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Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Pregnancy
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
In Haunted, around fifteen (I know that's not the right number, but I've never quite figured out how many there were) people are lured into a three-month writer's retreat. As we learn more about each of the individuals, we learn that all of them have some kind of horrible flaw, and many of them are guilty of horrendous crimes.
The characters don't have real names, and are mostly known by a nickname, such as "Sister Vigilante," "Saint Gut-Free," "the Reverend Godless," "Chef Assassin," and so on. The only two characters with "real" names are Mr. Whittier, who is the host, and Mrs. Clark, who seems to be his assistant?
The book has a pretty strict order in the way it is laid out. There are twenty-four "chapters." Each one has a brief section describing what is happening in real time, followed by a poem about the central character of that chapter, and then a story about or told by that character. Each poem has a name, and the book opens, before chapter one, with a poem called "Guinea Pigs."
So this book is both a "novel," and a collection of short stories, all wrapped into one.
I almost didn't make it through the first story, which is called "Guts," and is about Saint Gut-Free. It is extremely disturbing, and, in a short essay at the end of the book, Mr. Palahniuk describes how many people have fainted in public readings of this particular story. At the writing of the essay, 73 people had fainted during readings of "Guts." I'm not going to describe why in this review.
Some of the stories are really great, some of them are more hard to follow. But each of them illustrates what is "wrong" with the subject character and gives us a glimpse as to why they are at this "writer's retreat."
As the real-time segments unfold, the selfishness of society in general is illustrated, as the characters begin to engineer things in such a way that they will each be some kind of hero when they get rescued (because that's what is going to happen, in their minds). They designate a "villain," and do things like cut off fingers and toes, so that, when they are rescued, they will tell the story that the villain tortured them.
What is supposed to be happening is that they are supposed to each be writing a great story, as this "writer's retreat" is supposed to be mirroring the famous time at Villa Diodati, when Lord Byron, John Polidori, Mary Godwin (later Shelley), Percy Shelley, and Claire Clairmont, spent three days together because of bad weather, writing stories for each other. This was the event that turned out Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, and The Vampyre, by Polidori.
Needless to say, no stories were written in Haunted, but one heck of a movie plot was devised.
It is almost impossible to "genrefy" (I think I just made that word up) this book. It certainly has aspects of horror ("Guts" reminds me of another short story that I swear I have read somewhere else, but I can't remember any details). It is most definitely dark, but there is also comedy in it . . . plenty of moments that made me laugh. It is, beyond all of these, quite twisted.
To me, the whole thing is summed up by a segment that I highlighted in my Bookly app, where the characters are discussing the need for a "monster." "'We need a monster,' Sister Vigilante says . . ." And then, the unknown narrator says, "It's all we can do not to drag Mrs. Clark out of her dressing room and force her at knife point to bully and torture us." This is how intent these deranged people were on being heroes and having a hit movie story when they were rescued. Oh, and while Sister Vigilante was saying this, she is peeling her fingernails off with a knife.
If you have even the slightest weak stomach, this book is not for you. But if you love a twisted tale, and watching people self-destruct for the sake of fame, then perhaps you will enjoy Haunted.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Self harm, Violence
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Grief, Car accident
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Gun violence, Alcohol
Minor: Incest
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Miscarriage, Self harm, Terminal illness, Violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail