Haunted

by Chuck Palahniuk

Haunted

published	April 11th 2006 by Anchor
binding	Paperback
isbn	1400032822 (isbn13: 9781400032822)
pages	432
description	Haunted is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach-churning stories. They’re told by people who have answered ...more [close] Haunted is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach-churning stories. They’re told by people who have answered an ad for a writer’s retreat and unwittingly joined a “Survivor”-like scenario where the host withholds heat, power, and food. As the storytellers grow more desperate, their tales become more extreme, and they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show that will surely be made from their plight. This is one of the most disturbing and outrageous books you’ll ever read, one that could only come from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk. [close]
date added	12-28-06 edit book

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Jorge

Jorge rated it:

02/05/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in February, 2008

Los Fantasmas de Palahniuk.
Para todos aquellos con tripas de buena hechura, para no caer en el desmayo como los setenta que han desfallecido en las lecturas publicas del autor durante su tour. Para los que disfruten de la severa critica de la cultura y vida estadounidense. Para los que los procesos mas mórbidos del cuerpo, desde los diferentes mecanismos que toman parte en la muerte por asfixia, por quemadura o la podredumbre de la descomposición humana les resulten interesantes. Para...more

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Toby

Toby rated it:

(review of isbn 0385509480)

07/27/08

Read in July, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Sometimes in the humor section of the bookstore you can find a spoof of a popular book or writer. That's not what Haunted is, but it's the first thing that comes to mind.

While the cover promises that Haunted is "A Novel," the innards tell a different story: 24 short short stories and 24 prose poems tied together by a thin framing device. This frame is supposed to evoke storytelling parties of the past, such as the Canterbury Tales or the Decameron, in which the participants each te...more

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Amanda

Amanda rated it:

05/28/08

bookshelves: disturbing, good, horror, weird

Read in May, 2008

recommends it for: Palahniuk fans/lovers of bizarre stories/readers with a strong stomach

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

SECOND REVIEW: My first review of the book was pretty quick and more of an opinion, partially because I think I was new to the book blogging world and partially because I felt that even though I'd gotten the story, I hadn't really been able to focus on the nuances as I'd read it on audio book.

This time around, I decided to read it from the page and it was just as good if not better. Palahniuk paints a bizarre and haunting story of a group of people, all who are running from something in the...more SECOND REVIEW: My first review of the book was pretty quick and more of an opinion, partially because I think I was new to the book blogging world and partially because I felt that even though I'd gotten the story, I hadn't really been able to focus on the nuances as I'd read it on audio book.

This time around, I decided to read it from the page and it was just as good if not better. Palahniuk paints a bizarre and haunting story of a group of people, all who are running from something in their lives, who answer the ad for a three month writers retreat. The retreat promises the chance to write a bestseller with no disturbance from the outside world.

"No disturbance" means no contact, and the characters embrace the strangeness of the situation by bringing their own violent and izarre tendencies to the table. Caught up in both their own drama and the several individual ones from each character (as told through both poetry and prose of sorts), the entrapment becomes a painful challenge to see how horrible they can make their story. By cutting off body parts, starving themselves, and performing all forms of torture on themselves and each other, they work to ensure that their story is at its most tragic, each one trying to become the most tortured of them all for the fame that pain will bring them.

At first glance, the book seems to be a way for the author to attempt to disgust his reader. All stories, including the main one, include elements of the grotesque, taboo, and uncomfortable: molestation, cannibalism, disfigurement, murder, miscarriage/abortion, sexual deviance, and general torture (e.g. one character has to chew through his own intestine, which is possibly the grossest thing I've ever read).

But the story goes beyond that and upon really reading it, you can catch the author's nuances. The characters are given fake names to match the persona they bring to the group. Names like "Comrade Snarky", "Sir GutFree," "Miss America", and "Baroness Frostbite" give a weird whimsy to a dark story, but beyond that, it also shows the characters not as individuals but as a product of their experiences. The torture they put themselves through is dark, yet justified, as much of what they are escaping holds a torture of its own.

The novel is multi layered, which lends the reader to discover new things each time, to allow the mind to make connections and see patterns. The story of the group gives way to the story of their captor which gives way to the story of the nurse. And peppered among these are the stories of the characters.

I wouldn't say this book is for everyone because it's anything but a "feel good" book and it is very disturbing and sometimes nauseating. But for anyone who likes their limits pushed and who isn't afraid to read the things that most people refuse to give thought too, this is great read!

