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boards_books_and_brews 's review for:

Not Forever But For Now by Chuck Palahniuk
dark slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 Not Forever But For Now
Written by Chuck Palahniuk
Read by Raphael Corkhill
Book 196/200
Genre: Horror, Satire
Format: Audio
Pages/Time: 256/8hrs 37min
Published: 2023
Rating: ?/10
Horror:👻👻

WARNING: Check for triggers! There are a lot!

WTF did I just read. A book about self-proclaimed degenerates who enjoy killing the house-staff and catfishing serial killers. Not Forever But For Now seems to be A Clockwork Orange for a new generation. It is dark. Very, very dark. So dark, in fact, that it comes all the way around and becomes a little funny. There absolutely is a satire element to NFBFN, but for me it seems to have mostly missed the mark. Though the few pages with dialogue in binary did have me rolling. By no means was this book pleasant or enjoyable, but there was something about it that made me push through to the end. It very well could have been Corkhill's narration which was superb.

I've been reading a lot of reviews to try to decipher how I feel, or what this book is about. And from what I can find, there is no shortage of opinions. Ultimately, I think it's Palahniuk is tackling Nature VS Nurture. The past of these "pre-males" is slowly revealed throughout the story and the reader is set to ponder the question of whether their hitman family or the chemical pollution of manufacturing is to blame for their degeneracy. Or, since the family helps the progression of said companies, does the distinction even matter. Palahniuk is really trying to say something here and I am probably going to be thinking for a long time on what exactly it is. Far be it from me, though, to give this book a numerical rating.