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A review by fitzzula
Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread by Chuck Palahniuk
4.0
I suppose with all short story collections there will be mixed feelings. While I enjoyed this overall, there was a point in this collection of short stories where I had serious second thoughts about it. It has some stories that definitely were weaker (or less appealing to me at any rate) than others, some with slurs and casual sexism that didn't seem to serve a purpose which I didn't connect with at all.
However there were also some brilliant stories in here - 'Inclinations' is fantastic as is 'Red Sultan's Big Boy', 'Phoenix' and I thoroughly enjoyed 'Fetch' and 'Why Aardvark Never Landed on the Moon'. The stories are all bleak, grotesque explorations of human nature and not for the squeamish! Surprisingly for Palahniuk, there were also some heartwarming moments and they were all thought provoking stories. Overall I think even the ones I didn't enjoy reading at the time ( Cannibal! ) were powerful. Definitely worth a read.
However there were also some brilliant stories in here - 'Inclinations' is fantastic as is 'Red Sultan's Big Boy', 'Phoenix' and I thoroughly enjoyed 'Fetch' and 'Why Aardvark Never Landed on the Moon'. The stories are all bleak, grotesque explorations of human nature and not for the squeamish! Surprisingly for Palahniuk, there were also some heartwarming moments and they were all thought provoking stories. Overall I think even the ones I didn't enjoy reading at the time ( Cannibal! ) were powerful. Definitely worth a read.