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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
I haven't read any Palahniuk books before, and am only peripherally familiar with Fight Club. But the premise of Judy Blume meets Breakfast Club in Hell sounded intriguing, and it was a lot better than listening to the radio during election season.
The book has a 13-year old protagonist, the daughter of a Brad-and-Angelina couple. So many elements of this book seemed be sort of "I read this in People magazine. I'll put that in my book!" Shallow instead of thoughtful, crass instead of ironic.
The book is too adult for teens and too juvenile for adults. The endless soliloquies by the main character do not ring true as thoughts from a 13-year old, and the whole mess sounds like something a middle-aged man would dream up to try to fit a genre he probably shouldn't be tackling.
The whole book had glimpses of goodness and readability in it, like the ideas were there, but there was a rush to finish the book before a deadline and the story lines were not teased out fully.
In the end, I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a satire on young-adult fiction, a satire on Dante and Hell, or whatever else it the author may have wanted to do. While it sounds like the first in a series, I don't feel any need to follow up on subsequent books.
The book has a 13-year old protagonist, the daughter of a Brad-and-Angelina couple. So many elements of this book seemed be sort of "I read this in People magazine. I'll put that in my book!" Shallow instead of thoughtful, crass instead of ironic.
The book is too adult for teens and too juvenile for adults. The endless soliloquies by the main character do not ring true as thoughts from a 13-year old, and the whole mess sounds like something a middle-aged man would dream up to try to fit a genre he probably shouldn't be tackling.
The whole book had glimpses of goodness and readability in it, like the ideas were there, but there was a rush to finish the book before a deadline and the story lines were not teased out fully.
In the end, I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a satire on young-adult fiction, a satire on Dante and Hell, or whatever else it the author may have wanted to do. While it sounds like the first in a series, I don't feel any need to follow up on subsequent books.
Mah....poteva essere un libro molto migliore, poteva mantenere le promesse di Rabbia e invece si è comportato come in Pigmeo.
Chuck che fine hai fatto? come mai alcune tra le tue trame migliori si arenano poi così nel niente, o nello stagno dei bambini abortiti che tanto è uguale? Questo viaggio nell'inferno che poteva rivelarsi strabilianti con un cicerone come te mi ha fatto rimpiangere Dante e Madison poi, che aveva tutte le carte in regola per diventare uno dei "TUOI" personaggi non è mai decollata nè nei flashback della sua vita passata nè nella sua attuale permanenza all'inferno....Tu sai che io leggerò anche il prossimo libro e quello dopo ancora, ma non sarebbe meglio dare una speranza allo zoccolo duro dei tuoi lettori?
Chuck che fine hai fatto? come mai alcune tra le tue trame migliori si arenano poi così nel niente, o nello stagno dei bambini abortiti che tanto è uguale? Questo viaggio nell'inferno che poteva rivelarsi strabilianti con un cicerone come te mi ha fatto rimpiangere Dante e Madison poi, che aveva tutte le carte in regola per diventare uno dei "TUOI" personaggi non è mai decollata nè nei flashback della sua vita passata nè nella sua attuale permanenza all'inferno....Tu sai che io leggerò anche il prossimo libro e quello dopo ancora, ma non sarebbe meglio dare una speranza allo zoccolo duro dei tuoi lettori?
It's "The Breakfast Club" in Hell with a side of Judy Blume. A well-crafted story and a fun read borrowing heavily on mythology and pop culture to tell how a thirteen year old girl pretty much takes over Hell.
This novel was a fun read. At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but it won me over in the end. From her obsession with her step-brother to her dealings with her "hippie" parents, Maddie is a product of her surroundings that just happens to be sent to hell. I will move on to the second novel, but it may be a bit before I get to it.
Palahniuk created a version of hell so fun that I'll be reading "Doomed" just to get back.
I can see this story translated into a stop motion film. This is my first time reading Palahniuk. Is he the new Tom Robbins?
I started it and I couldn't get into it. Moved onto a different book of his instead. Maybe I'll return to it after I finish "Choke" but I'm not marking my calendar.
I finished Damned this morning, racing through the end of it mostly to get away from it. After finishing, I feel beat up, filthy and depressed. Since I just spend two days in Hell with Madison (who I like) the author succeeded.
But the unrelenting sideswipes at the upper middle class, the non-creative torments of Hell (really, a feces waterfall--disgusting, but not that creative) were too much. Two stars because by the end, I liked Madison but that was not enough to make this a good read.
But the unrelenting sideswipes at the upper middle class, the non-creative torments of Hell (really, a feces waterfall--disgusting, but not that creative) were too much. Two stars because by the end, I liked Madison but that was not enough to make this a good read.
I think I would have liked this more as eye reading.
I was looking forward to this one, because i feel like Chuck's last AMAZING novel was like 4 back, the last one was pretty much of a disappointment to me, and I thought the premise of this one sounded intriguing, so I was hoping it would be another masterpiece. I don't feel like it was, but it was definitely worth the time spent.
This is the story of Madison Desert Flower Rosa Parks Coyote Trickster Spencer, daughter of a movie star mother and billionaire father. As the story opens, Maddy finds herself in hell after what she assumes to have been a tragic marijuana overdose. She makes a few new friends who help her learn the ropes of life in the afterlife (specifically hell), and as time passes she begins to learn a few things about her life and her death. There are some great characters here in her posse, and Chuck has also come up with some hilariously disgusting topographical features for hell, such as the Dandruff Desert and the Valley of Used Disposable Diapers, to name just a few (and to NOT spoil any of the best). I also loved his treatment of the film The English Patient, as well as his assertion that some annoying and outlandish things we take for granted here on earth have their origin in hell. I don't want to spoil this for anyone who may read the book, so that's all I'll say.
I felt like the start was a bit slow in this one, there are a couple of recurring devices which may have been used a tad more often than I'd like, and whether or not it was his intent, I knew what the big "surprise" about Maddy's death was before it was officially revealed, but overall I did enjoy the story and the development of the protagonist. In all fairness, I think Chuck has set the bar so high for me with masterpieces like Lullaby, Rant, and Fight Club that maybe it's a bit unfair for me to expect that level of genius every time! This is a pretty good book.
This is the story of Madison Desert Flower Rosa Parks Coyote Trickster Spencer, daughter of a movie star mother and billionaire father. As the story opens, Maddy finds herself in hell after what she assumes to have been a tragic marijuana overdose. She makes a few new friends who help her learn the ropes of life in the afterlife (specifically hell), and as time passes she begins to learn a few things about her life and her death. There are some great characters here in her posse, and Chuck has also come up with some hilariously disgusting topographical features for hell, such as the Dandruff Desert and the Valley of Used Disposable Diapers, to name just a few (and to NOT spoil any of the best). I also loved his treatment of the film The English Patient, as well as his assertion that some annoying and outlandish things we take for granted here on earth have their origin in hell. I don't want to spoil this for anyone who may read the book, so that's all I'll say.
I felt like the start was a bit slow in this one, there are a couple of recurring devices which may have been used a tad more often than I'd like, and whether or not it was his intent, I knew what the big "surprise" about Maddy's death was before it was officially revealed, but overall I did enjoy the story and the development of the protagonist. In all fairness, I think Chuck has set the bar so high for me with masterpieces like Lullaby, Rant, and Fight Club that maybe it's a bit unfair for me to expect that level of genius every time! This is a pretty good book.