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daja57's review against another edition
3.0
Hugely energetic, fast-paced and action-packed with a large cast of oddball characters, this book starts by relating a large number of violent deaths in a seemingly random order. There was a lot of this and I found it difficult to get interested. But after a while, I started to recognise characters I'd met before and at about the half-way mark I started to understand how things were connected.
Synopsis? Serge and Coleman are on a crime spree with coke-snorting bimbo Sharon. They get involved with a corporate criminals and hit men and cheerfully murder their way across Florida. At the same time, best-friends-since-school Sean and David are on a road trip.
In typical American fashion the prose contains a vast number of cultural references (are Americans really so obsessed with sports and with the details of the food they eat and the clothes they wear?) and seeks to add verisimilitude by the means of lists, eg "He filled it with his native-tourist gear: camera, lenses, extra film, leather-bound journal, gravity-defiant pens, water bottle, the 1939 WPA guide to Florida, coupons, maps, AM/FM radio with weather alarm, a travel-size. 25 automatic pistol and other people’s credit cards." (Ch 24) I suppose this makes the narrative more believable although given this number of murders my disbelief was never actually suspended.
The 'blurt it all out' style reminded me to some extent of Jack Kerouac's free-wheeling prose in On the Road and more so of someone on amphetamines. As well as the graphic details and the ever-more-inventive ways of killing someone, there was quite a lot of humour. This kept me going to the end, although I was already getting bored by the quarter mark (it's all so much the same).
There are now 24 in this series. I can't imagine that. How does anyone have the energy to write at this pace for 24 books? How could I possibly read them? I need a lie down now.
Synopsis? Serge and Coleman are on a crime spree with coke-snorting bimbo Sharon. They get involved with a corporate criminals and hit men and cheerfully murder their way across Florida. At the same time, best-friends-since-school Sean and David are on a road trip.
In typical American fashion the prose contains a vast number of cultural references (are Americans really so obsessed with sports and with the details of the food they eat and the clothes they wear?) and seeks to add verisimilitude by the means of lists, eg "He filled it with his native-tourist gear: camera, lenses, extra film, leather-bound journal, gravity-defiant pens, water bottle, the 1939 WPA guide to Florida, coupons, maps, AM/FM radio with weather alarm, a travel-size. 25 automatic pistol and other people’s credit cards." (Ch 24) I suppose this makes the narrative more believable although given this number of murders my disbelief was never actually suspended.
The 'blurt it all out' style reminded me to some extent of Jack Kerouac's free-wheeling prose in On the Road and more so of someone on amphetamines. As well as the graphic details and the ever-more-inventive ways of killing someone, there was quite a lot of humour. This kept me going to the end, although I was already getting bored by the quarter mark (it's all so much the same).
There are now 24 in this series. I can't imagine that. How does anyone have the energy to write at this pace for 24 books? How could I possibly read them? I need a lie down now.
linnylou's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
micaelagiambrone's review against another edition
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ncoltelli_09's review against another edition
5.0
This book was hilarious! I think i found a new favorite author. I hope the rest of the his books are good as this one!
labunnywtf's review against another edition
3.0
I stuck it out. I refused to give up. I was determined to see it through, and find the point.
And on the last page, I discovered...there was none.
Sigh. The book would be amusing as a series of short stories. But no. He had to try combining their stories and have them all meet and interacting and DEAR GOD I could have flung the book into the bayou 100 times before I was halfway through.
I give it three stars because parts were amusing. I'll give it to him. But I do not think anyone should read this expecting to find a point.
And on the last page, I discovered...there was none.
Sigh. The book would be amusing as a series of short stories. But no. He had to try combining their stories and have them all meet and interacting and DEAR GOD I could have flung the book into the bayou 100 times before I was halfway through.
I give it three stars because parts were amusing. I'll give it to him. But I do not think anyone should read this expecting to find a point.
chloekg's review against another edition
5.0
A rollicking roller coaster of facts and endearing-if-lethally-flawed characters, Florida Roadkill is a wild ride and colorfully good read.
jswolf's review against another edition
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
woody1881's review against another edition
5.0
I could not describe with any accuracy how much fun this book was. I hope the author was paid in advance because with the price of mind altering drugs these days, he might have been homeless by the time he got all this out on paper.
The logistics of keeping this together must have taken a whole house of dry-erase boards and post-it notes. I almost wish I hadn't finished it because I still want to be reading it. What a perfect escape from reality!
The logistics of keeping this together must have taken a whole house of dry-erase boards and post-it notes. I almost wish I hadn't finished it because I still want to be reading it. What a perfect escape from reality!