My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would...
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Chloe Donaldson, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by Chloe Donaldson)
The best book of the decade. It is crass. It is vulgar. It is disgusting. But... it's simply brilliant and everyone should read it. Everyone. Except the emotionally challenged and those who suffer from weak stomachs.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (0 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Chloe Donaldson, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by Chloe Donaldson)
The best book of the decade. It is crass. It is vulgar. It is disgusting. But... it's simply brilliant and everyone should read it. Everyone. Except the emotionally challenged and those who suffer from weak stomachs.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Chloe Donaldson, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by Chloe Donaldson)
The best book of the decade. It is crass. It is vulgar. It is disgusting. But... it's simply brilliant and everyone should read it. Everyone. Except the emotionally challenged and those who suffer from weak stomachs.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (0 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Meagan, August 11, 2009 (view all comments by Meagan)
Chuck Palahniuk doesn't disappoint with this darkly funny and wildly entertaining novle. Chuck Palahniuk portrays the human nature and the desire for fame and fourtine and how far people ae willing to go to get it in a humerous way as he explores the lives of severaly people locked together in a theatre. I definitly recomend this book to any fan of Chuck Palahniuks work, it doesnt disappoint.
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"What elevates Palahniuk's best novels (e.g., Fight Club) above their shocking premises is his ability to find humanity in deeply grotesque characters. But such generosity of spirit is not evident in his latest, which charts the trials of a group of aspiring writers brought together for a three-month writer's retreat in an abandoned theater. The novel intersperses the writers' poems and short stories with tales of the indignities they heap upon themselves after deciding to turn their lives into a 'true-life horror story with a happy ending.' They lock themselves in the theater, reasoning that once they're found, they'll all become rich and famous. They raise the stakes of their story by first depriving themselves of phones, and then of food and electricity; eventually they cut off their own fingers, toes and unmentionables before they start dying off and eating each other. Palahniuk tells his story with such blithe disregard for these characters that it's hard not to wish he had dispensed with the novel altogether and published, instead, the 23 short stories that pop up throughout the book. For instance, 'Obsolete,' about a young girl about to commit state-mandated suicide, and 'Slumming,' about rich couples who pretend to be homeless, play so deftly with expectations and have an emotional core so surprising that they consistently, powerfully transcend their macabre premises to showcase the heart beating beneath the horrors. Agent, Edward Hibbert at Donadio & Olson. (May)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review A Day"
by Scott Raab, Esquire,
"Nothing mere about it: Haunted is crap of a high order, flung fresh against the wall and obsessively smeared by a deeply troubled fellow. As his cardboard characters' internment gets more grim — no heat, no food, no exit — Chuckles performs his standard striptease: grotesque sex, murder, self-mutilation, and cannibalism." (read the entire Esquire review)
"Review"
by Minneapolis Star Tribune,
"Frequently entertaining [and] often appalling....There are paragraphs here — entire pages, in fact — that are as disgusting as anything I've ever read. Truly vivid and harrowing (and often quite funny)."
"Review"
by Kirkus Reviews,
"[W]hile a number of the stories here are ingenious, in a devilish sort of way, the constant barrage of wicked sadism soon palls. Stomach-churning horror that takes a bit too much joy in its diabolic machinations."
"Review"
by Entertainment Weekly,
"Chuck Palahniuk is up to his old tricks, going to vast lengths to shock and appall....The only thing saving Haunted from disaster is Palahniuk's prose, which is, as always, gorgeous...even when his subject matter really, really isn't. (Grade: B-)"
"Review"
by Booklist,
"[An] over-the-top gore fest....[S]ometimes very clever and pitch-black funny. But Haunted provokes a lot more nausea and eye rolls than deep thoughts....[T]his novel will please Palahniuk's hardcore fans and few others."
"Review"
by Time Out New York,
"Summer reading for people who like their lit doused in bodily fluids....Haunted has an anarchic sensibility that hurdles over the top."
"Review"
by Janet Maslin, The New York Times,
"Mr. Palahniuk all but dares the reader to be seasick....Like Neil LaBute and Todd Solondz, he can turn the revenge of the nerds into a bold feat of liberation. Or he can throw in one dead dog too many, which is what happens here."
"Review"
by Seattle Times,
"[A]ll the characters share the distinctively choppy writing style of Chuck Palahniuk, as well as his grim world view and fetishistic attraction to suffering....I've recommended this book to a few people, but they are all a little bent."
"Review"
by Chicago Sun-Times,
"All of the stories are written in pretty much the same style and tone, and while the writing occasionally has a certain bug-zapping crispness to it, it's not nearly as amusing as the author thinks....Haunted has plenty of guts, but little glory."
"Review"
by BookReporter.com,
"Palahniuk's latest is not the best of his work, but it is not the worst, either. Devoted fans of his creepy hyper-reality fiction will surely find something in it to recommend this work..."
"Review"
by San Francisco Chronicle,
"To produce a tract on the cultural depravity that's devouring culture, Palahniuk would have been better off writing a snappy essay; as for this work of fiction, even the most ardent of his fans may have trouble mucking through this world of ingrates."
"Review"
by Library Journal,
"The short stories would work if taken singly and at intervals, but strung together they become a catalog of atrocities. Palahniuk is a clever and inventive writer, but this book is recommended only for...readers with strong stomachs and morbid dispositions."
"Review"
by St. Petersburg Times,
"None of Chuck Palahniuk's books are for the faint of heart. But Haunted may be his most outrageous yet....Palahniuk's stories in Haunted all explore...the seemingly unappeasable human hunger for narrative and what it teaches us about the human heart."
"Review"
by New York Post,
"To Palahniuk's credit, there is something here to appall almost every sensibility. The author has a singular knack for coming up with inventive new ways to shock and degrade."
"Review"
by The Guardian (London),
"The most original work of fiction this year."
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