Metacritic Books

Skinny Dip
by Carl Hiaasen

ISBN: 0375411089
Knopf, 368 pages, $24.95
Fiction General Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers
Released 07/13/2004

The latest comedic thriller from novelist and Miami Herald columnist Hiaasen centers on a biologist who's polluting the Everglades, the wife he attempted to kill, and her rescuer--an ex-cop who helps her plot revenge.

Overall Metascore

This is an average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

72 / 100

Critic Reviews

Outstanding Booklist
Chock-full of belly laughs and blistering truths. [1 May 2004, p.1514]
Outstanding Entertainment Weekly Mark Harris
Writers who can construct a wide-ranging plot without losing sight of the mystery at its center are rare; Hiaasen is one.
Outstanding Los Angeles Times Scott M. Morris
A whopping cannonball splash of fun.
Outstanding The New York Times Janet Maslin
A screwball delight so full of bright, deft, beautifully honed humor that it places Mr. Hiaasen in the company of Preston Sturges, Woody Allen and S. J. Perelman.
Favorable The New York Times Book Review Marilyn Stasio
'Skinny Dip'' has the eccentric secondary characters who lend lunatic charm to Hiaasen's slapstick plots.
Favorable The Onion A.V. Club Scott Tobias
A confident and determinedly wacky piece of Southern grotesquerie.
Favorable Washington Post Michael Dirda
Skinny Dip follows a traditional caper script, and one never really fears for any of the good guys; one simply waits to see how the baddies will receive their comeuppance.
Favorable Kirkus Reviews
Bitingly satirical, sublimely zany, and deeply satisfying. [15 May 2004, p.460]
Favorable Library Journal
One of Hiassen's best. [1 Jun 2004, p.122]
Favorable The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Margaret Cannon
Another riotous Hiaasen romp.
Favorable The Guardian Maxim Jakubowski
Nobody does this sort of nonsense better than Hiaasen, but the novel suffers from over-familiarity.
Favorable The New Republic Sacha Zimmerman
Skinny Dip's failure to be a traditional noir is the secret to its success as a comedy. It's not suspenseful so much as it is endlessly amusing.
Favorable Publishers Weekly
Hiaasen's books are so enjoyable it's always a sad moment when they end. In this case, however, sadness is mixed with puzzlement because the book seems to end in mid-scene. [10 May 2004, p.34]
Favorable Boston Globe Carlo Wolff
Never fails to move and entertain.
Favorable Daily Telegraph Toby Clements
The first few chapters of this novel are full of energy... but his romance is mawkish and faintly embarrassing.
Mixed Houston Chronicle John W. Royal
Skinny Dip is not a bad novel. It reads quickly. The pages turn. One wants to like it. With a lesser writer, this book might even be called a success. But with Hiaasen, something more is expected.
Mixed Sydney Morning Herald Ed Wright
This is not Hiaasen's most keen work.
Unfavorable The Economist
An insidious preachiness gets the better of the jokes.
Unfavorable Chicago Sun-Times Randy Michael Signor
The most annoying thing, to me, is the waste of talent and the author's contempt for his readers.

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