Helpful Score: 5
if you are familiar with Hiassen you will love it, if not check it out if you love social and political satire, Florida or hate telemarketers
Helpful Score: 3
Another great book about the wild and hilariously funny characters Hiaasen finds in southern Florida. I often laugh out loud while reading his books, and this time was no exception. A divorced couple really want to be together except she "hears things" and goes beserk over such things as a telemarketer's hard sell. In fact she goes so beserk, she plans an incredibly elaborate revenge that involves getting the guy down to Florida and taking him to a deserted island so she can lecture him about proper behavior. But that's only the beginning...
My hardcover copy is in good shape but the dust cover is slightly torn at one corner (and a bit wrinkled). But the book itself is totally unmarked and fine and fresh.
My hardcover copy is in good shape but the dust cover is slightly torn at one corner (and a bit wrinkled). But the book itself is totally unmarked and fine and fresh.
Helpful Score: 3
I always enjoy reading Hiaasen's novels and this was no exception! Although the story was a little contrived, I enjoyed the interaction between all of the wacky characters. As usual, Hiaasen's comments on society were on target including his jabs at telemarketers, religion, and development and tourism in Florida. I recently read Skin Tight which was probably one of my favorite Hiaasen's but I also recommend Nature Girl highly.
Helpful Score: 2
Honey Santana the "queen of lost causes" has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls.
A good story and quite different - you will love it.
A good story and quite different - you will love it.
Helpful Score: 2
Quick, funny read. Reminds me of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil".....so bizarre it'll probably turn out to be based on a true story. lol
Helpful Score: 2
This was my first book By Carl Hiaasen, I will definetly read more from him. This book was quick read.
Helpful Score: 2
Nature Girl is a side-splitting, outlandish tale that is bound to make you pee or raise an eyebrow. The plot and characters read as if they are from the latest Coen brothers' movie. Completely insane and morally confused, the characters are continuously entertaining the reader. The plot can be bewildering because of its kookiness, but it is addicting. With characters this extreme and a plot that makes your head spin, Nature Girl has all the ingredients for a classic movie comedy.
Helpful Score: 2
This is more from the wacky world of Carl Hiaasen. Expect ecological outrage, a little unbelievable violence, adultery, blackmail, and missing fingers. All of the ingredients that made up the best of his work thus far are well in evidence here. While I enjoyed it, I wouldn't label this the best Hiaasen out there...it's a great fun summer read. If you can suspend your disbelief.
Helpful Score: 2
Don't we all hate to get telemarketer calls...? Well Hiaasen takes that anger and runs with it. A cast of off balance characters weave into each other's lives for a comical, over the top payback for telemarketers from the books 'heroine", Honey Santana. Not a believable story, his books never are, but a fun weekend read.
Helpful Score: 1
Outrageous and offbeat humor! This is about Honey Santana, impassioned and a bit crazy. She has a plan to help rid the world of dinnertime sales calls by taking a certain rude telemarketer on a wild trip to the 10,000 Islands off Florida's Gulf Coast. Funny!!
Helpful Score: 1
Very funny, as usual, but the action does not include the former Governor, the higway patrolman who looks out for him, or the Miami detective.
Helpful Score: 1
Really, pee on yourself funny. This reaffirms why I love Carl Hiaasen!
Helpful Score: 1
Very funny. Very clever. LOL prose and crazy, zany characters. I very quick read. Lots of fun for anyone familiar with Florida and Texas.
Helpful Score: 1
What a fun book! Lots of characters and sub-plot lines.
Helpful Score: 1
While some reviews have been luke-warm at best, if you like Carl Hiassen you'll like this book. Funny, filled with outrageous characters set in Florida.
Helpful Score: 1
interesting,different, keep me reading
Love Carl Hiassen and this is one of his best.
Another Hiassen attempt at humor at the expense of Floridians. I used to enjoy his books, but one seems just like the other.
This one contains an Indian, Sammy Tigertail, a half mad painter, Honey Santana, a love starved foul smelling man named Louis Piejack and others equally strange.
Gave it two and a half stars and that's a gift. Doubt if I'll ever read one of his again.
This one contains an Indian, Sammy Tigertail, a half mad painter, Honey Santana, a love starved foul smelling man named Louis Piejack and others equally strange.
Gave it two and a half stars and that's a gift. Doubt if I'll ever read one of his again.
If Dave Barry teamed up with Elmore Leonard to write comic crime novels about the dumb, inept, and down-right stupidest end of the criminal continuum, with the most eccentric characters on the cast list of not-so-innocent by-standers and good guys, you would get the typical Hiaasen novel. Since Hiaasen writes about the "real" Florida, his stories are always colorful, exotic, entertaining, hot, humid, but always highly amusing. "Nature Girl" is no exception. Just how many bad guys are wiped into this souffle is hard to say--even the good guys are pretty edgy. You basically can tell who's who by IQ. Bad guys: belt-size IQ. Good guys: too clever by half. In the end truth, justice, love, and the American Way--Florida-style win out, and once the sun is really setting, and Margarettas finally just perfect, this novel will give you a warm, sweet glow, like a $500-a-night Palm Beach hotel tan.
My 1st Hiaasen book & a stand alone. Too many characters, too much Indian history that didn't need to be in the story, too many plot lines that weren't resolved by books end. Bits of the book were funny (such as the songs in Honey's head, Dealey's picture taking investigative skills, & Skinner's devotion to his ex-wife). The book dragged on with Tigertail's woes about being a half white indian, Boyd's incessant whining, Gillian's constant chatter, & the references about manic episodes & bi polar disorder to explain most of the plot action. Contrived, confusing, & too long of a book with no satisfying explanations.
ANOTHER GREAT READ
As usual Carl Hiaasen delivers. Great characters. He makes all of his books interesting and fun to read. This one has it all - a main female character who is probably bi-polar; her ex-husband and their son (who is the REAL adult in the family); a man working in a call center and his mistress; an Indian and a college student, etc, etc.
Loved it.
Loved it.
Love Carl Hiaasen! Like all of his books, this was set in Florida. It had really quirky characters. There was a subdued thread of conservationism. But, it didn't have the usual laugh-out-loud quality. Don't get me wrong, it's a good read, but I hope he isn't running out of steam.
Poor Carl, like many author's, who have tasted great success, I suspected he phoned this one in.
A new author would have earned four stars, however, Carl is an expert.
Carl's characters were flat, one dimensional. Had he spent more time on their development via dialogue and behaviors, it might have had a chance. Honey, the key character is a borderline personality, who wants to change the world, one person at a time. Certainly her goals are noble, but her target is the average loser, a good start right? However, we never really identify with her motivation, telephone soliticators at dinner. One asks why she doesn't just turn off the ringer? Is this an earth shattering idea? If she is as clever as we are led to believe, I would think her love of the Everglades would be the focus or tie the other key character, a Seminole Indian into saving the Seminole culture which was traded its heritage for quick riches (hinted at throughout the novel).
I am glad I didn't waste my money - I went to the library.
My advice, Carl don't let someone ghost write for you. Focus on putting the same effort into your next story as you have in Orange Crush and Triggerfish Twist.
A new author would have earned four stars, however, Carl is an expert.
Carl's characters were flat, one dimensional. Had he spent more time on their development via dialogue and behaviors, it might have had a chance. Honey, the key character is a borderline personality, who wants to change the world, one person at a time. Certainly her goals are noble, but her target is the average loser, a good start right? However, we never really identify with her motivation, telephone soliticators at dinner. One asks why she doesn't just turn off the ringer? Is this an earth shattering idea? If she is as clever as we are led to believe, I would think her love of the Everglades would be the focus or tie the other key character, a Seminole Indian into saving the Seminole culture which was traded its heritage for quick riches (hinted at throughout the novel).
I am glad I didn't waste my money - I went to the library.
My advice, Carl don't let someone ghost write for you. Focus on putting the same effort into your next story as you have in Orange Crush and Triggerfish Twist.
Lots of good humor but not a joke book... good plot holds your attention
Living in Florida, working at a theme park, Carl's work hits home for me. I love his humor, a little trashy in all the right places, definitely "R" rated. Great departure..
