Saturday, June 21, 2025

Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen Book Review

About the Book:

Welcome to Fever Beach, where the sun blazes, the politics are unhinged, and the characters are as volatile as a summer storm.

Dale Figgo is a half-baked crusader with the rare distinction of being kicked out of the Proud Boys—for being too dumb. His latest bad decision? Picking up a hitchhiker on a rainy afternoon while running an errand.

That errand sets off a chain reaction involving Viva Morales, a clever, resilient newcomer trying to rebuild her life post-divorce. She’s renting a room in Figgo’s apartment and working at the Mink Foundation—a philanthropic front with something far darker beneath the surface.

Circling them is Twilly Spree, a hotheaded environmentalist with too much cash and a gift for over-the-top revenge.

When dark money and twisted motives bring their worlds crashing together, Viva and Twilly become unlikely allies. Together, they uncover a tangle of corruption and conspiracy led by a plastic-surgery-loving billionaire couple and a clueless congressman with delusions of grandeur.

In his most outrageous and deliciously funny novel yet, Hiaasen delivers a gleefully chaotic portrait of contemporary madness.

My Review:

I don't think I had ever read a book by Hiaasen so took the opportunity to review this one when it was given. While he has done a great job creating unusual, quirky and dumber than dirt characters, I was soon overcome with all of the foul language and the sex references. I got tiresome of the ongoing political stuff too. Some of the dialogue was snappy and fun but so much of it was just foul language.

I decided there are so many gross people in real life with odd political agendas, I did not want to spend my time reading about fictional ones.

My rating for the part I read, 2/5 stars.

About the Author:

Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida, where he still lives. He is a prize-winning journalist with a regular column in the Miami Herald and many articles in varied magazines. He started writing crime fiction in the early 1980s and has recently branched out into children's books; he has also had several works of non-fiction published.

Knopf, 384 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. I did not finish this book but these are my observations from what I did read.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)

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