Very dry humour, loved it!

Would you listen to Skinny Dip again? Why?

Probably not as i'll never get through my wishlist if i do. I also found the narrator to be a little grating at times, the nasal accent for the Chaz character worked and was fitting but I didn't find it a touch painful at times!

What did you like best about this story?

The light hearted, if slightly dark 'twist' (it's not really a twist as you know fairly early on but I shan't ruin it!

What about Jeff Harding’s performance did you like?

The characters were versatile and the accents clearly different but some of the accents really got to me after a while!

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh quite a lot. It also made you think quite long and hard about the one clear underlying message about the destruction of the planet.... i'm not a die hard green but still the whole premise of solution and not caring does ring true!

Any additional comments?

It was a very different book to anything i've read before, but i enjoyed it immensely!

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3 people found this helpful

Acerbic wit and social critique

This was my first foray into Hiaasen territory, and I loved it, particularly in Jeff Harding's rendition. His female voices are very good for someone with such a gravelly voice.
The story starts as a failed wife murder that comes back to bite the husband who fancied that throwing his wife overboard on a cruise would solve the problem of his irritation with her and rejuvenate his bank account. The wife survives, teams up with a better man and finds out a thing or two about that husband of hers that makes him look more than just homicidal: phoney degrees, environmental pollution, fraud, and serial adultery - oh, and he's stupid as well, a fact previously glossed over by his remarkable sexual prowess. Plenty of motives for revenge, and so the game begins...
Hiaasen delights the reader with plot twists, ironic comments on Florida's social mores and protagonists who are intelligent, articulate but lovably flawed. The prose has plenty to recommend it too, not least the quasi-hardboiled wit and the wisecracks. The genre is crime fiction but the characterisations are solid and have psychological depth. This would be fabulous as a holiday read (unless you go to Florida, of course) or on a long, cold journey. Or if you're just hacked off with the rich-and-irresponsible getting richer-and away with everything. Here they don't. They get their heads blown off or at least their arses kicked.

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11 people found this helpful

Hilarious !!

Never listened to this author before, but what a great listen, very funny. Jeff Harding never fails to deliver.

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3 people found this helpful

SKINNY DIP by CARL HIAASEN

Great story. comical, twisting, swampy tale.
Pity the reader had to spoil it by reading the heroine's part in such a soppy voice.
Irritated me to the point of abandonment. Glad I persevered.
Latter chapters are brilliant.

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1 person found this helpful

Good holiday read

Listen to this book for a sense of place. I enjoy reading books that are related to where I am on holiday so this was a good choice for South Florida. The story was secondary, it moves along and keeps you interested although it was implausible at times. The ship, the ocean, the islands, the freeways, the Everglades, the malls, the humid heat kept me listening while gazing out at the waves on the beach.

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Great story. But not enough Skink

Flew through this enjoyable jaunt. All the usual aspects of a Skink story… just without much Skink.

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Its just brilliant!

What did you like most about Skinny Dip?

It fun and more fun, laugh out loud

What did you like best about this story?

The way the book tells a story about how greed and consumerism is bad for us

What does Jeff Harding bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

His ability to act out each character is amazing

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3 people found this helpful

Ok story terrible narration

The narrator does the voices of the characters like they are cartoons or caricatures. It is ridiculous and very distracting. Probably better to read the book though a masterpiece it is not.

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very funny - loved it

What made the experience of listening to Skinny Dip the most enjoyable?

Wonderful story and so enjoyable - the actor reading the story is so good...

Who was your favorite character and why?

Tool !!!

Which scene did you most enjoy?

too many to list

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

Any additional comments?

anyone I have told to read this book has found it very funny and a great story - great holiday read.

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Brilliant writing brilliantly read

Hiaasen’s love of the unique natural Florida, away from Disneyland and its like, away from Miami and into the modern Everglades and the impact of man on this wilderness is told through the intertwining tales of a cast of likeable, loveable and loathsome characters. After an inexplicable attempted matricide on a cruise ship goes awry, the hilarious tales that unfold shine a light on the best and worst in humanity all read brilliantly by Jeff Harding. To say any more would spoil your enjoyment - but no one else could create the reason that two children become orphaned in a way that is so uniquely tea (or coffee) snortingly funny and awful as the mind of Carl Hiaasen, so drink hot beverages while listening at your peril!

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