anbar 's review for:

Damned by Chuck Palahniuk
2.0

There were a couple of things that were kind of funny or good near the end (I found the takeover process entertaining in a silly way), but the first half or two thirds was mainly gross-out ploys. Hell in this book is, for the most part, more icky than actually hellish. The main character, Maddie, is relatively okay but has these annoying repetitive verbal tics: always referring to her skanky mean-girl schoolmates as some variation on 'Trampy Vandertramp' or 'Whorey McWhoreson'--not every now and then for emphasis like a normal teen, no: EVERY TIME; and ending every second or third paragraph with 'yes I know the word [insert word], I'm dead/thirteen/fat, not stupid', but often only saying it 3 or more sentences after using said word, so I often had to go back and re-read to see "wait, where did she say that...?" not to mention "okay, she has said that ENOUGH". Also, her level of birds-and-bees knowledge was bizarrely uneven--it's believable that a 13-year-old might not have a full understanding of sex, but having been 'educated' by her parents' porn and having enough general knowledge to save her friends by jacking off a giant succubus (yeah -_-) but NOT knowing what French kissing is...? I get that you were going for comedy there, but you just strayed a bit past the limits of credulity. Finally, the author keeps trying to play the book as a not-so-sly homage to 'The Breakfast Club' and maybe it's just my indifference to that movie, but that just seemed unnecessary and forced.
Overall, not a strong showing by this author, and with a very abrupt 'to be continued' ending to top it off.