In this essay, pop-culture writer Greg Wilson examines the ways in which Hoot is similar to Hiaasen's more adult works, and the ways in which it has more in common with typical juvenile literature.
If modern literature had a field guide like the one birdwatcher Roy Eberhardt uses in Hoot, Carl Hiaasen's novels would undoubtedly be classified as a strange and rare species that thrives only in the untamed, steamy depths of a Florida swamp. They have enough distinguishing characteristics to make for easy identification even when stood alongside other Florida species, such as the works of Elmore Leonard or Dave Barry. In such a literary bestiary, the juvenile novel Hoot would certainly be the hatchling of the Hiaasen bunch: While many of the distinctive markings are already clearly visible, in some ways it shares more.....
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