Review: HIGH FIVE

High Five by Janet Evanovich
Book 5 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by CJ Critt
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About High Five:

"Uncle Fred was someone I saw at weddings and funerals and once in a while at Giovichinni's Meat Market, ordering a quarter pound of olive loaf. Eddie Such, the butcher, would have the olive loaf on the scale and Uncle Fred would say, 'You've got the olive loaf on a piece of waxed paper. How much does that piece of waxed paper weigh? You're not gonna charge me for that waxed paper, are you? I want some money off for the waxed paper.'"

The speaker is Stephanie Plum, the glamorous if slightly ditzy bounty hunter from Trenton, New Jersey, and one of the most original creations in recent mystery fiction.

In this fifth entry in Janet Evanovich's increasingly popular series, Stephanie's problems are many and varied. She's not making enough money picking up FTAs (Failures to Appear) for her cousin Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds; her red-hot love affair with Detective Joe Morelli has cooled off; and her giant extended family is no help at all. For instance, Uncle Fred the cheapskate has disappeared, leaving behind some suspicious photographs of body parts in garbage bags and links to some really dangerous people.

When Stephanie turns to her friend and mentor, Ranger, for financial advice, he gets her involved in a gang of toughs doing instant evictions for landlords. (She complains to Ranger about the job and its dangers, prompting one of the hired thug to say, "Man, you don't like to get shot. You don't like to get arrested. You don't know how to have fun at all.")

Most of Stephanie's charm, of course, comes from her attitude--a combination of the brazen bravado that turns a failed lingerie buyer into a bounty hunter in the first place and the normal fears of a person in over her head.

Source: Info in the About High Five was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6423.High_Five on 24/09/2012.

Review:

I know that Stephanie's being too stupid to live (TSTL) is part of her character and her charm but it is still annoying. So you have a known crazy stalker recently released from the prison you helped put him in to and you don't tell the police and go into major denial, with the misguided notion that it will all go away if you work hard enough at denial. Then you proceed to ignore sensible security precautions. And when that crazy, sadistic stalker finally catches up with you, you get all surprised and ask "why me?!".... and that is our kick-ass heroine. You know, for some strange reason I find it hard to identify with this heroine... I wonder why... Oh yes, I know! Stephanie is also a doormat without a spine! An ex-FTA comes to her door insisting on rooming in at her apartment with or without her consent and she gets angry but buys him coffee in the morning. A total dumbshit TSTL is one thing. A spineless doormat to boot? Anybody can run roughshod over her... Can't be a real person. I'm sorry, but nobody is just this dumb and live to be 20-something. Drops the suspension of disbelief down to the boots! But, see... this is the thing, no matter how low the suspension of disbelief drops down to, this book made me laugh, I weed myself! I laughed so hard I can't breathe and it became painful. Now not a lot of books achieves that! And so for the humour alone, can't give this book a less than two rating! If nothing else, don't read this book for the story, read this book for the humour! Somebody wise said once that laughter is the best medicine... oh, whoever that person was, he/she must not have been too wise 'coz if I had a weak heart, I'd be dead by now. Literally! Yeah, it was that funny!!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 2
Story itself = 1.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 2
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A (9.75 hrs listening time)
Plot = 2
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries