• Star Island

  • By: Carl Hiaasen
  • Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
  • Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (1,473 ratings)

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Star Island  By  cover art

Star Island

By: Carl Hiaasen
Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
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Publisher's summary

A hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane from “Florida’s most entertainingly indignant social critic” (New York Times Book Review) and the bestselling author of Squeeze Me.

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?

©2010 Carl Hiaasen (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

“Carl Hiaasen [is] Florida’s most entertainingly indignant social critic... He presents us with Cherry Pye, a 22-year-old pop star whose every display of narcissistic excess will send a frisson of horrified delight up your spine... The outlandish events soar on the exuberance of Hiaasen’s manic style, a canny blend of lunatic farce and savage satire.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Fans of Carl Hiaasen will feel right at home when they plunge into Star Island. There’s the familiar collection of deliciously tawdry characters, each angling for a piece of the action in Florida... And there’s the fast-moving plot, and the writing that makes you laugh out loud... Hiaasen has turned out another gem. Readers of his previous novels can settle in for more wacky fun in the Florida sun.” (Associated Press)

“Hiaasen is at his gleeful best skewering the morally bankrupt. He has plenty to poke fun at here, from a reprehensible real-estate developer with an excruciating groin injury to twin publicists Botoxed within an inch of their lives. This is classic Hiaasen - demented, hilarious, and utterly over the top.” (Booklist, starred review)

What listeners say about Star Island

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Laugh Out Loud

I just loved this book. As always, Hiaasen is such a fun listen/read. This story is a terrific satire on our obsession with fame and the famous. The main character and her entourage are appropriately obnoxious and annoying, so much so that I found myself laughing out loud ...more than once embarrassing myself in public.
The story has elements of mystery, romance (sorta), sex, drugs, and lots of bad music.
Chemo and Skink, my favorites, are major characters in this book.
I thought that the narrator was fine, although I have listened to many of Hiaasen's books, I am not so attached to the other narrators as some reviewers seem to be.
Have fun listening.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

What Happened To George Wilson???

Although the book itself is classic Hiaasen, I was disappointed by the narrator. Stephen Hoye did Skinny Dip as well. Chemo sounds just like Tool, and Skink without George Wilson is just not Skink! If the characters are reoccurring please make sure the narrators are as well!

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Wrong narrator

The story seems good, and I'm a huge Hiaasen fan, but Stephen Hoye is such an inappropriate narrator for Hiaasen, I don't think I'm going to make it through the whole audiobook. It just doesn't work for me. I wish I'd listened to the preview before I bought it.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable

I listened to this straight through and enjoyed it immensely. Generally, his books have more of an ecological theme and a discussion of the hazards of overbuilding the Florida coast but this book is just a fun discussion of the gossip rage that surrounds us now.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Funny and engaging

When I picked this up the ratings weren't spectacular. But as I am a big Hiaasen fan, I wanted to give it a go anyway. I was far from disappointed. In fact I rank this one right alongside Skinny Dip and Double Whammy.

The author's trademark sardonic humor shines from the beginning to the very end, where a very funny epilogue ties everything up nicely. Skink also makes a zany appearance and that alone was worth the credit.

As far as Stephen Hoye is concerned, he delivers a perfect performance doing justice to nuances of every single character.

Bottom line is, get this book. You won't be disappointed and the credit will be well spent.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thoroughly enjoyable!

This book had me laughing practically every minute of listening. Hiassen's characters, as usual, are over the top. A roadkill-eating ex-governor, a hitman/mortgage broker with a weed whacker for a prothesis, and a Lindsay Lohan style airhead who lip syncs her hit records, just to name a few. I found the interaction between Chemo and Cherry Pye to be especially funny: he jolts her with a cattle prod whenever she uses any words he finds annoying, such as "totally" and "awesome." Stephen Hoye, the reader, does an excellent job with the various voices, especially Janet Bunterman, the airhead's enabling mother. Yes, he does mispronounce some of the place names (Mo-have rather than Mo-havee), but I completely disagree with those critics who complain about Hoye's narration.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Stay with it!

I was a little out of sorts with Hoye's narration in the early pages. I love Hiaasen's sense of Southern voice and always enjoy his rare personal appearances. So to hear this stoic, vocally trained rendering of his words was distracting and unsettling; however, as I got into it I really appreciated Hoye's renderings of the various characters' accents and colloquialisms, especially his Janet Bunterman.

Love Carl H so much. Please keep churning them out.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Like Cherry, This Book Needs Uppers

The usually (indeed, always) reliable Carl Hiaasen seems to have run out of gas halfway through this amusing tale of Life in the Passing Lane. The first third of the book is diverting. The middle third loses its way. The final third is just filler. And the epilogue gave me a headache. Good concept -- but not much follow-through. And I grow weary of the runaway Governor...

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

YUK!

I will remember to look at the narrator before buying. Did not realize not George Wilson, and this guy is about as emotional as a stoic. Might be a good book, but who knows with this poor narration.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not good at all

I love CH and the few of his books I have read/listened to. This one fell below the level of acceptable stupidity in characters and plot. It bordered between YA and hard-core adult (sex/drugs/sex and more drugs). The ending was implausible enough, without the epiloguing of events that followed. They were equally silly and most horrific of all-- boring! A few characters stood out for their stereotypical behavior. Claude was a twist on a skank and Skink was his usual best. Annie was decent enough and even Chemo was consistent, unique and interesting but they all fell into the pot of plot morass that could have been a long short story and done without a lot of the useless plot points. Very disappointed in the whole matter. Because it was CH, I had hoped for some laughs or consciousness-raising ... didn't give a HOOT about any of it -- least of all about the characters. Sorry.

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3 people found this helpful