Apparently working in a vet clinic for the better part of 5 years is precisely the recipe required to inure one to the effects of Palahniuk's writing.You'll see tons of "OMG SO GWOSS!!" reviews here, but this ain't one of 'em. I was entertained. All the blood-and-guts and bodily fluids in the world don't really gross me out. What really sickens me is people.And that's what Palahniuk does best: he writes about the dark sides of people and how precious little it takes to make those sides surface.

"My goal was just to write some new form of horror story, something based on the ordinary world. Without supernatural monsters or magic. This would be a book you wouldn't want to keep next to your bed. A book that would be a trapdoor down into some dark place. A place only you could go, alone, when you opened the cover.Because only books have that power." Chuck is right; you don't want to keep this book by your bed. You don't want to get up in the middle of the night and see is covet glowing at

My God, what to say about this one? Probably this: Haunted was messed up and engaging to the fullest. I'm always floored when an author serves up something genuinely different. In a book market where so many offerings are so goddamn painfully similar (right down to the titles... can we get another book with the word "Girl" or "Dark" in the title please?) it's a real treat when you read something that stands out and rises above the rest for not being like the others. It's even more rewarding when...

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.Twenty-three individuals with twenty-three tales to tell. The characters have been brought together but a notice, which reads: 'Artists Retreat: Abandon your life for three months'. Disparate in personality, background, culture, and class, they are forced to inhabit the same dank space and dine on the same lack lustre meals for three long months, as they pen the creative projects of their dreams. They also share a little of themselves, more than they would actually prob...

Sometimes in the humor section of the bookstore you can find a spoof of a popular book or writer. That's not what Haunted is, but it's the first thing that comes to mind.While the cover promises that Haunted is "A Novel," the innards tell a different story: 24 short short stories and 24 prose poems tied together by a thin framing device. This frame is supposed to evoke storytelling parties of the past, such as the Canterbury Tales or the Decameron, in which the participants each tell a story. He...

This book is vile. It is disgusting. No matter how much you can take, you will squirm and say "Oh My GOD!" out loud on the bus or plane or couch or wherever it is you read. It is a nasty book. But Haunted is so much more than that and so worth reading. Haunted is set in a drab old theater, past it's prime, boarded up, invisible, and impenetrable to the outside world. Inside the theater are 23 characters. 23 people with names like the Earl of Slander and Agent Tattletale. Each character is introd...

Had this book on my shelf for years and i finally decided to make a go at it.I'm halfway through it and I'm just not into it, so I'm giving up because I can be reading something that I find likeable.It's like I'm missing something with this book and it's not making sense to me, I guess it's not my style.I'd also like to point out that there's way too many underdeveloped characters in this and that was another reason for DNF at halfway.I've read a few Palahniuk books and Choke just happens to be

The book was a difficult read. Even more difficult to review. I struggled with how many stars to give it to the point where I've waited a few weeks to even write a review. It wasn't my favorite book by any means but I didn't hate it either. What it did do was stir so much visceral emotion that I haven't been able to pick up another book since. A reaction that intense warrants recognition so I reluctantly opted for 4 stars purely on its dark influence over my joy of reading (or lack there of now)...

Warning: The cover of this edition glows in the dark. Do not place on your bed stand unless you want to have a heart attack. I speak from experience.There are 21 short stories in Haunted. Some of them are amazing such as the notorious "Guts". Others are so-so. A couple of them are just boring. All of them are written to shock yet the brevity of the tales keeps both writer and reader focused. If this was a short story collection, I would rate it a strong three stars.Unfortunately it is not. Palah...

The clue was in the title, a gore-fest, a book of horrors by the audaciously demented Chuck Palahniuk! Now think of the way Palahniuk writes, now imagine him writing horror? Yeah - that's what happens here.Answering an advert people agree to go to a writing retreat - people such as Lady Baglady, Sister Vigilante and Chef Assassin! The retreat leader wants them to share stories, and to encourage them, locks them in a self contained building. Between each story telling the first person plural narr...

This is honestly the worst book I have ever read. I finished it, only because of my amazement at how bad it was and how it never deviated from that.I was intrigued by the premise: a group of writers volunteer to go on a retreat to write their masterpiece. The book has a chapter of plot, followed by either a poem or short story from one of the participants. Sounds cool!The book falls apart immediately. All of the stories/poems are obviously written by the same person. They share themes, style, an...

First off, this is not the short story collection I was expecting. It is actually a single-author antho-novel hybrid fulla leprechaun jism and other awesome rainbow flavors. Wait... what? No, I mean to say, never write reviews while on Norco, Soma, and about 2 hours' worth of sleep outta 36.I've been trying to catch some Zs since I got home from my latest hospital stay and it's not going so well. So what's better than fighting sleep? Drug-addled reviews. Raise the roof and down the proof!Standou...

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.Instead of reviewing the entire novel, I will just be focusing on my personal favourite chapter "Guts".To date, there have been 53 known occurrences of audience members fainting during readings of “Guts”. This doesn’t surprise me at all, knowing the repulsive content of the story."Guts" is your mother, father, preacher and teacher shaking that disapproving finger at self pleasure. Needless to say, this short story will have you thinking twice about creeping that wondering...

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/4.5 Stars WRITER’S RETREAT:ABANDON YOUR LIFE FOR THREE MONTHS.Just disappear. Leave behind everything that keeps you from creating your masterpiece. Your job and family and home, all those obligations and distractions – put them on hold for three months. Live with like-minded people in a setting that supports total immersion in your work. Food and lodging included free for those who qualify. Gamble a small fraction of your life

This book is incredibly uneven, that's its downfall. There are some really good moments, some really bad moments, and one or two truly brillant ones. Looking at it as what it essentially is; a collection of short stories, it's really no better or worse than any other short story collection, and actually should get extra points for its brazen audacity. The unifying material that links all of the stories together is terribly weak, and is what ultimately sinks the book.The first story "Guts" is the...

People who are just trying to be gross can't help but be entertaining, no matter how see-thru their intent. You can't ignore the little boy who's trying to wipe his boogers on you, and when his parents have finally collared him, with anger and gag relex fully suppressed you have to admit the whole thing was actually pretty funny. Chuck Paloonyhoonyhookiak is just trying to wipe his boogers on you. When he's done with that, he'll gladly exhaust whatever other bodily fluids happen to be available

Don't be fooled, I may have chosen 5 stars for this novel, but not because I loved it. This book is dynamic.This novel looks so innocent and harmless, sitting there with it's ghostly lavender and white cover and "Fight Club" was great, I'll give it a read.This novel will stretch you to breaking point and beyond what you have ever read before. To give an example, when Chuck Palahniuk gives a public reading of the short story "Guts", the ambulance shows up before the end of it. People have fainted...

This is chuck's worst work. It pains me to say that, but its just true. a group of would-be writers on a writer's retreat each is given the chance to tell a story. The stories are all basically gross for the sake of being gross with little to no redeeming value. One infamous story involving a pool was so hard to get through I had to take 3 breaks. Its so descriptive and disgusting I had to take a breather for fear of vomiting (i am not alone in this, he read this particular story at signings and...

I'm only on p 75 of this thing and I'm about to hurl it at the wall. What is it supposed to be? Does this guy really think these lame parodies are funny? This is from the section called "Slumming", which is about rich people, a couple of whom are pretending to be poor :"Inky always said being absent is the new being present." (p 69)"Poverty, Inky says, is the new wealth." (p71)"Social divers, Inky says, are the new social climbers." (p71)"Nobodies are the new celebrity." (p72)"Public is the new

The literary equivalent of belching the alphabet.