I really didn't like this at all.

It was something that just didn't sit well with me from the very beginning.

The moment I encountered it, there was an immediate sense of dissatisfaction.

Maybe it was the way it looked, or perhaps the way it functioned.

Whatever the reason, it just didn't appeal to me in any way.

I tried to give it a chance, but as I delved deeper, my dislike only grew stronger.

There was nothing about it that I could find enjoyable or redeeming.

It was a complete turn-off for me, and I couldn't wait to get away from it.

Even now, just thinking about it makes me feel a sense of aversion.

I don't think I'll ever change my opinion about this.

It's just one of those things that I simply don't like.

Zany characters, truly one-of-a-kind, populate the pages of this remarkable story. The unusual circumstances they find themselves in add an extra layer of excitement and intrigue.

The clever dialogue is like a sparkling gem, shining through and captivating the reader at every turn. It flows seamlessly, bringing the characters to life and making them feel real.

I was completely enamored with the storyline. It had me on the edge of my seat, eagerly turning the pages to see what would happen next.

Hiaasen has a real talent for creating engaging and entertaining stories, and I can't wait to explore more of his works in the future. I'm sure there are many more wonderful adventures and unforgettable characters waiting for me to discover.

His unique writing style and vivid imagination make his books a joy to read, and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a good laugh and an exciting read.

One of those books that makes you truly appreciate where you grew up is an absolute gem. It takes you on a journey through the memories and experiences of the author's hometown, painting a vivid picture that allows you to see the beauty and significance of your own roots.

As you read, you can't help but be filled with a sense of nostalgia and pride for the place where you spent your formative years. The book might describe the local landmarks, the unique traditions, and the people who made that place so special.

It makes you realize that every town or city has its own charm and story to tell. It encourages you to look at your own community with a new perspective and to cherish the memories and relationships that have been formed there.

Whether you still live in the same place or have moved away, this kind of book serves as a reminder of the importance of where you came from and how it has shaped who you are today.

3.5 stars. Once again, I find myself longing to sit down with Mr. Hiaasen. I really want to ask him how on earth he manages to come up with such unique and captivating material.

There is an abundance of things happening in this book, which makes it extremely difficult to summarize. The main character, Honey Santana, along with her ex-Perry Skinner, is striving to raise their son, Fry, to be a gentleman in Florida. She holds dinnertime in the highest regard as that is the one precious time it's just her and her son. However, every single night during dinner, the telemarketers call incessantly (which made me seriously wonder if this was written before the "Do Not Call" Registry was invented). And Honey is not entirely of sound mind. Honey's storyline commences with her having been fired from her job for taking a hammer to her boss, Louis Piejack's "family jewels" after he inappropriately touched her.

Boyd Shreave and his mistress, Eugenie Fonda, are telemarketers in Texas. Boyd has always been a slacker and Eugenie is simply bored, which is precisely why she continues the affair. The day she decides to end it is coincidentally the same day Boyd is fired for using a derogatory term towards Honey during a disastrous telemarketing call. Unbeknownst to the couple, Boyd's wife is onto them and has hired a private investigator, Dealey, to trail them around.

After the phone call that led to Boyd's dismissal, Honey decides he requires a lesson in humanity and tracks him down, pretending to be a telemarketer and offering he and his wife an all-expenses-paid trip to Florida for an "ecotour." He takes Eugenie. Having caught wind of this, Boyd's wife dispatches Dealey to Florida as well, hoping to obtain a sex tape that she can utilize against Boyd in the divorce (she inherited a chain of pizza stores so she has the financial means and doesn't want Boyd to have access to it). Once Boyd and Eugenie抵达 Florida, they quickly realize this is not the dream vacation they anticipated, but they don't leave either, agreeing to still embark on the ecotour to one of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands. Not only does Dealey follow them, but so does Piejack, who is in love with Honey and is prepared to take his "angel" home so they can commence their life together.

Meanwhile, already on the island is Sammy Tiger Tail, a young man of half-Seminole and half-white descent, who is hiding because while on his boat, a tourist suffered a heart attack and, misinterpreting advice, instead of taking the man to a hospital, Sammy dumped his body in the river. While attempting to find fresh water, he instead stumbles upon a group of co-eds on Spring Break, and much to his dismay, one of them, Gillian, decides instead of going home with her friends, she is going to remain on the island with Sammy.

