HardcoverThe Bigtree family is going through a rough patch, to say the least. They own the tourist park of the title and, in good times, mother Hilola did a high-dive "swimming with the Seths" routine (Seth is the family's annoyingly overused nickname for every single one of their gators), Dad (or "Chief") wrestled gators for the crowd, their grandfather and founder of the park was part of the family, and the three kids sold tickets, gave guided tours of their makeshift Bigtree museum, and sold overpriced snacks and souvenirs.
Now Hilola's dead of cancer, Grandpa's gone senile and has been shipped off to a nursing home -- sorry, nursing boat, and the new attraction on the mainland is stealing all of the tourists away. So, how does the family cope? Well, big brother decides to move out and get a job at the rival attraction, Dad leaves his two teenage girls on their own while he disappears on a "business trip," the older sister decides to leave young Ava (age 13) to marry her long-dead ghost boyfriend, and Ava goes searching for her sister with The Bird Man, a strange guy with a feathered coat.
In short: the book's got some decent prose, but the story is all over the place and the people SUCK. What kind of a father leaves his girls in a swamp to fend for themselves, especially when he knows one of them has begun to show signs of mental illness? I also hated that the story line that held a bit of magic was brutally blown away without warning to reveal the disappointingly overused non-surprise of child molestation. By the end, I felt like I needed a shower more than the neglected filthy girls in the swamp.
D+
