Haunted

By: Chuck Palahniuk

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Marc Cashman, Erik Davies, Kimberly Farr

Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a novel made up of stories: 23 of them, to be precise. Twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you'll ever encounter, sometimes all at once. They are told by people who have answered an ad headlined "Writers' Retreat: Abandon Your Life for Three Months", and who are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of "real life" that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But "here" turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world, and where heat and power and, most important, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more extreme the stories they tell, and the more devious their machinations become to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/nonfiction blockbuster that will surely be made from their plight.

Haunted is on one level a satire of reality television: The Real World meets Alive. It draws from a great literary tradition, The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, the English storytellers in the Villa Diodati who produced, among other works, Frankenstein, to tell an utterly contemporary tale of people desperate that their story be told at any cost. Appallingly entertaining, Haunted is Chuck Palahniuk at his finest, which means his most extreme and his most provocative.

©2005 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[The stories] consistently, powerfully transcend their macabre premises to showcase the heart beating beneath the horrors." (Publishers Weekly)

It’s OK

I was hoping for a book that would really gross me out. A few stories did. Some didn’t but were still good. Some just a bit boring. Might be worth a listen for many people, but not all it’s hyped up to be.

Pearl diving

A truly apt title. For years many of the short stories and side paths of this book have stayed in my mind for years after listening. Not for the faint of heart.

Really worth it

I loved this audiobook! Brilliant story, excellent narration, and completely original. I've read a few of the author's other books, which are always great, but this one is the best.

Suprised

Not your average ghost stories. Not for the average reader.

For those who are ready to face the ghosts in the mirror, or out your window, these chapters will delight those who have found the benefits of being found out.

Chilling

"Haunted" is an incredible set of tales merged into one extended story about group psychosis and the coldness of individuals to one another. This set involves some very sordid, and truly horrible events, which have great mental weight. I don't think this is something which could be converted to a movie, but is perfect for an audio edition over print - it has an "around the creepy campfire" ring. The author can be gratuitous with some story details, but in general an excellent listen. This is certainly suitable for late night driving or listening at home with the lights out.

Haunted

I haven't finished this book yet, but I wanted to say something about it right away. This book made me sit up in bed, hang my mouth open in shock, and my eyes looked like the guy's on the front of the cover. This book is well named; not because of ghost stories but because the content of this book will haunt my brain and keep me shuddering for a long, long time. Do not buy this book if you are easily disgusted, easily offended, or overly sensitive. I laugh at the work of Stephen King but this book disturbs me. I wish I could write a book like this!

Even More Disturbing Hearing It Aloud

What did you love best about Haunted?

I love this book, it is one of my favorites of Chuck's. It is not a book for everyone, but hearing it aloud made it even more disturbing, in a good way. All of his books are great.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to any of the narrators' other performances, but they all really worked well in this reading. It was truly perfect for this book.

This book requires some thought to fully enjoy

If you didn't get a deeper meaning out of Saw, or didn't like the movie altogether, save your credit. This book isn't for you.
The people saying, "The charters aren't realistic", or ,"The story isn't believable" very clearly missed the point. This is not a story that can be taken at face value. The characters aren't going to be realistic, because the characters each represent a part of human nature, or our culture. Their stories are philosophical statements about the media and what we want out of it, or contain a deeper "moral". Just like Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead require more thought than understanding the surface story to enjoy, so does this book. It was an excellent book, and very well written.

Very very good

I like to think that I have a high tolerance for disturbing and disgusting things. This is the first time that I have experienced a story which made me cringe and eventually pause the story. After ten minutes I resumed because I just had to know what happened next.
This book is billed as a collection of short stories. What I enjoyed about this collection is that there is a cohesive narrative which strings the stories together into a complete novel.
I have recommended this book to several people while reading it and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of either Palahniuk's other books or horror type fiction in general.

Loved it

I really enjoyed this read. The way the chapters were parted out. Yes, there were some parts that were hard to swallow but a good read.