Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Sep 05, 2008

Jess rated it:

I'm going to be honest, I'm starting to become less and less impressed with Palahniuk's work in general-- and it saddens me to admit this. I've read five of his books now (one non-fiction; one too plodding to even finish), and it's becoming too obvious that every character voice is exactly the same. They are all written the same, they all have the same delivery of speech and thought patterns, they are all perfectly one-dimensional. Blank, emotionless, cruel, somewhat hateful. Disenchanted with t More...

7 comments like (31 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2008

Matt rated it:

chuck palahniuk will mess you up. he messed me up. 'fight club' put chuck on the map, but in my opinion, 'survivor' is where he really earned his paycheck.

as others have mentioned, the book starts on page 247 or so and goes backwards to page 1. a simple, but clever gimmick that made me buy the book in the first place. and since the novel's protagonist, if we can call him that, is on a doomed airplane, the page numbering is highly appropriate.

palahniuk expertly traces on More...

1 comment like (14 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2008

Kristen rated it:

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

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Heather rated it:

Palahnuik has a formula to his story-writing, and it's becoming more and more clear that every work becomes less and less impressive upon further examination. Every main character seems plagued by the same sense of nihilism and self-defeat like his Fight club protagonist, as well as the same delivery of speech, and thought patterns.

So. After reading about 3 books in a row with this consistent formula, I was about ready to abandon my faith in him.

But. Then I read this bo More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2008

Denise rated it:

Strange, intriguing at first, but ended with disappointment. Tender Branson is a veritable oddball, with more against him than the average person. I liked him up until a point in the novel where he ceased to think for himself. After that the book became unbearable, and a struggle to read. What started out creative, interesting, amusing, and with a bunch of mental "oh really"s, ended somehow in dejection. Which is odd, because the ending is quite amusing at parts. It is different More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2008

G.R. rated it:

I really enjoyed Fight Club. I thought it was inventive and clever, well constructed and in it's way very honest.

I knew I was going to finish this book (Survivor), it was easy to read. I read it a few years ago and don't remember much at all about it story wise, but I do recall feeling like people who liked Fight Club are supposed to fall in line with this, and it didn't feel like he had really put the effort in.

Apparently people really liked this book, I know many peopl More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2009

Patrick rated it:

What would you do if you worked as a gardener for a wealthy couple who are mastication-challenged and you’ve landscaped their yard with plastic flowers stolen from a giant mausoleum where you’ve just met a girl, who’s brother you may have killed, and thinks your ugly but can predict horrifying disasters while your therapist slowly obsesses over tile grout, and you are the sole surviving member of a religious cult whose doctrine commands you to commit suicide?

You would hijack a plane More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2012

Magdelanye rated it:

Vonnegut,Kozinski,Christopher Moore and now Chuck Pahlaniuk have tapped the black humour of all the mainstream sacred cows, with stylish grace and the prescient ablity to extrapolate the consequences of our most innocuous acts.

Another commonality: they all have the uncanny ability to transform our feelings for their ungainly, unlikely,unlikable, sometimes even rather repulsive oddball freak heroes from clinicly detached to warm and fuzzy. Quite a class act.

We may not like More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2008

Charissa rated it:

Damn. That was a good read. I have to say I was a little reluctant in the early stages of the book. He builds the tale so slowly, and you really have no idea who these characters are. But as the layers unfold and you begin to burrow to the heart of the book... I have to say I'm impressed. Mister Palahniuk is all that and a bag of chips. He kind of reminds me of Tom Robbins... but the cynical, perverted version. There are echoes of the themes that run through Fight Club. He has a very sub More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 02, 2007

Brooke rated it:

Scrounged book review from my blog:

I breezed through reading Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor" in less than a week. This book was a very entertaining read, although not recommended if you are depressed or have suicidal tendencies.

The main character is a "survivor" of the Creedish Church District mass-suicide. A mandate of the Creedish religion is that all church members must immediately commit suicide upon learning that the Deliverance had come. So all tho More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 16, 2007

Eric rated it:

You know him best as the father of "Fight Club," that fiendishly nihilistic modern tale of materialism and machismo run awry. "Survivor" is a different take on almost the same theme, a fractured look at contemporary living as seen through the twisted prism of a not-too-innocent.

The narrator begins by telling us that he has hijacked a plane and that he will run out of fuel in so many hours. In that time, he will tell us (and the flight recorder) the tale of how h More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2008

Elsa rated it:

Siempre que voy en los últimos capítulos de un libro, me pregunto si todas mis expectativas se verán cumplidas. Sin embargo, en el caso de Survivor, mientras más leía y más me llenaba de dudas, mis expectativas iban creciendo y cumpliéndose. Hay varias cosas que Palahniuk pone en cuestión en el libro, como la cosificación del hombre (el culto), la sexualidad como una especie de "liberación" (la frustración también se encuentra en este punto), el destino (el sueño y el asombro) y otras More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

Nicholas rated it:

The gimmick of the page number along with the chapter numbers going backwards and counting down to one. The book gave me a weird feeling from the start almost identical to the feeling I got from first watching the film adaptation of Fight Club, also written by Chuck Palahnuik. The story was great where the sole survivor of a Creedish Death Cult becomes a religious leader, which mocks todays culture of botox to eating traits and to celebrities. Its satire is perfectly dealt and the ending is also More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Blake rated it:

Out of all of the Palahniuk novels, this one is my personal favorite (with Rant coming in a quick second). The main character is the last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult (think Waco, TX if they were Amish...), who, unbenownst to him, is about to become the next big supertelevangelist - sort of. Mixed with sexuality, murder, and that distinctive Palahniuk satirical flair, this book is a page turner. I could not put it down. And if you put it down for a few months, you just want to More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Dennis rated it:

This is Palahniuk's most compelling book. For fans of the odd contemporary fiction, it's a must have, and a must read annually.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2009

*trisha* rated it:

AMAZING READ.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2011

Billie.henry rated it:

Truly, the hype around Palahniuk made me a little wary. There's nothing more disappointing than reading the work of someone who's been raved about, only to find out that their words are less than well-crafted.
Well, "Survivor" had me hooked from the first page. Palahniuk's style of writing appeals to me. He crafted a creepy, weird protagonist whom I just can't help but feel sympathy for. His sentences put me right into the world and mind of a weirdo, while making me laugh and rev More...

0 comments like

May 11, 2011

Coligne rated it:

"L'impietosa critica a una società americana disgregata e alienante."
Questa frase, tratta dalla recensione del libro su La Repubblica, che viene citata sulla copertina dello stesso, riassume alla perfezione di tutto quello che potrei dire su questo libro, avendo però il prezioso dono della concisione. </p>

Non mi limiterò ad una citazione, comunque, quindi ora darò fondo alle mie (scarse) abilità oratorie, e recensirò come si deve codesto libro.

Quel geniaccio di Palahniuk ci piaz

More...

0 comments like

Jan 03, 2009

Boss rated it:

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

0 comments like

Nov 26, 2008

Pierce rated it:

I've probably read a lot of Palahniuk down the years. I respect it while sometimes not particularly liking it.

This is the first one I've read since I read some Amy Hempel. You can see her influence all over him. The notion of minimalist writing. No spare adjectives. No unnecessary description.

In an essay on writing he talked about inviting friends over to his house and getting them to discuss everything they know about a topic, and writing down everything they say. You can g More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 20, 2011

Sam rated it:

A cult decides to kill themselves. One of the members, Tender Branson, decides not to. He goes away to make a life for himself but finds out that someone else survived from the cult - his twin brother. And his brother is going to complete the ritual by killing Tender and then himself. Meanwhile, Tender's survival attracts the main stream media and his views become the subject of a religion unto themselves. He becomes a messiah like figure. Then it all goes wrong and it ends with Tender hijacking More...

