The 10 Strangest Novels Set in Florida

Razor Girl, by Carl Hiaasen
Hiaasen is the Jester King of Florida novels. He has unleashed a demented string of stories as hilarious as their characters are downright strange. Razor Girl is one of the most anticipated novels of the year for good reason: namely, its characters. The rogues gallery is impressive, from Razor Girl herself, who subsists off of automobile crash scams; to con artist Trebeaux, continuously moving sand from one eroded beach to another; to the Wisconsin accordion player pretending to be a Florida redneck for a reality TV show; and an attorney addicted to—and being disfigured by—an erectile dysfunction medicine he’s litigating against. And that isn’t even the half of it, as once again, Hiaasen effortlessly captures the weirdness of the most magical place on Earth.

Karate Is a Thing of The Spirit, by Harry Crews
That Harry Crews is not discussed much these days, and that many of his books are not in print, is a travesty. Crews’ writing was often bursting with bizarre ideas and gross detail, but his prose throbbed with life and wonderful poetry. Karate Is a Thing of The Spirit is almost impossible to find (try Florida Frenzy to get a sense of both Crews’ writing and his views on his adopted state) but it’s a delightfully demented Florida novel in which a man becomes involved with the Ultimate Tranquility group, described as an Outlaw Karate group, the sort of thing that could only happen in Florida in the 1960s.

Ninety-Two in the Shade, by Thomas McGuane
McGuane’s most famous novel is set in a Key West that might be familiar to fans of Netflix’s Bloodline, a gritty, dark place at the very edge of what the author implies was a rotten, dying America.A young man wishes only to be a reliable fishing guide in a beautiful place—a seemingly innocuous desire that ends in tragedy and violence because, it seems, Key West operates under different laws of reality than anywhere else.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow
Doctorow’s thrilling sci-fi novel is set in a future world where universal immortality has changed society completely, the drudgery of daily work replaced by freedom to pursue any passion project, like, say, refining the rides at Disney World into an utterly perfect state, a gig some are willing to kill for (ok, it’s only technically immortality).   Social economics and brain backups are just a few of the ideas Doctorow crams in alongside a murder mystery plot, creating a book that could very well be a vision of the Florida of the future.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Hurston’s classic novel isn’t obsessed with the weird and the strange, but rather the struggle for freedom—for individuals and a whole people. The life story of Janie Crawford, granddaughter of a slave who was raped by her owner, as related to her best friend is an epic tale that explores gender roles, racism, and romantic relationships with equal intelligence, passion, and great writing. The novel is worth reading for any reason, but balancing out Florida’s weirdness with a little greatness isn’t a bad one.

Rum Punch, by Elmore Leonard
Leonard set a lot of his novels in Florida, but Rum Punch is one of the best. Serving as the inspiration for Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown, the book perfectly captures the tone and attitude of Florida’s criminal underground—and the odd mix of the prosaic, profane, and luxurious that can only be found in a state where half the population is retired and the other half is on vacation.

To Have and Have Not, by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway’s fourth novel was published eight years after A Farewell to Arms, and is his second set in the United States, specifically in Key West, in which Hemingway detects an incredible natural beauty that has been subverted and corrupted by man. Fishing boat captain (and definite Have Not) Harry Morgan struggles through the Great Depression, inexorably forced to betray his own principles in order to survive, while the Haves do as they please and suffer no consequences. Many feel the novel suffers from Hemingway’s lack of attention as he become involved in the Spanish Civil War, but it remains an incredible read, and a mainstay of Florida-based fiction.

Miami Blues, by Charles Willeford
Considered one of the best crime novels by one of the best writers of crime fiction, Miami Blues revels in the sweaty grit of Florida, following downheel detective Hoke Moseley after he is assaulted and beaten, his badge and gun stolen. Moseley does precious little detecting as he narrows his search to the sociopathic Frederick “Junior” Frenger and his prostitute girlfriend, and considers the clues surrounding a bizarre murder. A detective who doesn’t do much detecting is one of the most Florida things about this Very Florida story.

The Serge A. Storms Series, by Tim Dorsey
Dorsey’s Serge A. Storms is The Florida Man, diagnosed with several mental disorders that a complex cocktail of pills keep in check—except when Storms decides not to take them, which he does, frequently. Sans medication, Storms is as apt to take people on a forced tour walk of his beloved Florida as he is to murder someone over an perceived injustice, and yet he’s the protagonist of the book. A celebration of Florida and violent tendencies, this may be one of the most entertaining series ever written.

Naked Came the Manatee, by Various Authors
Finally, the ultimate Florida book: a novel written collectively by the leading lights of Florida’s literary scene circa 1995, including Dave Barry, Elmore Leonard, and Carl Hiaasen. Barry wrote the first chapter and then passed it on to the next writer, who picked up where Barry left off, and so on. The end result sees a group of top-tier writers each trying to outdo one another; the insanity in terms of plot and characters escalates so quickly, your ears will pop.