Honey Santana-impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes"--has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsiblility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls. She's taking rude, gullible Relentless, Inc. telemarketer Boyd Shreave and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress, Eugenie-the fifteen-minute-famous girlfriend of a tabloid murderer-into the wilderness of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands for a gentle lesson in civility. What she doesn't know is that she's being followed by her Honey-obsessed former employer, Piejack(whose mismatched fingers are proof that sexual harassement in the workplace is a bad idea). And he doesn't know he's being followed by Honey's still-smitten former-drug-running ex-husband, Perry, and their wise-and-protective-way-beyond-his-years twelve-year-old son, Fry. And when they all pull up on Dismal Key, they don't know they're intruding on Sammy Tigertail, a half white-half Seminole failed alligator wrestler, trying like hell to be a hermit despite the Florida State coed who's dying to be his hostage....
Will Honey be able to make a mensch of a "greedhead"? Will Fry be able to protect her from Piejack-and herself? Will Sammy achieve his true Seminole self? Will Eugenie ever get to the beach? Will the Everglades survive the wild humans? All the answers are revealed in the delectably outrageous mayhem that propels this novel to its Hiaasen-of-the highest-order climax.
Will Honey be able to make a mensch of a "greedhead"? Will Fry be able to protect her from Piejack-and herself? Will Sammy achieve his true Seminole self? Will Eugenie ever get to the beach? Will the Everglades survive the wild humans? All the answers are revealed in the delectably outrageous mayhem that propels this novel to its Hiaasen-of-the highest-order climax.
------Another Hiaasen novel, set in Florida, with another wild and wacky cast! Similar to John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee stories, but with a more manic bent!------
Honey Santana - impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes" - has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls. She's taking rude, gullible Relentless, Inc., telemarketer Boyd Shreave and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress, Eugenie - the fifteen-minute-famous girlfriend of a tabloid murderer - into the wilderness of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands for a gentle lesson in civility. What she doesn't know is that she's being followed by her Honey-obsessed former employer, Piejack (whose mismatched fingers are proof that sexual harassment in the workplace is a bad idea). And he doesn't know he's being followed by Honey's still-smitten former drug-running ex-husband, Perry, and their wise-and-protective-way-beyond-his-years twelve-year-old-son, Fry. And when they all pull up on Dismal Key, they don't know they're intruding on Sammy Tigertail, a half white/half Seminole failed alligator wrestler, trying like hell to be a hermit despite the Florida State coed who's dying to be his hostage . . .
Will Honey be able to make a mensch of a "greedhead"? Will Fry be able to protect her from Piejack - and herself? Will Sammy achieve his true Seminole self? Will Eugenie ever get to the beach? Will the Everglades survive the wild humans? All the answers are revealed in the delectably outrageous mayhem that propels this novel to its Hiaasen-of-the-highest-order climax.
Honey Santana - impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes" - has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls. She's taking rude, gullible Relentless, Inc., telemarketer Boyd Shreave and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress, Eugenie - the fifteen-minute-famous girlfriend of a tabloid murderer - into the wilderness of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands for a gentle lesson in civility. What she doesn't know is that she's being followed by her Honey-obsessed former employer, Piejack (whose mismatched fingers are proof that sexual harassment in the workplace is a bad idea). And he doesn't know he's being followed by Honey's still-smitten former drug-running ex-husband, Perry, and their wise-and-protective-way-beyond-his-years twelve-year-old-son, Fry. And when they all pull up on Dismal Key, they don't know they're intruding on Sammy Tigertail, a half white/half Seminole failed alligator wrestler, trying like hell to be a hermit despite the Florida State coed who's dying to be his hostage . . .
Will Honey be able to make a mensch of a "greedhead"? Will Fry be able to protect her from Piejack - and herself? Will Sammy achieve his true Seminole self? Will Eugenie ever get to the beach? Will the Everglades survive the wild humans? All the answers are revealed in the delectably outrageous mayhem that propels this novel to its Hiaasen-of-the-highest-order climax.
Hilarious, wacky and a good social commentary in a bizarre way. Loved it and will read more of Hiaasen.
Very funny book - typical Carl Hiaasen.