0 comments like

Aug 10, 2011

Steve rated it:

Survivor is the story of a Tender Branson who accidentally becomes famous when the cult group he once was part of commits mass suicide and leaves him as the sole survivor. Branson gets catapulted to super-celebrity status but ultimately rejects it and hijacks a plane. Before the plane crashes, he recites his story into the black box recorder so the world can have a permanent record of him.

Don't worry - I haven't spoiled anything. Palahniuk makes all this clear very early on.

The book holds tru More...

0 comments like

Jul 29, 2011

Artistlace rated it:

This was my first Palahniuk novel, and now I want to read everything he has to offer! I’ve been a fan of the movie Fight Club (based on another novel by Palahniuk) for years. I didn’t even realize the movie was based on a book (I’m embarrassed to say) until a few months ago.

That’s when I picked up Survivor. Less than a week later, I’d breezed through it. I almost never read a book that quickly. This one is going into my top-five, all-time favorite novels list.

I noticed some q More...

0 comments like

Jul 23, 2011

Anne rated it:

I liked this book. I read it in about 3 days, and there were time it was hard to put down. I felt so-so at times, like I wasn't sure if he was trying to be shocking and cool or if he was being earnest at times. Hard to say. But it was a compelling story, and not just because of the fact that it was written in 1999 pre- nine- eleven stuff. So back when apocalypse and terror were still sort of abstract and pseudo-punk. It was a good read though. I feel silly because I had seen Fight Club li More...

0 comments like

Jun 09, 2011

Phillip added it

chuck palahniuk will mess you up. he messed me up. 'fight club' put chuck on the map, but in my opinion, 'survivor' is where he really earned his paycheck.

as others have mentioned, the book starts on page 247 or so and goes backwards to page 1. a simple, but clever gimmick that made me buy the book in the first place. and since the novel's protagonist, if we can call him that, is on a doomed airplane, the page numbering is highly appropriate.

palahniuk expertly traces on More...

0 comments like

May 23, 2011

David rated it:

Well, you certainly know what you're getting with a Chuck P. book. Well, you don't know *exactly* what you're getting. That's the fun part. But there are some elements you know will be in there.

For example, there will be several running memes which tie cleverly into the narrative of the story ("I am Jack's spleen" from Fight Club). This book had four, five, who-knows-how-many memes. It's like a Philip Glass composition where layers of these little statements build on More...

0 comments like

Apr 06, 2011

Ryan rated it:

I tried to read this book at least twice after I bought it at Borders. I was there with my writer/poet friend Harvey (H.E. Noble; he has some wild and woolly books he's written, boy!). We were browsing the shelves and came across the Chuck Palahniuk section. I had read FIGHT CLUB and pretty much had a raging boner over the film (I think most 20-something males like myself did).

So in deciding what next book to read, Harvey suggested SURVIVOR, as he had read it, as had another person in More...

0 comments like

Apr 03, 2011

Kelli rated it:

I highly recommend this book to those who wish to look inside the life of a cult survivor, it is very accurate in the writer's depiction of a cult, the impact on individuals in that cult, and so on. A MUST READ!!!

Unfortunately I can relate very closely to this book, as I had many experiences like that in the strict religious fanatical household I grew up in. This book touched my heart with sadness, remembering 17 years wasted; my duties and allegiance to the cult was superior. I More...

0 comments like

Mar 06, 2011

Laura added it

This is the fourth Chuck Palahniuk book I've read (along with Fugitives and Refugees, Lullaby, and Haunted), and probably my favorite of the four. Survivor tells the convoluted story of Tender Branson, the lone Survivor of the Creedish suicide cult, or so everyone thinks. From the first page (289 and counting down), we know that Tender is on an airplane, which he has hijacked (but with no hostages), and which he plans to fly until he runs out of gas, crashing somewhere over the Australian outb More...

0 comments like

Nov 28, 2010

Tanabrus rated it:

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

0 comments like

reviews