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magyklyxdelish's review against another edition
DNF - 103 pgs
It started out so promising. I just found myself bored and having to force myself to continue until I just admitted that this just isn’t the book for me.
I realize this is satire. In fact, the satire is very in-your-face. However, it just came across as stupid to me. I really hate that I feel this way, I wanted to like this one.
However I know how lauded Chuck is, so I’m going to try more of his work. This just wasn’t the book for me.
I did buy this one though, so the chances are good that someday I’ll find my way back to give it another shot.
It started out so promising. I just found myself bored and having to force myself to continue until I just admitted that this just isn’t the book for me.
I realize this is satire. In fact, the satire is very in-your-face. However, it just came across as stupid to me. I really hate that I feel this way, I wanted to like this one.
However I know how lauded Chuck is, so I’m going to try more of his work. This just wasn’t the book for me.
I did buy this one though, so the chances are good that someday I’ll find my way back to give it another shot.
colleen_mc's review against another edition
5.0
I can't believe how much I loved this book. I was prepared to be eh about it as the first book I read by Palahniuk - Diary - I was disappointed in. I heard great things about Diary, but didn't like it much. In fact, I vowed to never read anything by Palahniuk again.
I am thrilled I just grabbed this without a reason other then why not? It was one of the few audiobooks at my library that was available and I had not yet listened to.
I laughed throughout this entire book. I will be reading more of this author.
I am thrilled I just grabbed this without a reason other then why not? It was one of the few audiobooks at my library that was available and I had not yet listened to.
I laughed throughout this entire book. I will be reading more of this author.
ninevehthecat's review against another edition
4.0
I could see how some wouldn’t enjoy this book but I just found it so hilarious. It is outlandish, dark, satirical, and was just super fun all around.
beillumined's review against another edition
3.0
Hilarious, engrossing, and laugh out loud funny. I had a great time reading what can only be described as a ridiculously silly book.
ldowns1422's review against another edition
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
kitrey's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-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
3.0
rodhilton's review against another edition
3.0
Really neat idea that went somewhat wasted on a mediocre book. I'm a Palahniuk fan, but this just didn't seem as strong as a lot of his other books.
We meet our main character and find out she's died and gone to Hell. But Hell isn't just a bunch of Saw-movie traps or anything, it's like a real place, with demons and monsters and Lakes of Vomit and a desert of dandruff and a Swamp of Partial-Birth Abortions. She meets up with a group of people and they basically set out on what starts to feel like an adventure through Hell. Really neat idea...
...until they get where they're trying to go within a chapter. And it turns out that where they wanted to go was a kind of hall of records, where they get jobs as telemarketers. The notion that Telemarketers are actually working from hell is worthy of a chuckle at first, but frankly this part of the book drags on for most of the middle. It also contributes to an irritatingly confusing mythos - there's talk of how the dead can come back and go trick-or-treating on Halloween (har), that every time you get a cold sore or hairs in your ear, that's the dead trying to communicate (har har), and then Maddy directly speaks with people on Earth and tells them she's from Hell and to bring candy bars for her when they die (har har har). She even gets to have a phone conversation with her still-alive parents. So why are the dead blowing window curtains and shit? It's all just not very well thought-out, all of the mythos seems invented on the fly to make a joke. And frankly, the jokes are a bit lame, like on the level of a crack about how all of the lawyers are in Hell too.
Overall, the book is okay, starts out really strong but then really really sags in the middle. It picks up a bit towards the end, but then there's a completely asinine "twist" that's utterly nonsensical and tacked-on. Kinda disappointing, it's astonishing that this book, of all of Pahlaniuk's books, is the only one to get a sequel. I haven't decided if I'm going to bother reading Doomed yet, there was a lot unresolved in the story but I felt like getting through Damned was a bit of a slog.
