trying to squeeze both issues into one narrative just squeezed my patience.

Final Verdict

Hard pass, if you couldn’t tell.

Acknowledgement

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for an advanced reader copy of Something in the Water in exchange for an honest review.