It was almost a certainty that with everyone on the same island, the likelihood was high that they would somehow all end up crossing paths, and that is precisely what occurred. The book跳跃 around between characters, but it was done in a manner that told the story from diverse angles. For instance, if a shot was fired in one scene, the next scene would detail what character X was doing up until they heard the shot. It was an effective way of weaving everyone together and it also provided backstory, which brought the characters to life. And as with other books of his that I have read, there were a few history lessons incorporated to advance the stories, though in this one, as much as I have a passion for history, I felt there was a bit too much history.

In the end, however, the story was neatly tied up and not in a typical fashion as there were moments when I was left wondering if certain characters would manage to get off the island, and if some of them would do so alive. I enjoy his books and although this was not initially on my to-be-read list, I am glad I read it.

After receiving a cold call from a tele-contactor, Honey has had enough. She resolves to take the poor salesman to task and give him a lesson in civility. After all, politeness costs nothing.

The salesman in question, Boyd Shreave, unexpectedly finds himself on a kayaking "holiday" to Dismal Keys, courtesy of Honey. Along for the ride is Boyd's girlfriend, Eugenie, who actually wants to be his ex. And they're not alone.

Running around Dismal Keys, there's also a failed alligator fighter, a one-handed stalker, and a private detective. To cap it all, Honey's ex-husband and son are thrown into the mix. They're all stumbling around, coming across each other and creating typical outlandish Hiaasen shenanigans.

The usual mix of crazies and eccentrics is here, making it good fun as always. It's a wild and wacky adventure that keeps the reader entertained from start to finish.

This was my very first Carl Hiassen book, and it truly lived up to my expectations. It presented an utterly unbelievable tale filled with the most wacky characters, all set in the weird and wild backdrop of Florida.

The cast of characters was extremely interesting. I couldn't help but find myself rooting for Honey, the strong-willed mother who was on a mission to bring more civility to the world. However, I was a bit disappointed by the outcome of her conniving eco-tourism scheme to teach Boyd, the telemarketer, a lesson in respect. After all that he had been put through, he remained the same scamming, lazy, loser. I was also hoping that the young Seminole, Sammy Tigertail, would have more luck in finding himself and connecting to his native roots. But alas, it seems he still wasn't able to escape the world of the white man (and girls). Fortunately, there was an overall happy ending. Honey, Fry, and Perry grew closer during all of the kidnapping madness. Stinky, rotten fish man Piejack got what he had coming. College co-ed Gillian and husband-stealing Genie used their experience on Dismal Island to better themselves.

Overall, it was an entertaining read. And I will definitely give another Hiassen book a chance, especially when I'm in the mood for a brainless, zany, Florida-Man type of read. It's the kind of book that can transport you to a crazy world and make you forget about your own for a while.

I know Carl Hiaasen is regarded as this outstanding comedy writer, and his works are mainly set in my home state of Florida. So,按理说, I should be inclined to like - or at least be able to relate to - the jokes. However, I truly didn't enjoy any of the intended humor in this book, and a great deal of it made me rather uncomfortable.

To begin with, there is casual racism and stereotyping against Seminole Indians. Additionally, there is this absurd and classist judgment of people who are telemarketers, as if the capitalist need for employment doesn't exist. (I was a door-to-door salesman for 6 months when I couldn't find any other work. I am predisposed to loathe anyone who attacks employees for doing an unpopular job.)

Worst of all, though, is the strange over-sexualization of all the female characters that permeates this novel, combined with a constant threat of sexual violence. The narrative encourages us to laugh at a crazy comedy, while the villain is actually tying up a woman and describing what he's going to do to her body. I kept telling myself it would improve, but it simply never did.

All in all, this story receives my strong dis-recommendation. And this first Carl Hiaasen book that I've attempted is definitely going to be my last as well.

The first thing I need to say is that this book took me over three years to read from start to finish. That’s not because it’s a long book, but because of how I came by it. I first picked it up on a visit to a spa sometime in 2015 or 2016 and was sufficiently intrigued by the writing style that I took it home with me. I then read a bit more on each spa trip, until I was near enough to the end after a visit in April 2018 that I finished it in a few evenings. This may contribute to the detached and disjointed feel which pervades the whole book for me.

This book is a bit of a conundrum. Essentially I don’t think I “get” it. Positioned as a “Crime Comedy”, with gushing reviews all over the cover of how hilarious it is, I was hoping for some laughs. By the end I had had precisely zero. It wasn’t even that I just wasn’t in the mood to laugh at funny stuff, I honestly couldn’t even work out which bits were supposed to be funny! To me, the book just seemed simply to be a sequence of unpleasant things happening to unlikeable characters. Structured as an interwoven multi-viewpoint narrative there is no obvious protagonist, and nobody who seems to fit the title, which all just left me even more puzzled.

