Reviews with content warning for Gore - Fight Club

This is not normally a book I would gravitate towards but it definitely hit on themes that I agree and disagree with. The way that the author tackled through the life the narrator has before and the lift he has after Tyler Durden is so seamless. We go from having two different personalities, the narrator, who has been playing it safe for so long and Tyler who is ballsy at everything he does. Throughout the novel, it seems as though the narrator goes from his playing it safe attitude to not knowing where he starts and Tyler ends. It also gets at the idea of the working class people who go through the jobs and brunt work that they're not happy about and them sticking a big middle finger to the upper class rich people for the way that they benefit from the system. I probably wouldn't do most of the things that Tyler does in this book, but you see the way that his charming personality and the ballsy approach he has make an effect on creating this brotherhood across the country that would do anything for him. It's just so crazy.

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12_gon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

'gotta admit! love to fight club, but we only fight club outside... '

Palahniuk tunes Intersectional Feminism to young men lost in the dissonant notes of white male rage and mommy issues. As the reader wanders through the protaganist's self-harm adventure stealing the pain of others and discovering the highs of sleep-deprived mania, we meet Marla and Tyler.

See, Tyler is how the quiet, polite boy ignored by his mom, turns into the schizophrenic mass shooter. Tyler tells the protaganist about ~~Caste~~ ~~Necropolitics~~ ~~patriarchy~~ CAPITALISM$$$ "You see reader, us guy bros who like know about Ruby Ridge, can see past the bedtimes and sobriety the (m)asses are so fond of hehe.. like communism could just work if us genetically superior MEN(!!!) just destroyed everything! Then us group of guys undergoing psychosis cause we haven't slept in a bit, can solve the ~~Jewish~~ CAPITALISM$$$ question... OwO x3"

Like terrorism, but way cooler cause our Turner Diaries is the Communist Manifesto BAYBEE!

The book's appeal to me has evolved over the year's. I enjoy Palahniuk's embrace of psychosis and the "sad clown" ending of Tyler winning terrorism. A lot of people pretend they read the book, when they just watched the movie and probably didn't think about it much. In the book, when you don't sleep, self-harm (beat yourself up hehe [cause Fight Club]); you become abusive to the point of homicide. You know, the bad guy. Palahniuk is pretty literal, and meth psychosis is well-known in the seedier parts of the LGBTQ community. Ask around. The prose is very accurate, but not precise. Which I find the fear of failure mirrors poetically in Realistic Horror. The absurdity mirrors survivor's guilt. It'll grow with you.

Sucks for Bob though. RIP... hmmm... you ever think the guy with tits, no balls, and who spent the first two weeks in-utero as a female fetus like every human does might be a woman? Well I'm not going read his chromosomes or diary, so yeah.

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foramen_magnum's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Palahniuk is one of my favorite authors, so returning to his works is like catching up with an old friend... Even if they weren't your favorite, they make you feel nostalgic.

Fight Club is clearly early in his career and the elements of his style are being experimented upon. While sometimes it hits his razor sharp mania, other times it feels very stream of consciousness as told by characters who just aren't always that interesting. Shock value is a trademark of his style but here it feels gratuitous, where in other books it feels immersive. Still, he makes his point, and his critique of capitalism and hyper masculinity is absolutely clear. If this is your first tango with Chuck, I'd recommend you start with Rant before checking out Fight Club, but don't count this one out entirely.

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nb_leftist's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It seems to be a commentary on white supremacist right wing extremist movements and how they’re fucking idiotic, but I can’t tell if that’s what the author meant it as or not. I don’t think it really matters cause there’s not one specific thing that a story can mean and in the afterword Palahniuk even writes about how he kind of just wrote it. Either way it’s definitely a good piece of writing. It keeps you interested and it keeps moving throughout. I finished it in probably 2-3 hours and it felt like 30 minutes.

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sobake_cih's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

It’s one of my fav books since my teens, so I’m very biased. But reading it now so many years later gave me so much more to think about. A truly iconic book.

It’s a lot more dark and twisted than the film, and many issues in society and the world in general mentioned and discussed in the book are very present to this day, even though it was published almost 30 years ago.

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mdwsn27's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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vexant's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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my_a's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Made me think of an American "Trainspotting" - violent and jarring punchy 1990s novel about disenfranchised young men rejecting the system and trying to make their own sense of meaning.

This was SOO much better than I'd expected. Never seen the film so I came in completely blind.

although i did figure out the split personality within the first 1/3rd of the book, but I knew there was some big twist & I'm used to reading literary fiction, analysing and questioning as I read. I wondered for most of the book if Marla was a 3rd personality.

It was incredibly crafted with intentional and deliberate writing and author decisions throughout. It has a lot to say.

The more I think about it since finishing, the better I think it was, the writing and the story. My rating goes up each day that passes. Is it even a 5 * maybe? I think its one of those books that is taken for granted due to its cultural impact. And it got me out of a big reading slump - tried about 4 books I DNF'ed then read this within 24 hours!

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