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graventy's review against another edition
2.0
I think perhaps I have outgrown Palahniuk. Maybe the internet has dulled my senses: his attempts to shock and awe no longer shock or awe.
I read half of it and returned it to the library with no regrets.
I read half of it and returned it to the library with no regrets.
ambermarshall's review against another edition
4.0
This one is a mixed bag, so I'm going to do like I usually try to with collections and summarize and review each story separately. 5 stars usually go to ones I could read a whole novel of.
"Knock Knock": A guy whose shitty father thought it was funny to teach his kid dirty racist jokes finally realizes he was the butt of the joke all along. 3 stars.
"Eleanor": Ugh, I hated this narrative style when he did it in Pygmy. It's such a chore to parse. The story would have been fine without it. 2 stars
"How Monkey Got Married...": First of a few semi-connected stories in this volume told in a Aesop's fables/Coyote stories style where everyone is a type of animal. Salesperson Monkey is given a seemingly impossible task. 4 stars.
"Zombies": Is being brain damaged so bad if it means easy happiness? I read this previously when it was published somewhere online, still pretty great. 5 stars.
"Loser": Another "is winning really worth it?" question-raiser that Chuck is so fond of, in the frame of an acid-tripping frat boy on The Price is Right (basically). 5 stars.
"Red Sultan's Big Boy": Gross beastiality and kids trying to profit off of a viral video (what is with the crafty scheming teenagers in several of these stories?) Unexpected ending. 5 stars.
"Romance": Ignorance is bliss again. Who cares if she's dumb if she's blistering smoking hot? 4 stars.
"Cannibal": Pretty sure you can't perform an abortion like this. Also, fucking gross, Chuck. 1 star.
"Why Coyote Never had Money for Parking": Monkey might have envied Coyote his posting but in Chuck's world the grass is only ever green from the next yard over. 3 stars.
"Phoenix": I read this when it was a Kindle Single and loved it ever since. A business traveler deals with her stubbornly silent blind daughter, her weak-willed husband, and the "ghost" of a cat who more or less ruined their lives. 5 stars.
"The Facts of Life": An ultimate cautionary tale about premarital sex. I admit I laughed at the ending. Unexpected. 4 stars.
"Cold Calling": A telemarketer who can't get anyone to believe him and a customer who isn't who she pretends to be. A little cut-short feeling. 3 stars.
"The Toad Prince": Body modification and "natural male enhancement" taken to a pretty gross extreme. 2 stars.
"Smoke": a writer feeling like a slave to language. Pretty short. 3 stars.
"Torcher": Stoner meets hard-boiled noir detective at Burning Man. Make this a novel please? 5 stars.
"Liturgy": Good pacing and drawing out suspense, also does a great job of sketching out an HOA neighborhood. 4 stars.
"Why Aardvark Never Landed on the Moon": When excellence is punished, go for mediocrity. This one made me sad and pissed off. Fucking bullies. 4 stars.
"Fetch": A haunted tennis ball leads a teenager on a treasure hunt. No, really. I wouldn't mind a book of their adventures. Maybe I'm a weirdo, I dunno. 4 stars.
"Expedition": Some history of the Tyler Durden entity/mythos introduced in Fight Club 2 (the comic book). Interesting. 4 stars.
"Mr Elegant": Someone always has it worse than you even if you end up a viral embarrassment. I want a novel about what happens to the troupe that forms at the end. 5 stars.
"Tunnel of Love": A dying woman seeks a massage therapist's help to hasten the process. Fascinating. 4 stars.
"Inclinations": Kids pretending to be gay, hoping to scam their parents for money in return for attending a gay conversion program end up caught in a more sinister scam. 5 stars.
"How a Jew Saved Christmas": Secret Santa drama. 4 stars.
So in all, a good chunk of my favorite kind of Chuck stories, some gross-out, a few duds, ultimately worth the read.
"Knock Knock": A guy whose shitty father thought it was funny to teach his kid dirty racist jokes finally realizes he was the butt of the joke all along. 3 stars.
"Eleanor": Ugh, I hated this narrative style when he did it in Pygmy. It's such a chore to parse. The story would have been fine without it. 2 stars
"How Monkey Got Married...": First of a few semi-connected stories in this volume told in a Aesop's fables/Coyote stories style where everyone is a type of animal. Salesperson Monkey is given a seemingly impossible task. 4 stars.