Some reviewers seem to infer that the title refers to “Honey Santana”, a woman who has alienated her long-suffering husband and decides, for no obvious reason, to enact a strange and complicated retribution on someone who phones her during a meal. To be honest, I did not find her an identifiable character, and she was not given enough depth to change that. The only character who got enough coverage to seem at all real was “Sammy Tigertail”, but he seemed little more than an observer for most of the book. The rest of the cast seemed to be just following their somewhat exaggerated character traits like clockwork, with no apparent development for anyone, and no emotional involvement for a reader.

The book was obviously aimed squarely at an American, even Floridian audience. Many times I was brought up short by the flat use of local terminology such as a brand name or a native plant or animal. Hiaasen must have assumed that it would be familiar enough to a reader to continue without even the simplest description.

If I had to make a guess, I would say that he had taken some sort of canoeing trip through the Florida islands and happened to stop and explore an island or two, then decided that such an island would make a good setting, so created some paper-thin back-stories to get a collection of eccentric characters there in the hope that hilarity would ensure. For me, it didn’t.

I finished it, but I won’t be rushing to read anything else by the same author. I found the overall experience rather underwhelming. The lack of a clear and engaging storyline, along with the unlikable characters and the disjointed feel, made it a bit of a chore to get through. While I appreciate the author’s attempt at creating a unique and humorous world, it just didn’t work for me. Maybe others will have a different opinion, but for now, I’ll be looking for something else to read.

Fun, light read.

Misfits, each living their own unique lives, find themselves unexpectedly thrown together by the most strange and unforeseen circumstances. This occurs on an island located within the vast and mysterious Everglades.

As soon as they are brought together, a sense of craziness immediately ensues. The island seems to have a life of its own, and the misfits are caught up in a web of events that are both hilarious and chaotic.

The build-up of the story is truly delightful. The author does an excellent job of setting the stage and introducing the characters, making the reader eager to find out what will happen next. However, as the story progresses, the untangling of the various storylines is a bit slow. It feels as if the author is taking their time to fully develop each character and their individual story arcs, which can be a bit frustrating at times.

Overall, though, it is still a fun and engaging read that will keep you entertained from beginning to end.

Tonight, I made my way downstairs to my fiction library with the intention of determining the number of Carl Hiaasen novels that I own.

To my surprise, it turned out that I have almost all of them, in various formats such as paperback, trade paperback, and hardcover. In total, there are approximately 45 copies.

I have truly enjoyed reading these novels, but unfortunately, I don't currently have the energy to write a review for this particular one.

The reading experience was both exhausting and enjoyable. On one hand, the complex plots and vivid characters demanded my full attention, which left me feeling a bit drained. On the other hand, the unique storytelling and Hiaasen's signature sense of humor made it a fun and engaging read.

Perhaps I will revisit this novel in the future and share my thoughts in a more detailed review. For now, I will simply cherish the collection and look forward to exploring more of Hiaasen's works.

I initially didn't have any expectations of liking this book.

However, after overhearing my supervisor's strong recommendation to someone else, I thought I might as well give it a shot.

To my surprise, the writing in this book is truly fantastic. The author has a remarkable ability to bring the story to life with vivid descriptions and engaging prose.

The characters are also extremely well-developed. Each one has their own unique personality, motives, and flaws, which makes them feel like real people.

What's even more impressive is how the seemingly disparate storylines all manage to come together beautifully in the end. It's like a puzzle where all the pieces fit perfectly, creating a cohesive and satisfying whole.

Overall, I'm really glad I decided to pick up this book. It's a great read that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for an engaging and thought-provoking story.

Hiaasen is my new favorite "guilty pleasure" author.

So what if you don't learn profound academic knowledge from the books? Or, perhaps you actually do pick up some useful life lessons! For example, you can learn how to outwit a cocky telemarketer who tries to swindle you. And also, how not to make the foolish mistake of putting all your hard-earned cash into Beanie Babies in the hope of a HUGE payoff later.

So what if he's not Shakespeare? Well, who's to say he isn't a modern day William! His writing is pure satire and cynicism, which makes it both hilarious and brilliant. He has a unique way of poking fun at society's absurdities and making us laugh while also making us think. His stories are engaging and entertaining, and I can't get enough of them. I highly recommend Hiaasen to anyone looking for a good laugh and a lighthearted read.