FIRST REVIEW: I noticed that this book didn't get very high remarks, but I have to say I absolutely loved it. I listened to it on audio book during a couple road trips and my commute to work and could seriously listen to it again (though I'd prefer to have the actual book).

I enjoy the way Palahniuk writes. Yes, he pushes the envelope and does the "gross out" thing in quite a few of the short stories, but it's the old train wreck story...I couldn't help but want to hear more. Some of the stories are actually just creepy, and the overall weirdness made me do a double take.

If someone has a copy of the book they want to get rid of, I'll definitely take it off their hands. I loved this book!...less

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Linda

Linda rated it:

11/24/07

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: those who are easily morbidly fascinated

So I went to a very tiny library for the first time ever. Library was so tiny that the only book by Chuck Palahniuk was Haunted. (They only had three Stephen King books shelved!)I was hoping to find Choke or Diary as my cherry-popping experience with Chuck Palahniuk. Alas, I made due with Haunted which I've heard nothing about prior to the day I started reading it.

Since then I read that the first short story was actually featured in Playboy.

Also, my brother said he heard during the publi...more

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jack

jack rated it:

08/07/08

Read in August, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

look, i'm a really huge fan of chuck palahniuk. i've read everything he's written (except that book about portland, but i'm getting to it, okay?). i'll read the new one when it comes out/i get around to it. so, what i mean is, i wanted to love this book. right? we all want to love the work of those we already appreciate. to not love it is to feel...betrayed. somehow.

this book gets three stars because it did entertain me. i did keep reading it. i did finish it. but i probably should give it j...more look, i'm a really huge fan of chuck palahniuk. i've read everything he's written (except that book about portland, but i'm getting to it, okay?). i'll read the new one when it comes out/i get around to it. so, what i mean is, i wanted to love this book. right? we all want to love the work of those we already appreciate. to not love it is to feel...betrayed. somehow.

this book gets three stars because it did entertain me. i did keep reading it. i did finish it. but i probably should give it just two. because it fell so far below what i expect from palahniuk as to be insulting.

i could be taking it too personally.

here are my issues:

#1 you never attach to the characters because there are too fucking many of them.

#2 this shit is just not shocking. i know everybody is all, oh my god "guts" was so gnarly. i don't care. no it wasn't. he eats his own intestine? so? i've watched "aliens" and "the thing" about a billion times combined, splatter movies just make me laugh, i can watch medical shows on a&e during dinner, etcetera, etcetera. bo-ring.

#3 okay. if somebody trapped in the theater with them has a full viral load of an illness that's killed everyone around them within days and they're in there for three fucking months why isn't anyone dead dead dead? i mean, that plot hole is so big it's not even a hole anymore. it's an ocean. in the way that the oceans are so big as to be the majority of the planet and the rest of everything. well, it's just islands.

#4 wow, whittier comes back from the dead? who didn't see that one coming? the ending feels rushed and thrown together which, unfortunately, is how i've felt increasingly about palahniuk's more recent books.

i know this is a bummer train to wah-wah. i didn't hate this completely. or not really at all. i just wanted it to be really really good and it wasn't. it wasn't bad. but it wasn't good.

the two stories in here i really did like were "the nightmare box," which i know was supposed to be scary but just sounded beautiful and "hot potting," which actually did gnarly me out a little, but i think that's because i'm afraid of falling into things like vats of acid, boiling oil and WHO LEFT THE FUCKING SHARP KNIVES POINT-UP IN THE DISH DRAINER AGAIN GODDAMMIT?!?!?!?!!?!!??!?!!!!...less

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Cynthia

Cynthia rated it:

11/06/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: shock-seekers and Palahniuk fans.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
Instead of reviewing the entire novel, I will just be focusing on my personal favourite chapter "Guts".
To date, there have been 53 known occurrences of audience members fainting during readings of “Guts”. This doesn’t surprise me at all, knowing the repulsive content of the story.
"Guts" is your mother, father, preacher and teacher shaking that disapproving finger at self pleasure. Needless to say, this short story will have you thinking twi...more WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
Instead of reviewing the entire novel, I will just be focusing on my personal favourite chapter "Guts".
To date, there have been 53 known occurrences of audience members fainting during readings of “Guts”. This doesn’t surprise me at all, knowing the repulsive content of the story.
"Guts" is your mother, father, preacher and teacher shaking that disapproving finger at self pleasure. Needless to say, this short story will have you thinking twice about creeping that wondering hand down your pants at night. The narrator Saint Gut-Free (who’s alias is explained at the end of the chapter) a specifically terrifying masturbation escapade. While finding satisfaction in his family pool by sticking his rear end in the water intake at the bottom of the pool, Gut-Free finds his small intestines -in Layman’s terms- being sucked out of his asshole. All the while submerged under water. In a desperate attempt to reach the surface for air, he gnaws through the innards with his own teeth. We have all studied anatomy and know that human waste passes through the small intestine before happily plopping down in your toilet. Let’s just assume that Gut-Free wasn’t enjoying a delicious five-star meal. However, the tale doesn’t end here. The Saint’s original motive in the pool was achieved, and the left over sperm later impregnated his younger sister while she was enjoying an evening swim. It’s not shocking that the family had the child aborted before it could be conceived by the preteen girl.
Now, when asked why he is oh so heroinly chic thin, Saint Gut -Free can only smile. His six inches of remained small intestines don't allow much room for weight gain. Thus he is "Gut-Free".
Not only did this tale send shivers down my spine, but a suppressed chuckle in my throat as well. I found Palahniuk's writing style to be unique and innovative. What captured me the most was the straight-forward, bare-all tone that was conveyed through the narrator. He, a self diagnosed compulsive masturbator and sex addict explains his experience all too vividly. It makes the reader feel as if they too are chowing down on feces infested intestines in a swimming pool. And of course I mean that in the best way possible. ...less

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Dave

Dave rated it:

08/03/08

Read in July, 2008

I still remember reading 'Guts' for the first time in the issue of Playboy that it had first been printed...and it was definitely jaw-droppingly disturbing. When I'd heard that Palahniuk was including it into a novel about a writers retreat where all the writers at said retreat were telling these short stories to each other...I was hesitant to pick up the book at all, seeing as that idea just didn't seem to make sense to me. But, I ended up getting it long after it'd already been on paperback ...more I still remember reading 'Guts' for the first time in the issue of Playboy that it had first been printed...and it was definitely jaw-droppingly disturbing. When I'd heard that Palahniuk was including it into a novel about a writers retreat where all the writers at said retreat were telling these short stories to each other...I was hesitant to pick up the book at all, seeing as that idea just didn't seem to make sense to me. But, I ended up getting it long after it'd already been on paperback and having just finished it...I can say that I was more or less right in that the idea of the novel altogether just doesn't work. There's a definite and easy to understand structure to it all though, so that was fairly intersting... There are three types of sections to this book...

1. the novel itself, telling about the various authors attending the so-called writers retreat and what happens to them along the way...

2. short, extended haiku-ish poems about each of the various authors which preceed...

3. the short stories that each of the various authors "tell" to one another.

And the book pretty much maintains that order throughout. So again, it was interesting to have that all sorted out for you from the get-go. The poems, overall, I think could've been tossed out altogether, seeing as they only briefly touched on the mindsets of each of the authors that they were about. The short stories each of them tell are basically all autobiographical to whomever it is that's telling the story, so you end up learning enough about the storytellers through the short stories much more so than the poems are attempting to do. And as with 'Guts', which is the first short story told in the book...many of the other short stories are quite disturbing...one or two even more so than 'Guts' itself.

All in all, the book fits into Palahniuk's running themes of being anti-establishment and going against the grain of our so-called modern culture, so there's no surprise there. I just feel this book in particular is more of a failed experiment than anything else. A valiant effort was made for sure, but it still came up short in the long run.

But the glow-in-the-dark cover was a nice touch!...less

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Jeremy

Jeremy rated it:

06/21/07

bookshelves: horror, old-town-library

People who are just trying to be gross can't help but be entertaining, no matter how see-thru their intent. You can't ignore the little boy who's trying to wipe his boogers on you, and when his parents have finally collared him, with anger and gag relex fully suppressed you have to admit the whole thing was actually pretty funny.

Chuck Paloonyhoonyhookiak is just trying to wipe his boogers on you. When he's done with that, he'll gladly exhaust whatever other bodily fluids happen to be ava...more

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Josh

Josh rated it:

05/11/08

Read in May, 2008

This book is incredibly uneven, that's its downfall. There are some really good moments, some really bad moments, and one or two truly brillant ones. Looking at it as what it essentially is; a collection of short stories, it's really no better or worse than any other short story collection, and actually should get extra points for its brazen audacity. The unifying material that links all of the stories together is terribly weak, and is what ultimately sinks the book.

