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Star Island | |
 | Knopf 352 $26.95 3.5 60 14 eBooks B003F3PKU4 |
Product Description Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen-and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster. Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her "undercover stunt double," Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too "indisposed"-meaning wasted-to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott. Now the challenge for Cherry's handlers (über-stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker-wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry's public-and from Cherry herself. The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink-the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp-and now he's heading for Miami to find her . . . Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry's motley posse does? All will be revealed in this hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane. From the Hardcover edition. | |
4 out of 5] An entertaining, if bumpy, ride... September 4, 2010 `Star Island' is Carl Hiaasen's twelfth novel set in his beloved Florida complete with a delectable cocktail of outrageous characters who misbehave in outlandish ways. Foremost among Hiaasen's characters is Cherry Pye, a remarkably talentless, dense pop tart who is supposed to make a performance comeback with a new album after her career washed up on the shoals of self-destructive indulgences with drugs, alcohol, and sex with third-class males. Her Parents from Hell, Ned and Janet Bunterman, and her promoter, Maury Lykes, see her as a cash cow and primarily strive to prevent Cherry's self-destructiveness from impacting their bottom line; to accomplish this end they hire an actress to help fill in the gaps of her life and a series of bodyguard/keepers to help her stay on the straight and narrow. Cherry Pye is stalked by Bang Abbott, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who turned into a paparazzo wishing to document her widely anticipated demise with unforgettable photographs. Unfortunately for him, his plans are thwarted by an implacable deformed bodyguard, Chemo, and by the actress-substitute. On the scene appears Hiaasen's durable character, former Florida Governor Clinton Tyree: self-named Skink and an eco-vigilante of some persistence. Throw in a dissolute paparazzo, a shady land developer, burned out cases of the entertainment world, and other memorable characters hanging out in a South Beach setting, and the reader should have an enjoyable evening or two's read. This book is definitely entertaining, but it also gently prods the reader into contemplating the extensive development-driven abuse of the Florida landscape and the shallow values that differentially reward the underbelly of the Unfortunately, the author`s didacticism all too often lapses into preachiness and studied cruelty. Bottom line: Three and a half stars. This is not vintage Hiaasen: the characters are overdrawn and unsympathetic; the plot frequently drags, and the end is unconvincing. However, it remains a more entertaining read than many other current offerings. 1 out of 5] waste of time and money September 4, 2010 I was looking for a light read for vacation and have enjoyed other Hiaasen books. I read the kindle version so don't know how many pages the book is but it could have been cut by 1/3 and we wouldn't have missed a thing. I think I laughed maybe twice. The lead characters have no redeeming qualities or any reason for my caring about them. Never having been to South Beach (and now with no desire to go), I can't speak to the story's likeness to "real" life there. This book was a total waste of my time and money & I would not recommend it to anyone for any reason. 5 out of 5] Great Fun September 3, 2010 Hiaasen never fails to amuse me. His sarcasm and ironic tales of lowlifes and trouble souls in South Florida are always fantastic. The situation in this newest work, Star Island, involves a failing female popstar and we can all insert the name of a real popstar from the headlines. Hiaasen brings back several charming characters and inserts them aptly into the storyline. This was my first Kindle novel and I ate it up at the beach last week. I don't get to read for fun as much as I used to, but I loved this story. 5 out of 5] Very funny book September 2, 2010 Star island is hilarious. Hiaasen at his best. Richard Brawer, author of Beyond Guilty and Silk Legacy 4 out of 5] If you love celebrities you will love this September 2, 2010 I'll admit I'm one of the people who watches all the entertainment news shows and loves to keep up will the latest news on all the celebrities. So, this book really appealed to me. It's the story of a pop star named Cherry Pye and her body double, Ann. Ann is part of Cherry's entourage to be on hand to show up for events when Cherry is too drugged out to appear herself, and Cherry does not know she exists. The other main character is a paparazzo named Bang Abbott who is intent on getting all the latest photos of Cherry. The book really gives you an idea of what it's like for both the celebrity, who relies on the paparazzi to keep them in the public eye, and for the photographer and how he is able to find out who is going to be where and when. I thought that was very interesting. There is also a lot of celebrity name dropping, which makes the story really believable and fun. The book becomes somewhat of a mystery, with a few different story lines going. There are lots of really entertaining characters in the book which make it a lot of fun to read. There are Cherry's parents, who kind of remind me of Lindsay Lohan's parents and Cherry's bodyguard, Chemo. He is one of the more interesting characters in the book and his job is almost more to protect Cherry from herself than to protect her from others. He gets tired of her using words such as like and awesome all the time and uses a little electrical shock to keep her from doing it, and he goes to any length to keep her away from drugs. Ann also has kind of a bodyguard, who is a character from other Haissen books named Skink. I have to say I did not care for the parts he was in as much. Quite a bit of what he was involved with had to do with the current financial situation we are in and I was more interested in the celebrity side of it. But, if you know him from previous books, you'll probably like his role in the book. I did start getting tired of the story towards the end and wanted to hurry up and see how it was going to turn out. The ending was kind of flat and just left me feeling kind of ho-hum. But, up until about the last 1/4 of the book, it was really funny and entertaining, so I would recommend it as something quick and fun to read. | |
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