Customer Reviews

Naked Came the Manatee

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This book is a brave experiment written by 13 of South Florida's best writers, with each author contributing one chapter to a wacky story of kidnapping, murder and political conspiracy in Miami without any idea of how the next writer will continue it.

This formula provides a delicious mix of zany plot twists and unexpected developments for a number of chapters, but evenutally the plot becomes hopelessly muddled as authors vie for control of the story- each introducting their own characters and attempting to redefine other characters and events that have already been established. Characters who were obviously intended to be central figures are abandoned or murdered before their purposes become clear, new ones appear two thirds of the way through the plot and attempt to dominate it, and established facts (most notably the character traits of Booger the Manatee) are altered or outright contradicted. These competing agendas give the final storyline a schizophrenic feel and make a story which opens with great potential an often confusing or frustrating read.

By the final chapter, none of the story's original central characters (save the manatee) are anywhere to be seen, and it is the unfortunate task of the author to try to sloppily tie up what seem like dozens of loose ends.