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sparkletoothed's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
joshhall13's review against another edition
2.0
I gave up.
Too many branching storylines & a disjointed style outweighed all the positives (of which there were many)... But the meandering story broke up my attention span too far.
Too many branching storylines & a disjointed style outweighed all the positives (of which there were many)... But the meandering story broke up my attention span too far.
mkr687's review against another edition
4.0
I never review books because I love reading but I’m a terrible writer so I’ll try to keep this short. I’ve never read anything by Palahnick before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. This book is absolutely insane and I loved it. The story itself is so different and shocking that it keeps you interested. My only complaint is that there’s no central character. There’s a bunch of different characters and story lines that all intertwine in some tiny way eventually. I’d read about a character in the beginning, completely forget about the character after 20 or more pages, then be brought back to that character again. You get used to it eventually but it’s confusing at first. It just jumps from place to place so quickly. I would still recommend it though. It’s an extremely interesting read if you can get past how choppy it feels.
ninevehthecat's review against another edition
2.0
I usually love Palahniuk but this one was not for me. There were a couple great satirical moments as expected in any Palahniuk book but other than that it just really fell flat and was really difficult to follow.
carliedikes's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, War, Violence, Racial slurs, Murder, Gun violence, Classism, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Torture
Minor: Misogyny
fsantoriello's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mrtoadvine's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jager123's review against another edition
Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk. I have no idea where to even start with this. It is novel of revolution and devolution. It is extreme in every aspect, holding familiar conspiracies under a microscope in a world that is dressed like a medieval fair or as the incarnation of an Ancient Aliens documentary (without the aliens). In all honesty it is worth the read for the brief moment of Palahniuk poking fun at his own work. Not an easy read and I’m still trying to wrap my head around what on earth I just read. But if you’re looking for something unusual or just completely off it’s tree, this might work.
Trigger warnings for basically everything. As the blurb says Palahniuk is an equal opportunity offender.
Trigger warnings for basically everything. As the blurb says Palahniuk is an equal opportunity offender.
its_kievan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
At one point in this story, one character injects another character's penis with spider venom, which causes it to rot and eventually fall off. This is a good analogy for Adjustment Day as a whole, except replace the penis with my attention span and the spider venom with one of the most toothless, incoherent attempts at satire I've ever read. It's just... it's bad. It's bad and it's not particularly clever or interesting. Good satire comes from caring about the subject, at least a little. You need to know a lot about something to criticize it well, and that's doubly true when you're trying to be funny in the process. Palahniuk, as far as I can tell, doesn't really give a shit about... well, about anything, and it shows. Adjustment Day is the sort of equal-opportunity mockery that you'd find on South Park, and as a result it reads like a high school student's report on a book they didn't even read. It's lazy, and it's boring. I'm sure somewhere there's an Adjustment Day fan - probably the same person whose response to Fight Club was "whoa dude that's so sick" - but personally I couldn't care less. I couldn't care less what Palahniuk thinks about masculinity, or about liberalism, or about identity politics, and I couldn't care less about his book.
Also he has two characters in this book talk about Fight Club, which is so blindingly obnoxious it nearly killed me.
Also he has two characters in this book talk about Fight Club, which is so blindingly obnoxious it nearly killed me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Gun violence, and Gore
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, and Misogyny
henrymarlene's review against another edition
3.0
@chuckpalahniuk writes interesting stories. 'Adjustment Day' is no exception as my travel companion over the last few days. But it does lose a little steam in the middle. The new dystpoian worlds created did not seem to be as surprising or scandalous as they could be. And there were a couple of characters that left me scratching my head in relation to the power they acquired. There was a hint of how this could have been the next step of the world after the apocalyptic Fight Club destructions let loose across the world. I was left wanting more.