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Star Island |  | Author: Carl Hiaasen
Publisher: Knopf
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 13
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
ASIN: B003F3PKU4
Publication Date: July 21, 2010
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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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 61
 Yet Another Crazy Pop Culture Romp! September 5, 2010
Amanda Stefansson (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Make a note: Hiaasen has legitemized Twitter in Star Island, along with name-dropping half of Celebrity Rehab. Viva la 15 minutes!
 An entertaining, if bumpy, ride... September 4, 2010
Flush Barrett-Browning (Tennessee Valley)
`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.
 waste of time and money September 4, 2010
lovetaread
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.
Great Fun September 3, 2010
Ken C (Western Mass)
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.
Very funny book September 2, 2010
Richard Brawer
Star island is hilarious. Hiaasen at his best.
Richard Brawer, author of Beyond Guilty and Silk Legacy
Showing reviews 1-5 of 61
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