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)

Worse then the some it’s parts

This book could be a rough draft to a masterpiece of a novel however, the main gimmick of the book being that the short stories are written by the characters. Don’t read like they were written by anybody but Chuck Palahniuk. That being said the short stories were pretty good, but the story that tied them together was boring, and so violent that it was comical and not scary. I loved the premise though

Truly haunting

This book blew me away. Interesting ending but the journey to it was a total roller coaster wow.

Twisted & Wickedly Funny

The best review for this book is just reading all the other negative reviews talking about how offensive and tasteless Chuck Palahnuik is... the fact that he doesn't try to appeal to the lowest common denominator is so rare today. These stories are just fantastically wrong! Also, I can only think of a handfull of living authors that can write a novel with such poetically cadenced and inventive language. For anyone judging the taste level, don't forget that Jonathan Swift wrote about cannibalizing todlers for profit.

very disturbing

Chuck Palahniuk is one of the few authors whose words stick with me throughout the day. He drags humanity under the truth lights and builds stories around all the grossness vanity brings out in people. I love it! Haunted is one of his best books.My only problem was that though the narration was great it was at times a bit confusing, but i still highly recommend it for anyone who wants to be haunted by a story!

Oddly thought provoking

If you could sum up Haunted in three words, what would they be?

This is hard, three words.......I guess I'd have to stay with the headline. Oddly Thought Provoking!

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the huge variations that always end up bringing you to the same place.

Who was the most memorable character of Haunted and why?

I was prepared for grossness, I was prepared for vileness to an extent that I had never seen before (yep I read the reviews lol). I wasn't prepared however for the thought provoking nature of some of the stories. It does have some elements of disgustingness, There are some stories that made me quite uncomfortable at times. I had to shake my head at some of the things that were going on. However at the end of the day what I walked away with was thoughful reflection. Partly because some of the stuff is so out there that you have to wonder if there are people like that in the world. You always come around to yes unfortunatly.....at least I did. Partly because the stories, make you think about the depth of people's hate for themselves, for each other and society. You almost find yourself hoping that you can find some redeeming factor in these people and their stories. I found myself asking.......Did they get what they deserved? Or is it a case of these people were so mentally unstable and desprately looking for something they were willing to accept anything. If you don't mind being uncomfortable and a little grossed out and alot stunned at the depths of depravity these characters show you will enjoy this book. If you prefer something a little lighter for an afternoon of quiet then you probably won't. I do not agree that this book is not for people who read Koontz and Patterson as one review read. I read both of those authors as well as this one. I do think it's important that you keep it in perspective for what it is. Take it out for a spin, do some thinking on it. I am sure that you'll walk away with a different perspective than you started with.

The darkest humour...

How dark is this book? It's dark. Very dark. Very very dark. You'll need a flashlight to find it. And even once you've found it, you'll need to grit your teeth and clench your stomach. This really is a test of how much twisted horror and humour you can stand, but if you can stand it, it's a real treat. Full marks.

I have changed my mind

I originally wrote a review for this book when I was only half way through it. Well... lets just say that was a mistake. The first story in this collection is disgusting.. but it is by far the "worst" in the book. My advice is to stick with it.

I found myself fascinated and wanting to know the stories of all the characters. In some ways it was like watching episodes of Lost, when you finally get a flashback sotry for someone new.

I strongly recommend this book (once you get past the first story)

Psychologically twisted in the best way

I was a little unsure of whether to begin this book on my 10 hour car ride to my parents house due to all of the warnings in other reviews; however, I took the chance and I'm glad I did. It's definitely a book for people intrigued by what people are capable of.

Well written, but...

Would you try another book from Chuck Palahniuk and/or the narrators?

Yes. I've read his work before, and I'm generally a fan.

Has Haunted turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not particularly, unless we're talking about the being gross for the sake of being gross genre.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

It was adequate. Maybe it was even good, but the material just didn't support the performance.

Could you see Haunted being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No.

Any additional comments?

It's a tough book to review. As far as the writing goes, everything was top notch. But as I stated in response to an earlier question, it was just gross for the sake of being gross. There was no real driving factor. I mean, I like some screwed up stuff, and it was for this reason that I went looking for books that fit that criteria--leading me to Haunted. That said, the stuff that happens in this book is just repulsive for reasons that really don't even drive a story so much as leading into the next domino of nasty.

Personally, it's not the unadulterated content I crave for some kind of sick blood lust, but, rather, I want to hear/read stories that don't hold back in any way when dealing with disturbing topics; and that's what bothers me about this book. It didn't really offer anything but being disturbing. And that's what made the gross actually feel gross, in a skin crawling kind of way. The plot development sucked, the characters were all psychopaths, and the reader is supposed to be lead to believe that they are just adhering to 'human nature' when they are caricatures of the monsters within the human species. As a writer myself, it was just really unrealistic and unrewarding.

Twisted in the best kind of way

I'm a huge fan of gore and gruesome, bizarre stories. Haunted perfectly encapsulates that theme in a refreshing, unsettling way. Love it!