Vicki Hendricks

A great premise, but this book really foundered along the way. Each author tried to make it harder for the next one to continue the story, while planting what they thought were land mines along the way. It made for a jumbled mess, for me, and I didn't think it was very funny, either. Some of the authors were quite boring, and I read too many authors to mention.
It would have worked if Carl Hiaasen took the whole thing and wrote it himself. Yes, I am a HUGE fan of his writing. But this would have been more to my liking. I agree with others that there were too many heads, as well. And, I think even Hiaasen was annoyed and rolled his eyes at least a little, on how the others made the manatee so human-like..

A great novel to get a feel for other writers you've never read before.… (altro)

Iguana Love is an amazing, compelling work. Stripped down to its essence, it's the story of someone who is bored by her mundane existence and seeks something or someone to fill her up literally and figuratively. It's a descent step by step letting go of all that matters in life to become something else - someone who has given their soul over. It starts with pursuing excitement such as deep sea diving and thrills in bed and ends up turning her into a gym rat with out of control hormones who lets go of everyone good and decent and lets it all go to hell. In that sense, this book is filled with the noirish themes as the main character descends from one circle to the next. What is unique about it is how these themes are played out from a woman's perspective without getting silly or unrealistic. It isn't really a crime novel but more of a psychological study of a character's fall from grace, becoming the cold uncaring thing she feared in men such as Enzo. It is, of course, filled with the sun-drenched heat of Florida, animals, and brimming with often explicit sexual energy. And there is something about the writing that grabs you and won't let go.… (altro)

Vicki Hendricks has been dubbed the high priestess of neo-noir. This novel is a modern take on classic noir themes. Just as classic noir characters hurtle downward in a never-ending spiral of despair and destruction, Hendricks strips her characters of all normalcy and balance and tilts them into a world of sexual obsession and into new cages that replace old ones. But, this is not the classic fifties pulp which hints at and tantalizes the reader. It is filled to the brim with sex, booze, and casual murder and it focuses on the sex quite explicitly. Strangely enough, the blood and gore which you would think would be at the eye of this hurricane are simply casually tossed out as if to show where these characters have fallen in their twisted depravity. Willeford may have peopled the Florida coast with crime and bizarre persons, but Hendricks adds in a boa constrictor and ten foot alligators as well as gun-wielding call girls and sex-crazed English professors.… (altro)