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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
Loved it. I devoured the last few chapters, and the end was completely unexpected.
Trying to put down a book when I'm not enjoying it, got so frustrated at the '13 year old girl voice' and the high and mighty "yes I know [blank], I'm a 13 year old girl, not stupid" sentences every page. Love his other work, this one isn't my cup of tea
The book is 247 pages of ranting by an annoying 13 year old girl.
This is an odd book, both whimsical and existential. The narrator is Madison Spencer, a chubby 13-year-old child of movie stars with a big vocabulary and a fatally scant knowledge of sex. She is also dead, and now resides in hell, which is sort of the Breakfast Club meets fourth-grade gross-out humor (there are dandruff deserts and fecal oceans). I admire Palahniuk--whose other books I haven't read; I know!--for trying to create stakes for a character who is already dead. It more or less works because the afterlife, like life, is apparently what you make of it. He's interested in the malleability of identity, so you can guess that the resident cheerleaders and jocks aren't just cheerleaders and jocks. I liked the creative details of Palahniuk's particular idea of hell--where every demonic limo driver has a screenplay he wants you to read--but without the grounding that realism provides, I was never drawn all the way in. It's a light, mostly fun, kinda purgatorial read.
Honesty, I was expecting more. Though heavily borrowed, the plot itself had some promise to it, had it been more thoroughly fleshed out. The same goes for the two-dimensional characters and their dull, predictable behavior. The only parts of the book I enjoyed were the references to the demons and hierarchy of hell, since that sort of thing interests me. Even the growth of the main character over the course of the novel seems rushed, and forced. The "surprise" ending seemed hastily tacked on at the last minute, and even Palahniuk's tendency to repeat certain phrases (which I typically enjoy) were dry and over-used. Verdict: Damned was the best in the group of books he's released since Rant, but he seems to have lost the love of it all. I'll always love the early stuff, but I'll definitely be more wary picking up his new books in the future.
3.5/5. I love you Chuck, but as of late I've read way too many of your books and am getting similar vibes from all of them. Literally, Madison had the exact same narrative voice as the protagonist of Choke (I can't remember his name, sorry!). Anyway, I think I've read way too many books by white dudes lately so maybe that's my problem. Either way, I'll give Chuck a miss for a while.
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes