Helpful Score: 14
Well - this is SOME book.
I am so impressed with so many things about this book - and at the same time so absolutely revolted with this dirty little monster.
Its a collection of short stories - each meant to be disturbing. And when Palahniuk is announcing that something is disturbing - he's not kidding.
Take 120 Days Of Sodom, mix it with Cantebury Tales and Ten Little Indians, throw in some big doses of hopelessness and the ugliest that humanity has to offer, and you end up with this book.
I like that stuff - and was repulsed.
Truly a book to experience - for better or worse. Peer not through the keyhole, lest ye be vexed.
I am so impressed with so many things about this book - and at the same time so absolutely revolted with this dirty little monster.
Its a collection of short stories - each meant to be disturbing. And when Palahniuk is announcing that something is disturbing - he's not kidding.
Take 120 Days Of Sodom, mix it with Cantebury Tales and Ten Little Indians, throw in some big doses of hopelessness and the ugliest that humanity has to offer, and you end up with this book.
I like that stuff - and was repulsed.
Truly a book to experience - for better or worse. Peer not through the keyhole, lest ye be vexed.
Helpful Score: 14
Loved it. This is the first book I've read by Palahniuk, and I haven't even seen or read "Fight Club". Some say this is not his best work, but since I have nothing to compare it to, I quite enjoyed it. If it's not his best than I can't wait to read more by him. This book is definately not for the faint of heart. It does get quite gruesome at times, and I grew up reading horror and watching slasher flicks, so that's saying something.
Gruesome though it may be I didn't really find it a horror story, so if that's what you are looking for you may be disapointed. It was at many times funny, and the people's behavior is horrific almost all the time.
I also loved the set up. Short stories are a love of mine, so combined with a novel, it's a perfect blend. Quite different than anything I have ever read before.
Gruesome though it may be I didn't really find it a horror story, so if that's what you are looking for you may be disapointed. It was at many times funny, and the people's behavior is horrific almost all the time.
I also loved the set up. Short stories are a love of mine, so combined with a novel, it's a perfect blend. Quite different than anything I have ever read before.
Helpful Score: 10
What a strange book! This was my first Chuck Palahniuk read, weird. It is made up of 23 stories, some better than others. Most of the stories are outrageous and twisted. The characters are unreal. It is a fascinating, entertaining book. I'm glad I read it, will read more Palahniuk for sure!
Helpful Score: 9
I could not put this book down...at least after the first story. The first story is by far the most disturbing, I had to wait a couple of days after I read that one to pick it up again. Once I did though I was glad I stuck with it. It is an incredible book that will keep you thinking long after you have finished it. One warning, do not read this book while eating....
Helpful Score: 7
You know if you are a Palahniuk reader, right? Well, this one will push even the most comfy of Palahniuk reader's grossout buttons at points throughout. I think I have decided I am not a Palahniuk fan.
I'm typically a Palahniuk fan - this one was a little bit of a disappointment. It was heavy on the shock value and light on plot - not one of his best.
Helpful Score: 4
Well, I just finished this book the other day and I'm conflicted. I love love love the cover of this book, but I'm not sure how I feel about the pages beneath it. It wasn't a bad book, but it was my least favorite Pahalniuk book so far. Truthfully, I really enjoyed 3 of the short stories included, but the rest weren't as shocking or as haunting as I was hoping for. I truly feel the cover of the book could give me nightmares long before any of the short stories included in the book. But, maybe I have a high tolerance when it comes to shocking stories.
Helpful Score: 3
Started this book, got about halfway through it and put it down. Did not go back to finish, it is strange at times and the storyline is hard to follow, not to mention the strange characters.
Helpful Score: 3
This was macabre...but I couldn't put it down! This is not a book for the faint of heart. There is no author out there as irreverent or as entertaining as Palahniuk.
Helpful Score: 3
Interesting in an odd sense. Almost comical at times, and down right gory at others.
Helpful Score: 3
Like many others (according to Palahniuk) I passed out while reading the story, "Guts". I was on a plane and I hadn't eaten anything so maybe that helped - but strangely enough, it was right around the time in the story where the words "corn and nuts" were written. I didn't even consider the idea that it was the prose that caused this incident until i read the "warning" at the end of the book.
This is not one of Chuck's best at all. But I give him credit for making my entire body shut down with simple written words.
This is not one of Chuck's best at all. But I give him credit for making my entire body shut down with simple written words.
Helpful Score: 3
Not one of his better books, but entertaining while also being pretty grotesque and graphic. After sharing some of the stories with my wife, she thought that what I was reading about was disturbing and not good for my mental health. Which is probably why I enjoyed it.
Helpful Score: 2
Not for the faint-hearted! I was cringing my way through this book (The author notes that whenever he did a reading of this book and came to a particular section (containing the word "corn") there was usually at least one person who fainted.), but it's one of the best I've read last year!
A group of wanna-be writers is forced to stay together in a house without outside contact. The framework is about how fast and profoundly their facade of civilized behaviour crumbles, the bulk of the book consists of their life-stories.
A group of wanna-be writers is forced to stay together in a house without outside contact. The framework is about how fast and profoundly their facade of civilized behaviour crumbles, the bulk of the book consists of their life-stories.
Helpful Score: 2
I did not find this book in any way worth reading. The stories were not nearly as gross as the "hype"...people claim they faint? Ok, I don't see it. The stories were gross, but in a junior high gross-out competition sort of way. I agree that Palahniuk's writing is good, but this book fell WAY short of the mark for me. I may try one more by him, but I wouldn't recommend this one.
Helpful Score: 2
This book is a collection of short stories all woven together by a central story. Each of the short stories are wild, out of this world crazy--from disgusting accounts of raping mannequins to a horrific pool accident--you'll be totally creeped out and mesmerized. The central story focuses on how we are such an entertainment driven culture. This is a must read for Palahniuk fans!
Helpful Score: 2
Wow, fascinatingly twisted reading!
Helpful Score: 2
This is not a horror book, and absolutely not your everyday book. It is a variety of tales from a group of people that are trapped.
If you want something written outside the box, read this, but there are very gruesome parts that are very detailed. It wouldn't be chuck palahnuik without it.
I loved the book. I have read a couple of his books and never have been disappointed.
If you want something written outside the box, read this, but there are very gruesome parts that are very detailed. It wouldn't be chuck palahnuik without it.
I loved the book. I have read a couple of his books and never have been disappointed.
Helpful Score: 2
This book is different from any other I've ever read...and I've even read most of Palahniuk's stuff (and liked it.) Thankfully my husband had read this before me and said it was worth it, because I nearly couldn't get through the first short story ("Guts.") I'd read about the "guts effect", where Palahniuk had read this story aloud at many book signings, and inevitably had a couple of people faint during the reading. I didn't faint, but neither did I want to read an entire novel of gross-out stories. It was worth pressing on, and hard to put down after the first story. The first story is a little out of place, it seems, for the rest are more psychologically bizarre than physically grotesque (although the behavior of the characters throughout is certainly grotesque in every sense of the word.) It reminded me of what Lord of the Flies would be like if the characters were highly damaged, depraved, adult sociopaths instead of children. I liked it (and would probably read it again, even), but like most of Palahniuk's work, it's not for everyone.
Helpful Score: 1
I can't believe I read the whole thing!
Helpful Score: 1
This book is a collection of short stories all woven together by a central story. Each of the short stories are wild, out of this world crazy--from disgusting accounts of raping mannequins to a horrific pool accident--you'll be totally creeped out and mesmerized. The central story focuses on how we are such an entertainment driven culture. This is a must read for Palahniuk fans!
Helpful Score: 1
Typically, you either love or hate Chuck Palahniuk's books. If you have a stomach for the crudeness you can find the humor and wit and discover an enjoyable and original read. Haunted, however, is not one of Palahniuk's better works. The absurdity of the plot and unlikability of every single character had me grimacing and re-posting the book to PBS at about halfway through. The characters are caricatures, odd sketches, not real people you develop any empathy for, let alone interest in. In fact I was downright ambivalent when they started to die off. They are set up to fail this way from the beginning with odd names that remove the reader from seeing them as individuals. The plot is ridiculous, featuring a bunch of writer-sadists who slowly torture themselves so as to have a horrifying best seller to write once they escape the windowless trap they all end up in. If I had to spend time with them I would also cut off my toes and fingers if I thought that would help it end a little faster. One vignette, told by Lady Baglady, about billionaires who are so bored by their wealth and the fact that they have seen and done everything that they turn to acting homeless as the newest thing, is absolutely hilarious and brilliant. It's a good thing that story was toward the beginning or I would have never gotten to it. My one star is for that vignette. Palahniuk should have published that as a short story and trashed the rest.
Helpful Score: 1
I would say that I "couldn't put this book down", but I did, often, during the moments of dry-heaving, nausea, and dizziness that resulted from reading these stories.
It's excellent, by the way. Despite the fact that it does physically make you ill to read it, it's worth it. Various tales of depravity, all woven together like a grotesque modern "Canterbury Tales". Chaucer, eat your heart out! (Speaking of eating hearts, and other body parts... this book has that, too.)
