Synopses & Reviews
Haunted is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach-churning stories. They're told by people who have answered an ad for a writer's retreat and unwittingly joined a "Survivor"-like scenario where the host withholds heat, power, and food. As the storytellers grow more desperate, their tales become more extreme, and they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show that will surely be made from their plight. This is one of the most disturbing and outrageous books you'll ever read, one that could only come from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk.
Review
"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)." Minneapolis Star Tribune
Review
"[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." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"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-)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"[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." Booklist
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"Summer reading for people who like their lit doused in bodily fluids....Haunted has an anarchic sensibility that hurdles over the top." Time Out New York
Review
"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." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
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"[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." Seattle Times
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"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." Chicago Sun-Times
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"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..." BookReporter.com
Review
"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." San Francisco Chronicle
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"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." Library Journal
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"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." St. Petersburg Times
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"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." New York Post
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"The most original work of fiction this year." The Guardian (London)
Review
"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." Scott Raab, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)
About the Author
Chuck Palahniuk's six novels are the bestselling Diary, Choke, Lullaby, Fight Club which was made into a film by director David Fincher Survivor, and Invisible Monsters. He is also the author of a profile of Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, and the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.