Rating: 
Summary: Keep 'em coming.
Review: I must admit that I have waited for this book for a long time. Since I picked up "Tourist Season" about 5 years ago, I have read all of Hiassen's books. If you like the crazy and colorful characters, the twists and turns, and laughing so hard you drop the book, then this book will be like all his others. Just when you think that he can't tell a story with more pathetic or odd-ball characters than the last one, he proves you wrong. This book you will not want to finish and you will wait for his next one, much like a sick puppy. I don't ask how he does it, I just keep buying the books, as a way to show that I hope Carl Hiassen keeps it up.
Rating:
Summary: He's baaaack....and better than ever
Review: It's been far too long since Carl Hiassen's last book, Lucky You, but Sick Puppy is definitely worth the wait. Hiassen may be an acquired taste to some, as you have to enjoy some very twisted people and situations, but "at the end of the day" as the popular saying goes everybody pretty much gets what they have coming to them. Twilly Spree, is Hiaasen's latest creation to try and save Florida from the people who are trying to pave it, defile it, sell it and replant it and I suspect we may be seeing more of him in another book, along with the original Savior, former Florida Governor, Clinton Tyree, otherwise known as Skink (or you can call him captain). A new tribe of antagonists are created in this book. They are often kinky, sometimes homocidal, always greedy and out to do their best to feather their nests and line their pockets at the expense of the environment and the unsuspecting. It's a great ride which will have you chuckling and smiling from beginning to end. I hope we don't have to wait so long for the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Thank God Skink is Back
Review: I can't get enough of Skink. He is the funniest character I have ever encountered. Hiaasen is a born genius. I have every book and this one is fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: He's the best!
Review: I admit I haven't read this book yet-but I know I will love the plot and characters. Carl Hiaasen isn't capable of disappointing me. I share his "fondness" of Disney and his views of those who want to disappear the beauty of South Florida. And Skink! He's my ultimate hero! I have lived throughout Florida and have found the perfect combination-a Jimmy Buffett CD and Carl Hiaasen's latest book.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than Ever
Review: Carl Hiaasen is back, better than ever. I loved "Skin Tight" and "Double Whammy", but "Sick Puppy" is Hiaasen at his best His creations are so unique that the dialogue, the plots, and the characters leave you asking for more. The only disappointment in this book is finishing it.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, Carl, How I've Missed You!
Review: There is nothing like a Carl Hiaasen book! I tried my best to take my time reading. I kept closing it, putting it aside, but he's like chips, no way can you eat just one! If you haven't read it what are you waiting on? If you have read this wonderful new book don't you think it deserves 10 stars! And, aren't you happy Mr. Hiaasen gave Skink a Son! I figure Twilly is as close as Skink will get. I loved McGuinn, I could just see his face racing down the hill after the rhino. And Mr. Gash. I know you're suppose to not like him, but I knew when he came on the scene something wicked was sure to happen, and it always did. Oh, but did he get what Gash deserved! The entire novel was one magnificent ride. My only complaint is now that I'm finished I need more, MORE from Mr. Hiaasen, and I need it now! Please don't make us wait too long for the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: a fast read, but not up to speed
Review: Carl Hiassen is a master of the quirky character. In his early novels, those characters were integral to the plot and breathed life into the fiction. Regrettably, in Sick Puppy, I often felt the tales of oddballs were devices used to expand a thin plotline in order to meet the page quota. While amusing, they did not provide strong subplots, and were occasionally annoying. Too many popular writers peter out when forced to meet publishers' tough contractual timeframes. I hope this doesn't happen to Hiassen because I enjoy his energy, his take on FL politics, and believe he has a message that can be delivered, convincingly & entertainingly, in a fictional format. As for SP, I wish I'd waited til it came out in paperback, or was available at the library.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing effort
Review: Sick Puppy has all the elements of a classic Carl Hiaasennovel: a slightly off-kilter love story unfolding in the midst of anexplosive mix of sleazoid exploiters, deranged eco-defenders, and corrupt government officials. That said, however, it lacks the one element that sets Hiaasen's other (and better) novels apart from others in this genre--Sick Puppy simply wasn't funny. Whereas Hiaasen's trenchant wit normally breathes life and side-splitting humor into his stories, this one remained flat and predictably formulaic, not to mention overly drawn out. Hiaasen obviously was reaching when the dog became the main character in the middle of the book. We've read every one of his books and eagerly await the arrival of each new one. We hate to say it, but if we had it to do over again, we'd borrow the paperback copy of Sick Puppy from someone rather than buying the hardcover. Better yet, we would reread a funny Hiassen book such as Double Whammy, Skin Tight, or Lucky You.
Rating:
Summary: Hiaasen's Best Yet!
Review: From the younger-generation eco-terrorist, Twilly, to the evil cigar-addict/habitual litter bug/lobbyist, Stoat, and his wife, who's had enough of Stoat's use of his Polaroid in their bedroom, to our old friend, Hiaasen's original eco-terrorist, Skink, to the Barbie doll-obsessed former drug dealer turned land developer with his two 6 ft. Americanized artificial twin Eastern European Rhino-horn-crazed living Barbie sex dolls, and finally a rambunctious black lab named Boodles/McGuinn,who just wants to have fun and sniff, Hiaasen has put together the most wonderfully weird group of characters yet. The plots race toward assuring the safekeeping and seclusion of Skink's brother, the saving a small Florida island from greedy development, the liberation of Stoat's wife Desie from her horrible husband and Boodles/McGuinn serving as the inadvertant catylist in prompting a geriatric rhino to provide the main bad guys their just rewards, all in the midst of political wheeling and dealing. "Sick Puppy" is complicated and hilarious with all too true comments on human greed and our lack of concern for our planet and fellow man. This book should be required reading for all of us.
Rating: 
Summary: Any Hiaasen book is fun
Review: As soon as I saw this book out, I had to buy it! Having read almost everything this author has written, getting the latest was indeed high priority. Now I've rated this book "only" four stars, so let me explain. Yes the book is hilarious. And from the very first page. But in comparison to "Double Whammy", my favorite Hiassen book of all, I've come to "expect" serious whackiness in his characters now. Perhaps that's why "Double Whammy", for me, was the funniest book I've ever read. I wasn't expecting it, and furthermore, the book started out disguised as a rather serious mystery, and it was somewhere into the book as the characters developed, that I realized how crazy, and how dumb, some of them were. "Sick Puppy" makes no effort to disguise this. It is evident from the beginning that all the characters are nuts and no telling what foolishness they will get into. Furthermore, while the book certainly entertains, the end result doesn't have quite the ingeniousness built into the climax, as say the fishing tournament at the end of "Double Whammy". And I only rate this book four stars, simply because I don't think it's quite as good as "Stormy Weather", "Tourist Season", "Native Tongue", "Double Whammy", "Skin Tight", which I would all rate five stars. But like any Indiana Jones and Star Wars movie is entertaining to watch over and over, so are Hiassen's books, and "Sick Puppy" is no exception. And I'm quite sure we have been primed to see more of Boodles and Twily in the future. Bring them on! I'll buy the next Hiassen book as soon as it comes out to.
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