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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
So weird. So funny. So unique
Haunted has quite a formidable and well deserved reputation. After having read 'Guts', the first of the connected short stories that make up Haunted, I admit to skipping ahead to the Afterword. There, I learned about the many instances of people having fainted from Palahniuk's public readings of 'Guts' on tour, including that of one guy who wast tended to by paramedics to prevent him choking on his own vomit. Intrigued?
The larger story follows a rag-tag bunch of grotesque misfits who attend a mysterious, isolated writer's retreat in an old theater. It doesn't take long for things to go awry, and with each character's regaling of a personal story, we are soon plunged into a nightmare of human indecency. 'Guts' starts the whole thing off with something of a "bang." While the rest of the short stories are less explicit and more "digestible" (excuse the pun), the larger story connecting the characters and their individual stories only gets darker and more twisted, and ultimately perverse.
Haunted doesn't let you stop turning the pages. Partly because it's so addictive, partly because you can't believe Palahniuk 'went there', and partly because you just want it to be over. I love Palahniuk's blacker than black humour, but this is some next level stuff. If you can make it all the way through 'Guts', you're in for a hell of a ride.
The larger story follows a rag-tag bunch of grotesque misfits who attend a mysterious, isolated writer's retreat in an old theater. It doesn't take long for things to go awry, and with each character's regaling of a personal story, we are soon plunged into a nightmare of human indecency. 'Guts' starts the whole thing off with something of a "bang." While the rest of the short stories are less explicit and more "digestible" (excuse the pun), the larger story connecting the characters and their individual stories only gets darker and more twisted, and ultimately perverse.
Haunted doesn't let you stop turning the pages. Partly because it's so addictive, partly because you can't believe Palahniuk 'went there', and partly because you just want it to be over. I love Palahniuk's blacker than black humour, but this is some next level stuff. If you can make it all the way through 'Guts', you're in for a hell of a ride.
dark
funny
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This review is more for myself: i came across this book at age 12 or 13, and i remember holing myself away so i never had to put it down. I felt changed afterwards, it hugely impacted me at the time. I tried to reread it in my late teens and already felt I'd outgrown it, and outgrown Palahnuik as a writer. He answered to the angsty teen i was ready to become, he guided me through the feelings of not belonging and questioning and raging at the world - or quietly seething? But for me his work doesn't stand up
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this was described to me as a fucked up canterbury tales and like yeah that’s it
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I hated this