It's excellent, by the way. Despite the fact that it does physically make you ill to read it, it's worth it. Various tales of depravity, all woven together like a grotesque modern "Canterbury Tales". Chaucer, eat your heart out! (Speaking of eating hearts, and other body parts... this book has that, too.)
Helpful Score: 1
Sick, Twisted and Perfectly Palahniuk.
Helpful Score: 1
UGH! Palahniuk's worst. I'm a fan of his, but this was just awful. There was not one single redeeming or likeable character in the entire novel. Skip this one.
Helpful Score: 1
Extremely offbeat. You have to enjoy Palahniuk type of way off the wall satire to enjoy this book. Unfortunately I didn't.
Helpful Score: 1
Great book, but read on an empty stomach.
Got half-way through and just couldn't finish. The first story was extremely disturbing. Didn't bother me too much though. Well-written, just not my cup of tea. I found it hard to follow.
This book had me at the edge of my seat the entire time. Although it gets very graphic and sometimes uncomfortable, I couldn't put it down. MUST read.
This is the second novel by Palahniuk that I have read. I read Choke a few years ago and thought it was quite shocking. Haunted is equally so and maybe a little more so. It is really a collection of stories included within the framework of a novel telling of a group of people who are locked in an old abandoned theater for 3 months on the pretense of a writing seminar. As the novel progresses, each character tells a story and the conditions of the storytellers decline. They run out of food, the plumbing goes bad, and they resort to extremes ... all of them thinking that when they get rescued, their story will make a great news or TV story. The stories they tell along the way are the meat of the novel and many of them are quite good and quite horrific. Some reminded me of Ray Bradbury or Rod Serling in a Twilight Zone kind of way. Others were definitely meant to shock including the first story Guts which supposedly made people faint when read aloud by the author. There was also a lot of humor in some of the stories. My favorites were probably Slumming about rich people dressing up as the homeless for kicks; The Nightmare Box a Bradburyesque story about what happens when someone looks into an antique box at the right moment; Crippled a Hitchcockian story about living on disability benefits; and Guts detailing the potential dangers of masturbation. Some of the other stories didn't work real well for me and the overall premise of the novel was a little over the top.
I couldn't get into this, no matter how hard I tried. This book is ALL over the place, I never really knew what was even going on...
*Although, "Guts" did make me want to spew mine.
*Although, "Guts" did make me want to spew mine.
This book is a collection of short stories all woven together by a central story. Each of the short stories are wild, out of this world crazy--from disgusting accounts of raping mannequins to a horrific pool accident--you'll be totally creeped out and mesmerized. The central story focuses on how we are such an entertainment driven culture. This is a must read for Palahniuk fans!
I did not enjoy this book like I thought I would. The stories were not scary to me, they were rather mundane, in fact. I thought that this book would talk of ghosts and hauntings, and there was nothing like that. I did not like the author's style of writing, either, so I read about one-fourth of the book and gave up.
The only book by him I own. Would not reccomend this to anyone.
weird is all i can say about this book. very very weird.
A collection of short stories, with a barely readable main story interlaced. This is definitely not Palahniuk's best novel. Some of short stories are interesting, but don't base Palahniuk's writing ability on it.
This was the first Palahniuk book I've ever read. Definitely different from what I've been reading. Wild imagination & a bit gruesome! I will read more!
ODD, bizarre, frightening, good read, leaves you thinking...
I started to read this, it was very stupid.
Palahniuk will forever be one of my favorite authors!
No dust jacket.
A group of eccentric and aspiring writers sign up for a mysterious "writer's retreat. They are locked in a "haunted" mansion, with no outside contact and no necccesities save what they brought with them. What follows is a strange tale of survival interwoven with a series of titilating vignettes and poems written by the characters.
Not my favorite by Palahnuik, but it's a good read. Some parts may disgust you, others will make you laugh. Hell, maybe you'll cry. At any rate, I guarantee you will be entertained.
A group of eccentric and aspiring writers sign up for a mysterious "writer's retreat. They are locked in a "haunted" mansion, with no outside contact and no necccesities save what they brought with them. What follows is a strange tale of survival interwoven with a series of titilating vignettes and poems written by the characters.
Not my favorite by Palahnuik, but it's a good read. Some parts may disgust you, others will make you laugh. Hell, maybe you'll cry. At any rate, I guarantee you will be entertained.
I have not read this book,actually.It is one of my husband's favourites,though,as is the author.
This book I did not read, however, a family member gave it to me to post. I understand it was a scary read.
