Sick Puppy

Customer Reviews

• Best Hiaasen Book Ever  Jan 6, 2000 (74 of 81 found this helpful)

  I , as a Floridian, am a huge Hiaasen fan. I was quite disappointed by LUCKY YOU, it had none of that Hiassen flair I am used to. I bought SICK PUPPY the day it came out, and ended up staying up all night reading it for 6 hours straight. It is his best yet (even better than TOURIST SEASON and STORMY WEATHER, his best two if you ask me). It is great to have Skink and Jim Tile back, and I love ther charater of Twilly. This is a must have book for all Hiaasen fans. Allyou have to do now is buy his book on Disney and your collection is complete.........

• Ecoterrorist, a dog, politics, what a book!  Feb 15, 2000 (12 of 12 found this helpful)

  This is a great book. I read it all in one sitting and it really made me think, and laugh, all at the same time. The characters were great, the plot flowed well, and I loved the rhinoceros hunt. All in all a funny and meaningful book. Sound like the author is mad, but laughing. I am too.

• A Very Entertaining Read - But He's Done Better  Jan 16, 2000 (43 of 52 found this helpful)

  Carl Hiaasen's "Sick Puppy" brings back his usual madcap hijinks, something that I felt was missing in his last novel, "Lucky You". The crooked politicians are there as is an environmental terrorist and the ever popular ex-Governor of Florida, Skink.

  The story has some extremely hilarious moments. I particularly liked the 911 calls listened to by Mr. Gash, they were hilarious! The bad guys get their (unusual) due at the end, always a fun thing about a Hiaasen book and Skink rides off in the sunset waiting to appear again (probably in Hiaasen's book after the next one - he has a pattern of showing up).

  My only criticism is that Hiaasen's books are starting to sound the same. Twilly Spree, the environmental terrorist, is like Skip Wiley from Tourist Season. Palmer Stoat is like Francis X. Kingsbury from Native Tongue and Desiee Stoat is like the lead female character in every Hiaasen book. The only thing he didn't do this time was have a reporter or former reporter (Hiaasen's regular gig) as a character in this book.

  I think Carl Hiaasen needs to look at a whole new type of plot for his next novel, one that doesn't involve trying to save the ever-shrinking Florida landscape. I think he could really write the ultimate comedy novel if he broaded his horizons. And with all of the crookedness in Florida, it shouldn't be a problem.

• Not uproarious, but a good read  Feb 15, 2000 (10 of 10 found this helpful)

  Though it's hardly a laugh a page as the dust jacket might have you believe, Sick Puppy is still an entertaining read. John Grisham take note: this is how you can wrap a message in an entertaining story unlike the purely preachy Street Lawyer. There are at least a couple dozen major laughs in the book, with a general air of lightness throughout the rest of the text. The book won't tax your brain, or even be very memorable, but it's great for an in between book.

• Any Hiaasen book is fun  Jan 15, 2000 (10 of 10 found this helpful)

  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.