"Zombies": Is being brain damaged so bad if it means easy happiness? I read this previously when it was published somewhere online, still pretty great. 5 stars.
"Loser": Another "is winning really worth it?" question-raiser that Chuck is so fond of, in the frame of an acid-tripping frat boy on The Price is Right (basically). 5 stars.
"Red Sultan's Big Boy": Gross beastiality and kids trying to profit off of a viral video (what is with the crafty scheming teenagers in several of these stories?) Unexpected ending. 5 stars.
"Romance": Ignorance is bliss again. Who cares if she's dumb if she's blistering smoking hot? 4 stars.
"Cannibal": Pretty sure you can't perform an abortion like this. Also, fucking gross, Chuck. 1 star.
"Why Coyote Never had Money for Parking": Monkey might have envied Coyote his posting but in Chuck's world the grass is only ever green from the next yard over. 3 stars.
"Phoenix": I read this when it was a Kindle Single and loved it ever since. A business traveler deals with her stubbornly silent blind daughter, her weak-willed husband, and the "ghost" of a cat who more or less ruined their lives. 5 stars.
"The Facts of Life": An ultimate cautionary tale about premarital sex. I admit I laughed at the ending. Unexpected. 4 stars.
"Cold Calling": A telemarketer who can't get anyone to believe him and a customer who isn't who she pretends to be. A little cut-short feeling. 3 stars.
"The Toad Prince": Body modification and "natural male enhancement" taken to a pretty gross extreme. 2 stars.
"Smoke": a writer feeling like a slave to language. Pretty short. 3 stars.
"Torcher": Stoner meets hard-boiled noir detective at Burning Man. Make this a novel please? 5 stars.
"Liturgy": Good pacing and drawing out suspense, also does a great job of sketching out an HOA neighborhood. 4 stars.
"Why Aardvark Never Landed on the Moon": When excellence is punished, go for mediocrity. This one made me sad and pissed off. Fucking bullies. 4 stars.
"Fetch": A haunted tennis ball leads a teenager on a treasure hunt. No, really. I wouldn't mind a book of their adventures. Maybe I'm a weirdo, I dunno. 4 stars.
"Expedition": Some history of the Tyler Durden entity/mythos introduced in Fight Club 2 (the comic book). Interesting. 4 stars.
"Mr Elegant": Someone always has it worse than you even if you end up a viral embarrassment. I want a novel about what happens to the troupe that forms at the end. 5 stars.
"Tunnel of Love": A dying woman seeks a massage therapist's help to hasten the process. Fascinating. 4 stars.
"Inclinations": Kids pretending to be gay, hoping to scam their parents for money in return for attending a gay conversion program end up caught in a more sinister scam. 5 stars.
"How a Jew Saved Christmas": Secret Santa drama. 4 stars.
So in all, a good chunk of my favorite kind of Chuck stories, some gross-out, a few duds, ultimately worth the read.
ctort's review against another edition
3.0
I can't believe it's been a fucking DECADE since I last picked up a Palahniuk. Good to know he's still as dark and viscerally unsettling as always. There's even a cameo of Tyler Durden (that I didn't pick up on til I read the back cover)! Some of the short stories were real gnarly, some were affecting, some were meh- overall it was oddly comforting to get sucked back in.
d_tod_davis's review against another edition
3.0
The more I read Palahniuk, the more it seems to become an exercise in diminishing returns. He starts with some sort of gimmick, throws a lot of repetition at the reader, and towards the end, he rolls out some sort of twist intended to turn the story on its ear. But what works in Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Choke wears thin by the time we get to Tell All and Damned. After reading 11 novels, the prospect of another Palahniuk was no longer that enticing.
But the short story from is a different animal than a novel, and interestingly, with the short story Palahniuk's able to free himself from his worn out tricks. Somewhat. The stories in this collection are all about the right length, say what they need to say, then get off the stage. And, perhaps because of their brevity, the stories that tend to fall back on those well-worn tricks seem more effective: the linguistic repetition carries more of a punch and the surprising bits tend to actually be more surprising. Somewhat.