We meet our main character and find out she's died and gone to Hell. But Hell isn't just a bunch of Saw-movie traps or anything, it's like a real place, with demons and monsters and Lakes of Vomit and a desert of dandruff and a Swamp of Partial-Birth Abortions. She meets up with a group of people and they basically set out on what starts to feel like an adventure through Hell. Really neat idea...
...until they get where they're trying to go within a chapter. And it turns out that where they wanted to go was a kind of hall of records, where they get jobs as telemarketers. The notion that Telemarketers are actually working from hell is worthy of a chuckle at first, but frankly this part of the book drags on for most of the middle. It also contributes to an irritatingly confusing mythos - there's talk of how the dead can come back and go trick-or-treating on Halloween (har), that every time you get a cold sore or hairs in your ear, that's the dead trying to communicate (har har), and then Maddy directly speaks with people on Earth and tells them she's from Hell and to bring candy bars for her when they die (har har har). She even gets to have a phone conversation with her still-alive parents. So why are the dead blowing window curtains and shit? It's all just not very well thought-out, all of the mythos seems invented on the fly to make a joke. And frankly, the jokes are a bit lame, like on the level of a crack about how all of the lawyers are in Hell too.
Overall, the book is okay, starts out really strong but then really really sags in the middle. It picks up a bit towards the end, but then there's a completely asinine "twist" that's utterly nonsensical and tacked-on. Kinda disappointing, it's astonishing that this book, of all of Pahlaniuk's books, is the only one to get a sequel. I haven't decided if I'm going to bother reading Doomed yet, there was a lot unresolved in the story but I felt like getting through Damned was a bit of a slog.
ncarter5069's review against another edition
2.0
This is only my second Chuck Palahniuk experience; Haunted was my first. This book was pretty much a complete failure; I kept trying to think of ways to justify it because he has so many die-hard fans that I want to like him as a writer. I kept saying, "Well, I like his vision of hell, it's fresh" or "It's interesting as a satire piece that pits an angsty teenager against a landscape of demons" or "This would be such a great graphic novel, I can just see the visuals now!"
Are you there, Chuck? It's me, the reader. This is pretty much complete trash, but you know what? I'm going to finish the trilogy to see if it gets any better (which probably exactly what you wanted), but I'm a sucker for literary depictions of hell, I really am. And, on that front, it isn't terrible; but that doesn't justify giving us the whiniest narrator to have been penned in history, as well as her death by asphyxiation repeatedly fronted as "marijuana overdose."
SPOILER: When she starts fighting Hitler and other rulers of history in Hell is the point, where it really falls off for me. Not only am I left wondering what the hell the size differentials are during these battles (all of the dictators seem to be towering figures over her, giants even, and she takes them down, with little to description as to how or even why). And near the end we find out that she's not even real, but just a character Satan has been writing in a screenplay? You just made a turd so meta, Chuck - nice one, bro! ... All in all, I'm really hoping this story redeems itself in the next book.
Are you there, Chuck? It's me, the reader. This is pretty much complete trash, but you know what? I'm going to finish the trilogy to see if it gets any better (which probably exactly what you wanted), but I'm a sucker for literary depictions of hell, I really am. And, on that front, it isn't terrible; but that doesn't justify giving us the whiniest narrator to have been penned in history, as well as her death by asphyxiation repeatedly fronted as "marijuana overdose."
SPOILER: When she starts fighting Hitler and other rulers of history in Hell is the point, where it really falls off for me. Not only am I left wondering what the hell the size differentials are during these battles (all of the dictators seem to be towering figures over her, giants even, and she takes them down, with little to description as to how or even why). And near the end we find out that she's not even real, but just a character Satan has been writing in a screenplay? You just made a turd so meta, Chuck - nice one, bro! ... All in all, I'm really hoping this story redeems itself in the next book.
ancoetsu's review against another edition
1.0
Poor Chuck. He needs to either lay down the law with Doubleday or leave them. Cranking out a new book every year has obviously taken its toll on him. Dan Brown gets years between his books, why not Chuck too? I couldn't even finish this book it was so awful.