wonderfully wacky

Carl Hiaasen is back! Chomp reminds me of my first Hiaasen novel, Striptease. That novel was full of wonderfully flawed, and fabulously funny characters, and it set me off on a Hiaasen obsession. I was so disappointed the movie didn't translate.

Hoot, his first YA novel, was very enjoyable but lacked the wacky humor of his adult novels. Chomp, is simply great.

I loved all of the characters, except for Tuna's dad, who nonetheless is portrayed as realistically evil. Derek, the "survivalist" will make everyone chuckle, particularly when you picture all of those shows where supposedly a man is surviving on his own..from day one of those shows I thought of the camera crew and chuckled at people who truly believed anything shown might have actually been dangerous.

The hero of the book, Wahoo, is an engaging young man, who works with his dad wrangling animals. His home is also home to a menagerie of animals, and the love he and his dad have for the animals and each other, is very nicely portrayed. They are hired to work on Derek's TV show, assisting Derek with the wild animals of the Florida Keys. Derek's wild antics, and selfishness set up some wonderfully comic moments, some of which are told in flashback highlights of former episodes.

I had been a bit reluctant to try this novel, because I didn't find Flush or Star Island worthy of recommending to anyone.

I highly recommend Chomp, and expect it to become a favorite of many.