Haunted

I’ve read all of Palahniuk’s books, all of them are good and all of them have cringe inducing moments. I could give a couple of examples from the books but so more people can relate, I’ll use examples from movies.

  • Most of the bodies discovered in Se7en. I loved that movie but have seen it only once and I’m only now considering seeing it again.
  • The face beating-in of angel face in Fight Club (based on a Palahniuk novel).
  • The whole mouth on curb thing in American History X. (Notice the Pitt to Pitt and Norton to Norton link ;))
  • The infected arm thread in Requiem for a Dream.

    Well, Chuck’s latest, Haunted, is like that times ten. Holy shit! Some disturbed, disgusting stuff in there. If I didn’t know his writing and want to read the cringe parts to get to the great moments, I wouldn’t have finished it. I read a couple of parts while having large breakfasts in restaurants and eeeesh, some bites were going down sideways.

    To give you an idea, it starts with the short story “Guts” and people are known to faint (here too) at his readings of the story. That part might be a hoax or partially setup by fans but I wouldn’t bet against it.

    Still, recommended. Although you might want to start with some of his others ones if you don’t know him yet.