Rating: Summary: Hiaasen amiably avoids the sophomore slump! Review: What little Hiassen didn't accomplish in his first novel, he more than makes up for here. The characters are even more believably outrageous. Just when you think the book cannot get any more outrageous, Hiassen blows you out of the water (no pun intended). You would be hard pressed to find a writer as amuzing as him. So much of Hiassen's folklore is born in this novel, and is expanded in later stories such as Striptease and Stormy Weather. You have to love Skink, and the rest just falls into place. The true beauty is that, despite the lunatic fringe, there is a sense of believableness that goes along with it. Who else could give you a kidnapper with a dead pit-bull locked onto his arm, and make you BELIEVE it. And don't miss the entire enviromental concept, which is really what Hiassen is portraying for us
Rating: Summary: Not Good Review: Wow, my wife bought this book and never got around to reading it.
I picked up and read it in a couple days. At first I thought it was average at best. But the ending completely ruined my origional opinion. The characters where fairly interesting at first. I especially liked the big tough state trooper. And of course, Skink....how can you not love a big crazy guy that lives in the woods. However, as the book went on it became more and more unrealistic, and eventually borderlined on being retarded.
Rating: Summary: FUNNY!! Review: You grow up in redneck country, and you meet guys like the residents in Harney County and the bass fishing pros. There's an element of truth mixed in with Hiaasen's exaggerations of life in both Miami and the South. Skink, the Ex-Governor of Florida makes his appearance in this book. Honestly, SKink is so crazy, so weird, he's almost real. I swear, when I lived in FLorida I half-expected to see him dash onto a highway. I never thought a book about fishing could hold my attention, but it held it very well. This book's one of the best ever cranked out by my idol
Rating: Summary: One of his best Review: You'll either love Carl Hiaasen's books or you'll loathe them. His usual themes are at play here (defending the ecosystem, corporate land deals, corrupt politicians), as well as well-worn characters like Skink and Jim Tile. This, Hiaasen's 2nd book, is set apart by the sheer outrageousness of the plot...corruption and murder in the bass fishing industry!? This one makes Sick Puppy or Stormy Weather look like Grisham novels.If you've never read Hiaasen, this is a good place to start. If you're already a fan you should've read this one already. Be warned, though...this may be the most gruesome one of the bunch. One of the baddies spends half the book with a decaying severed dog's head clamped to his arm. And, while most of Hiaasen's books carry a serious moral message, it's never fed to us in such a shocking manner. No spoonful of sugar here.
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