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A review by frasersimons
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
3.0
An interesting concept—writers at a retreat gone wrong using short stories as an allegory for what might be happening, as they sabotage the group in a social experiment, ostensibly. That’s really reductive, but more approaches spoiler territory, I think, since I think what is happening at the meta level is necessarily more interesting than the stories.
It’s a weird experience because I didn’t find myself interested in the stories, other than to figure out what was being communicated about the situation with the writers. The premise hobbles the stories immediately, even if it is interesting to put stories in the position of communicating truth about “the world”. Yet, that removal makes every story impossible to suspend your disbelief for, too. Instead, they’re just simulacrums of the specific writer.
This makes everything compelling at a macro, meta level, and as a reflection of society and what happens when people go off script in society. However, I don’t think any of the stories will stick with me, nor were they particularly moving or effective. They all felt like white noise in this structure. Sure, it’s clever, as I haven’t read anything quite like it. But I’m not sure the message is new, and it undermines its own short stories. People devolve without society. With the internet we can see everyday just what anonymity does to some people. Not exactly revelatory. But I do think this book succeeds at what it was trying to do.
It’s a weird experience because I didn’t find myself interested in the stories, other than to figure out what was being communicated about the situation with the writers. The premise hobbles the stories immediately, even if it is interesting to put stories in the position of communicating truth about “the world”. Yet, that removal makes every story impossible to suspend your disbelief for, too. Instead, they’re just simulacrums of the specific writer.
This makes everything compelling at a macro, meta level, and as a reflection of society and what happens when people go off script in society. However, I don’t think any of the stories will stick with me, nor were they particularly moving or effective. They all felt like white noise in this structure. Sure, it’s clever, as I haven’t read anything quite like it. But I’m not sure the message is new, and it undermines its own short stories. People devolve without society. With the internet we can see everyday just what anonymity does to some people. Not exactly revelatory. But I do think this book succeeds at what it was trying to do.