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A review by stephthebookworm
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
4.0
Haunted is quite complex, so I’ll do my best to describe it. The book is made up of 23 short stories inside of one larger story. The larger story is: a group of people responded to an ad for a “writer’s retreat” in which they would abandon their lives for three months and create their masterpiece. None of the characters knew what to expect... they just boarded a bus and wound up at an old abandoned theater, at this retreat, run by an elderly man named Mr. Whittier.
Each chapter of this story is followed by a free verse poem about one of the people, then some sort of story about their life that they are telling the rest of the group. All of these stories are disturbing, unusual, brilliant, and shocking.
As for the main story... as time goes on, the people are increasingly growing more disturbed and insane. Some of them begin dying and cutting off their own fingers and toes. They ruin the food and break the heater, all in hopes of being discovered by the outside world and becoming famous by having movies and shows created about their experience. They appear to be locked up and victimized, but we discover they are really prisoners of themselves.
The premise of this story is absolutely fascinating. The book is shocking, grotesque, and extremely unique. It is provocative, bizarre, and unusual. The format of the book was interesting and the writing was brilliant. I was not let down there at all. However, something about this book just didn’t completely click with me. It wasn’t as gripping as I'd expected, and that may just be a result of the character’s short stories intersplicing so often into the "main" story. While the short stories were fascinating (I particularly enjoyed “The Nightmare Box”), it disrupted the overall flow.
This book is intense and disturbing, but most definitely an interesting read. Though I was a little bit disappointed with this one, I did enjoy it for the most part. My expectations were just super high because I LOVE Chuck Palahniuk (Invisible Monsters is one of my very favorite books).
All in all, I’d say be prepared for a disturbing read! Not recommended for the faint of heart.
Read and reviewed: December 2009
Edited: May 2023
Each chapter of this story is followed by a free verse poem about one of the people, then some sort of story about their life that they are telling the rest of the group. All of these stories are disturbing, unusual, brilliant, and shocking.
As for the main story... as time goes on, the people are increasingly growing more disturbed and insane. Some of them begin dying and cutting off their own fingers and toes. They ruin the food and break the heater, all in hopes of being discovered by the outside world and becoming famous by having movies and shows created about their experience. They appear to be locked up and victimized, but we discover they are really prisoners of themselves.
The premise of this story is absolutely fascinating. The book is shocking, grotesque, and extremely unique. It is provocative, bizarre, and unusual. The format of the book was interesting and the writing was brilliant. I was not let down there at all. However, something about this book just didn’t completely click with me. It wasn’t as gripping as I'd expected, and that may just be a result of the character’s short stories intersplicing so often into the "main" story. While the short stories were fascinating (I particularly enjoyed “The Nightmare Box”), it disrupted the overall flow.
This book is intense and disturbing, but most definitely an interesting read. Though I was a little bit disappointed with this one, I did enjoy it for the most part. My expectations were just super high because I LOVE Chuck Palahniuk (Invisible Monsters is one of my very favorite books).
All in all, I’d say be prepared for a disturbing read! Not recommended for the faint of heart.
Read and reviewed: December 2009
Edited: May 2023