It was also refreshing to see him step outside what I'd call a Palahniuk story/theme without losing his unique voice, to see him stretch a bit more than usual. There are a few I would happily have left unread (the gross-out story "The Toad Prince" is the epitome of the collection's subtitle) but there are some rather decent takes amongst the 23 collected here ("Knock, Knock", "Fetch", "Torcher") and this collection was enough to once again make the prospect of reading another Palahniuk novel more enticing. Somewhat.
But the short story from is a different animal than a novel, and interestingly, with the short story Palahniuk's able to free himself from his worn out tricks. Somewhat. The stories in this collection are all about the right length, say what they need to say, then get off the stage. And, perhaps because of their brevity, the stories that tend to fall back on those well-worn tricks seem more effective: the linguistic repetition carries more of a punch and the surprising bits tend to actually be more surprising. Somewhat.
It was also refreshing to see him step outside what I'd call a Palahniuk story/theme without losing his unique voice, to see him stretch a bit more than usual. There are a few I would happily have left unread (the gross-out story "The Toad Prince" is the epitome of the collection's subtitle) but there are some rather decent takes amongst the 23 collected here ("Knock, Knock", "Fetch", "Torcher") and this collection was enough to once again make the prospect of reading another Palahniuk novel more enticing. Somewhat.
josephvanburen's review against another edition
4.0
One thing Chuck Palahniuk is good at is making poignant commentary on society and the human condition through disgusting, disturbing, and absurd stories. Most of the tales in this transgressive collection definitely do that. A few stories were kind of like "meh" for me, but the ones that hit home really kick you in the feels because they are so out there yet somehow very relatable. I connect with his characters because they are usually outcasts, marginalized, or just feel alone in some way. Palahniuk is obviously not for everyone. His stories cross lines that go places some readers don't want to visit. But in my opinion, that is what good literature with important messages often has to do. Sidenote: in the audiobook version, the author narrates some of the stories himself, and hearing his purposely awkward reading voice is a weird bonus.
ohboysher's review against another edition
4.0
Omg the period one is so sick how does someone even come up with that??? And worse, why would someone publish it?? And "smoke" was sooo interesting! A man fears that language is a separate entity?? What??? Also the one where a tennis ball beats up a guy?
morganashleyx's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars! Oh, Chuck. You never know what to expect with this guy. This book of short stories hopped from curiously funny to deeply disturbing to borderline confusing each chapter. I think I prefer his full length novels, although some of these tales really caught my attention. I can always admire how specifically tailored his work is, though, and how you always know when you’re reading a Palahnuik novel!
crispymerola's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Chuck is great at writing incredibly engaging stories with schlock endings.
He has it down to a science. More than half of the stories in this collection have perfectly reasonable end points that I could identify, down to the last word and period - plus another few pages that swerve the story into absurd territory.
Sometimes, it works - there are some shock endings in here that really fit the stories thematically, upon reflection. Other times, I think our boy is just fucking with me. Either way, I'm here for it.
There are no complete duds in here, save for Expedition (though it does have the funniest, least cringe Fight Club reference). Zombies, Red Sultan's Big Boy, Torcher, Fetch, and Inclinations are fantastic. Loser might be one of my favorite short stories, period.
He has it down to a science. More than half of the stories in this collection have perfectly reasonable end points that I could identify, down to the last word and period - plus another few pages that swerve the story into absurd territory.
Sometimes, it works - there are some shock endings in here that really fit the stories thematically, upon reflection. Other times, I think our boy is just fucking with me. Either way, I'm here for it.
There are no complete duds in here, save for Expedition (though it does have the funniest, least cringe Fight Club reference). Zombies, Red Sultan's Big Boy, Torcher, Fetch, and Inclinations are fantastic. Loser might be one of my favorite short stories, period.
ixnsindhu's review against another edition
3.0
Yes, it's an apt title. Some of these stories will disturb me for a long time. If you like your short stories weird and very sexually graphic, give these a try!
rlynnparsons's review against another edition
4.0
I can't say I absolutely loved every story in here but I did like them all. There were definitely some scenes that made me cringe, as they were meant to. I feel like all the authors I've read always write in the same narrative voice, but I was really impressed how Palahniuk was able to switch it up, using a different voice for almost every story. It made the reading interesting. I also liked how he played with the kind of story telling that you can see in traditional Native American folklore (if that's the right word to use). Finally, I was also amused that he referred to Fight Club, his own book, in a lot of these stories.