The first story "...more

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Grainne Rhuad

Grainne rated it:

06/02/08

Read in March, 2008

I love Chuck P.'s writing. There are layers within layers. Or as one of the characters in this novel states. There is the camera behind the camera. However I have to admit when this book first came out I took a pass. The reviews and synopses stated it was full of nasty things like cannibalism and murder. Graphic. I wasn't in a place to read it. Or so I thought. How wrong I was.
The story begins with a flier posted that reads:
Writer's Retreat
Abandon Your LIfe For Three Months.
Just Disappe...more

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Carrie

Carrie rated it:

08/21/07

bookshelves: horror

Read in September, 2006

This book is vile. It is disgusting. No matter how much you can take, you will squirm and say "Oh My GOD!" out loud on the bus or plane or couch or wherever it is you read. It is a nasty book. But Haunted is so much more than that and so worth reading.

Haunted is set in a drab old theater, past it's prime, boarded up, invisible, and impenetrable to the outside world. Inside the theater are 23 characters. 23 people with names like the Earl of Slander and Agent Tattletal...more

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Jamison

Jamison rated it:

04/10/08

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: Fans of the macabre, stark, naked, ugly reality

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

So I just read 'Haunted' and I'm a little confused about how to feel about it. Did I enjoy it? No. One probably shouldn't enjoy subject matter like this. Am I glad I read it? Yes. It's why people slow down for accidents, hoping to see carnage, but shocked when they do see it, often regretting that they looked in the first place.

I’m a big fan of King and his excursions into the shocking and macabre, but this was more intense than any monsters or ghosts he could conjure. It simply deals wit...more

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Lex

Lex rated it:

10/22/07

recommends it for: hearty German stock

Apparently working in a vet clinic for the better part of 5 years is precisely the recipe required to inure one to the effects of Palahniuk's writing.

You'll see tons of "OMG SO GWOSS!!" reviews here, but this ain't one of 'em. I was entertained. All the blood-and-guts and bodily fluids in the world don't really gross me out. What really sickens me is people.

And that's what Palahniuk does best: he writes about the dark sides of people and how precious little it takes to make ...more

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Charlotte

Charlotte rated it:

06/25/08

Read in June, 2008

A warning for anyone unfamiliar with his work, Chucky P writes some deeply disturbing stories and “Haunted” is surely one of his most graphic compilations.

The first time I ever heard the short story "Guts” it came straight from the author's own lips in a crowded Borders Bookstore. By the time the story was finished, six people had fainted. (The best body count at a single event yet.) When I showed up I hadn’t seen the popular movie “Fight Club”, let alone read the book. I...more

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Shannon

Shannon rated it:

12/12/07

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: die-hard chuck fans

The structure of this book was interesting- narration chapter, intro poem, short story, narration chapter, intro poem, short story. He stuck to that throughout. He also stuck to his old tricks and then some- pulling the old switcheroo on the reader whith characters not being who/what you think they are, and his "ewww" factor has been jacked up to 11. In fact, a very short way into the book I put the book down and nearly didn't pick it back up again. I was glad I did start reading i...more

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Kevin

Kevin rated it:

06/18/08

For a group of struggling writers, the promise of a secluded, three-month writers' retreat held promise above all things they could have ever asked for. However, their situation quickly goes south when they enter a fortress of an old theater that is to serve as their retreat locale and are locked in. Only one man has the power to let them out and he won't give up without a fight. As the days and weeks pass, certain aspects of life on their retreat worsen to the point where they start to take out...more

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Jacob

Jacob rated it:

07/17/08

Pretty disappointing altogether. The last story is wholly enjoyable and why some critics say that Palahniuk is the most likely writer to inherit the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut. "Guts," the most infamous and probably most gruesome of the tales is unsettling, but I still had a hard time seeing why over 70 people had fainted while listening to it at various readings.

Obviously Haunted is simultaneously an attempt on behalf of Chuck Palahniuk to pla...more

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Danny

Danny rated it:

12/11/07

Read in March, 2007

recommends it for: people with strong stomachs

Haunted is a trip into all those nasty squalid corners of the human soul, and all those dark little things we like to pretend to ourselves that no one is actually capable of, not really. But they can and do really happen, and most of them happen in Haunted.

Haunted is a collection of Palahniuk's most twisted short stories threaded together around a frame story. Most of them will put your jaw on the floor. They're sick, they're nasty, and they're almost impossible to stop reading. It's like w...more

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Emily

Emily rated it: