Review: Chomp by Carl Hiassen

Title: Chomp
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Publishing Date: March 27th 2012
Pages: 304
Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Humorous, Adventure
Series: Stand Alone
Source: Hardcover

Goodreads Summary:

Wahoo Cray lives in a zoo. His father is an animal wrangler, so he's grown up with all manner of gators, snakes, parrots, rats, monkeys, snappers, and more in his backyard. The critters he can handle. His father is the unpredictable one.

When his dad takes a job with a reality TV show called "Expedition Survival!” Wahoo figures he'll have to do a bit of wrangling himself—to keep his dad from killing Derek Badger, the show's boneheaded star, before the shoot is over. But the job keeps getting more complicated. Derek Badger seems to actually believe his PR and insists on using wild animals for his stunts. And Wahoo's acquired a shadow named Tuna—a girl who's sporting a shiner courtesy of her old man and needs a place to hide out.

They've only been on location in the Everglades for a day before Derek gets bitten by a bat and goes missing in a storm. Search parties head out and promptly get lost themselves. And then Tuna's dad shows up with a gun . . .

It's anyone's guess who will actually survive "Expedition Survival". . .

Review:

This the first novel by Carl Hiassen that I have read and I am glad I picked it up. If all his novels are as funny and entertaining as this one, I have really been missing out.

This book had so much to love, the characters are quirky and lovable, the story line is new and refreshing, and the lines and mishaps are just hilarious. I can’t remember the last time a book made me laugh out loud so much.

The story is about a boy who lives on an animal ranch with his dad who is an animal wrangler. They have everything from gators to bobcats. Mr. Cray has been out of work due to an iguana incident and the family is behind on bills, so Wahoo (yes even the names are funny) signs his father up for a wrangler job for a reality television show. Sounds great except for the star of the show is a putz who fakes everything, thinks he knows everything, and complains about everything. Wahoo has to keep everything in check which is difficult to do with all the mishaps and misadventures that happen along the way.

The characters in this book are so zany and ridiculous that I can’t even begin to describe them, but it is the characters that make this book. I found it very difficult not to find something to love about each and everyone except for the villain, and he was just too easy to hate. It is the characters that make this book so entertaining, well the characters and the storyline.

The storyline is so strange and crazy that it doesn’t matter if it’s realistic, it’s still somehow believable. And if you can’t find it believable it doesn’t matter, it will have you smiling and laughing anyway. I am so excited to read more books by Carl Hiassen. I am so absolutely gleeful that I decided to give this book a try.

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