Book Review #9 - Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

From Indigo: "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"

I've read a few Palahniuk novels in the past, and he never disappoints. I do however find that I have wildly different opinions on the books I have read, and the amount of great things I've heard of his books, I figured I better read a few more of them.

As stated in a couple other posts, I find I'm more interested when the chapters go back and forth between multiple characters. Haunted does a great job of this. The book is about a group of people going to what they think is a 3 month writers retreat, but soon find out they are basically being held hostage to write their best and most creative work. The book switches back and forth between our main story, a short poem about a character, followed by a short story written by that character.

These stories are what keeps me going, the main story is great as well, but I find most times, I just keep going to get to the next short story. The very first one you read in the book is "Guts". A short story Palahniuk wrote that was printed in Playboy in 2004. I won't even go into what this story is about. You can read it here. Isn't that disturbing. I consider myself to have a fairly strong stomach, but while reading this, I found myself squirming, a lot. But I knew I had to bear through it. After getting a chunk of the book done, I read the back which says "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." More extreme? Considering "Guts" is the first one you read, I was very excited to see how much more extreme this book could get. And Chuck didn't let me down. We're taken through the stories of each character, as we follow them while living together, continually trying to upstage each other, for that when their story becomes a movie or TV show, they themselves can be the biggest victim of the story.

The short stories in the book are excellent. Some are disturbing, some are hilarious, some are just plain weird, and some actually are haunting. While reading through the main story of the book, you are left wondering a lot of things. What is wrong with all of these people, specifically those involved in the set up of this "retreat"? Will they ever get out of this place, and what will happen when/if they do? Chuck has always done a good job of keeping me reading though his books to finish in record time. There is never a dull moment in his stories -- so far, at least the ones I've read.

And I'm not sure who's idea this was, but it worked out brilliantly. I was reading this book before bed one night. I finished a really haunting story, I put my book on my bedside table, turned my light off to lay down, only to discover the cover of this book glows in the dark!

Imagine how creepy that would be to discover. I had no idea it glowed, until I stumbled upon it myself. Bravo Mr. Palahniuk, you've Haunted me.