Carl Hiaasen. Squirm. New York: Knopf, 2018. Print.

Squirm is the latest young adult novel from Carl Hiaasen. Hiaasen also writes for adults, but I think I have read just his YA books. They are fun—second only to Gordon Korman.

Like Hiaasen’s other works, Squirm is set in Florida; at least, it begins there. Thirteen-year-old Billy Dickens lives with his mother and high school senior sister Belinda.

Their father has been way out of the picture for years. He lives in Montana, and they have not heard from him since Billy’s parents divorced nine years ago. His mother gets a generous child support check from him every month, but there is no communication.

His family moves every two years or so; as a result, Billy finds it hard to make friends and is kind of a loner. He loves to spend time outdoors, and he loves snakes, hence the book’s title. At the school in Fort Pierce where they now live he is known as Snake Boy.

When a school bully—as in Korman’s Supergifted, the bully is a Lacrosse player—starts stealing stuff from Billy’s locker, he puts a snake in the locker. End of problem. Indeed, his reputation and experience as a snake handler help him out with bully types several times.

Things really get going when Billy manages to reconnect with his father and travel to Montana. Mr. Dickens is living with his new wife, a Crow Indian who leads fishing trips in canoes, and her daughter, Summer. When they observe Billy’s way with snakes, they call him in Indian fashion Billy Big Stick.

Mr. Dickens has a very mysterious job. He is sometimes gone for a week or two at a time. His family knows that he flies sophisticated drones, but he says that his work is a secret and he cannot tell anyone what he does or where he goes.

To give more away would be to spoil it. Let us just say that Mr. Dickens’ work actually takes him to Florida where he is tracking a bad guy. Billy and Summer are able to help. There are numerous surprises and plot twists. The action seldom slows down.

At the same time, there is plenty of the good-natured humor Hiaasen is known for. For example, when his father is listening to an oldies station as they are riding in his pickup truck, Billy observes:

Oldies but goodies. It’s way better than being trapped in a moving vehicle with Belinda, which means nonstop Taylor Swift. Not even Taylor swift’s mother listens to as much Taylor Swift as my sister does. (128)

You will have fun Squirm-ing.