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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
Very much a short story collection from Chuck Palahniuk. Some of the stories are the worst bits of his writing embodied (obtuse styles that are punctuated with moments intended only to disgust) but I found it worth pushing through for the stories that do work, where their disgusting moments are used to make really solid and insightful critiques of society. It also was a bit of an arrogant mood to reference Fight Club, your own book, multiple times in this collection mate, don't be such a wanker.
There were stories I absolutely hated and stories I absolutely love which is why my review ended up being right in the middle.
Such a weird and disturbing book, but it was really good. It's a bunch of short stories, but some of them sort of overlap.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
The first story was suuuuper cringey and I, giving it the benefit of the doubt, thought maybe it was some kind of edgy hook to draw interest into what would ultimately be a more well-rounded collection. Alas, I only made it two pages into the second story before I had to abandon it. I'm clearly not this book's audience — it made my skin crawl.
Knock-Knock, and The Facts of Life were my favourites.
Palahniuk has become the kind of author that everyone loves to hate. Admittedly, I haven't read many of his newer books, but what I have read has been decent at best, awful at worst. So as I read his latest, a short story collection (like Haunted but without the narrative), I didn't have very high expectations.
The majority of the stories in here are good, some very good, actually. As with any short story collection, it's hit-and-miss, and there are some major misses ("Eleanor", "Tunnel of Love"). But overall, the good outweighs the bad, and a few stories ("Knock Knock", "Zombies") even feel like the old Palahniuk that most of us really miss. Speaking of the "old Palahniuk", what has really changed with his writing lately? Personally, I think that the main problem with his new stuff is that he relies too much on shock value. After the gross-out short story "Guts" became insanely popular, people started to expect more of these cringe-inducing horror stories, and sadly enough, Palahniuk caved and started writing them. In Make Something Up, we see a few of these ("Cannibal, "the Toad Prince"), but even if they are more shock than substance, they are still fun to read and often hilarious as well.
All in all, this is the only thing that Palahniuk has put out lately that I can really recommend, and I hope that soon I'll be able to say that about some more of his books. But for now, it seems that Chuck works better in 20 pages or less than he does in a novel.
The majority of the stories in here are good, some very good, actually. As with any short story collection, it's hit-and-miss, and there are some major misses ("Eleanor", "Tunnel of Love"). But overall, the good outweighs the bad, and a few stories ("Knock Knock", "Zombies") even feel like the old Palahniuk that most of us really miss. Speaking of the "old Palahniuk", what has really changed with his writing lately? Personally, I think that the main problem with his new stuff is that he relies too much on shock value. After the gross-out short story "Guts" became insanely popular, people started to expect more of these cringe-inducing horror stories, and sadly enough, Palahniuk caved and started writing them. In Make Something Up, we see a few of these ("Cannibal, "the Toad Prince"), but even if they are more shock than substance, they are still fun to read and often hilarious as well.
All in all, this is the only thing that Palahniuk has put out lately that I can really recommend, and I hope that soon I'll be able to say that about some more of his books. But for now, it seems that Chuck works better in 20 pages or less than he does in a novel.
A collection of sick, vulgar and skilfully written short and repulsive stories. Highly recommended! 🙈
challenging
dark
funny
sad
fast-paced