Excellent book, another by Palahniuk. I love how he writes, it sucks me in every time. And all the little twists were fantastic. He never disappoints. Great story, memorable characters, perfect ending! ( )

I don't feel at all inspired to write a review of this book. I remember reading a Chuck Palahniuk novel some time in the early 2000s and thinking it was decent. Over the past 20 years he's come out with a lot of books that were read and loved by so many people that I decided to give this one a try when I found it in some bookstore. I don't regret reading it, but I also wouldn't recommend it to anyone really.

While his writing style is interesting, it feels like he tries to hard. The way he repeats certain phrases over and over throughout the book could have a calming, rhythmic effect, but instead it just annoyed me. His constant jumping around in time wasn't the worst idea, but it seemed pointless doesn't add anything to the story. The story itself was just kind of blah. A bunch of pretty people who do things to their bodies so that they aren't so pretty anymore and then go on a weird, drugged out, pointless adventure.

It was a quick read at least. If you're on a desert island or in prison and this is the only book you have access to, I'd highly suggest giving it a read or three. Otherwise, read other stuff. It's probably better that way. ( )

I thought this was an outstanding novel by Palahniuk. I thought the pacing of the story was well and especially liked how a lot of the surprise in the novel came from character's true identities. But not just in the normal sense of a character's motive being different than expected, but due to the fact that many of the characters are addressed by different names throughout the novel, there are moments where we find out that two characters who we think are different are actually the same person. And this keeps the reader on edge and does not allow them to take names for granted throughout the story.

I also thought this was one of the better openings of the Palahniuk novels. It really started with a bang, and even though we traveled back in time to grasp exactly what was going on, it did a really fantastic job of giving you a good "juicy" scene to get you interested in the novel from page one. The ending sections of the novel are everything that Palahniuk fans are to expect from him. The events really start to ramp up and surprises and shocking events are around every corner. In this novel in particular we get to see a scene in the first few pages of the novel, then at the end, armed with more information on the situation, view the event very differently, and this is very effective and interesting.

At it's core this book feels like a story of many people searching for their identity and place in the world, which is something that at one level or not very relatable. The twists and turns throughout the novel mixed with a quirky narrative and some interesting characters make this a very enjoyable read.
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i am not laughing.

Seemed like a desperate attempt to be edgy. ( )