Not Forever, but for Now

De: Chuck Palahniuk

Narrado por: Raphael Corkhill

From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a hilarious horror satire “equal parts saccharine caricature and startling raunch” (Kirkus Reviews) about a family of professional killers responsible for the most atrocious events in history and the young brothers that are destined to take over.

Meet Otto and Cecil. Two brothers who grew up privileged in the Welsh countryside. They enjoyed watching nature shows, playing with their pet pony, impersonating their Grandfather…and killing the help. Murder is the family business after all. Downton Abbey, this is not.

However, it’s not so easy to continue the family legacy with the constant stream of threats and distractions seemingly leaping from the hedgerow. First, there is the matter of the veritable cavalcade of escaped convicts that keep showing up at their door. Not to mention the debaucherous new tutor who has a penchant for speaking Greek and dismembering sex dolls. Then there’s Mummy’s burgeoning opioid addiction. And who knows where Daddy is. He just vanished one day after he and Mummy took a walk in the so-called “Ghost Forest.”

With Grandfather putting pressure on Otto to step up, it becomes clear that this will all end in only two ways: a nuclear apocalypse or just another day among the creeping thistle and tree peonies. And in a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, either are equally possible.

©2023 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Chuck has evolved as a writer!

Aside from the dark humor and social commentary, I wouldn't have known this was a Palanuik book.

The only reason I didn’t quit this book was my own obstinacy.

I could not wait for it to be over, seriously. I counted down the hours. The story felt somehow both convoluted and monotonous. This is beyond a slow burn. I found this frustrating, because I liked the concept. I liked that it was kind of like a nature documentary voiceover of horrible spoiled rich serial killers. I just couldn’t get into it.
Palahniuk was my favorite author for years and I have a great fondness for a lot of his older novels. The two recent ones I read both failed to enrapture me. The only part of the story I liked was the last, like, 5 minutes.
Shoutout to the narrator, though, because I know it was no small feat going through those enormous strings of one’s and zero’s. That was the most impressive part of this whole thing tbh.

Hmmm

Like The Turn Of The Screw—only more perverse and graphic. Not a book for the easily disgusted.
Outstanding narration.

Meh…

What I imagine a book written and performed by Stewie Griffin from Family Guy would be like.

Repetitive

The story is absurd and dark, not unlike some of the other books by the author, which i really liked. I much anticipated this book’s release. To me, the story was too slow and way too repetitive.

Praise for mr Corkhill, as his voice and intonation are fantastic.

Not his best.

I am pretty sure the phrase “have a go” makes up 50% of this book. Every chapter felt like a repetition of the chapter before until it suddenly ends in an absurd manner.

Have a go and listen to something else.

Too much rape stuff. Was not worth a monthly credit. Listened to 5 minutes of binary and IP addresses added nothing. Won’t bother with a physical copy.

The shock value counts for something, but not much

I’m a Palahniuk fan and am normally loathe to give a negative review to anything that a talented writer like him puts out there, if only because I truly appreciate the effort and am frankly not qualified to judge another’s work of art.

That said.

Sweet Jesus was this tedious. After hours and hours of hearing about Cecil & Otto’s depravities, it just got to be too much and I couldn’t wait for the inevitable point where they all burned themselves to the ground.

I mean, seriously, I get it. The point (if there really is one) is that literally everyone in this “story” is an asshole - they’re all “baby Joey’s” that the reader wishes someone would pluck off the mommy Kangaroo’s fur and mash under foot. Of course, in so doing, it tends to make the reader realize that they maybe they’re just as cruel as the protagonists. Kinda clever, but simultaneously boring af.

Quite graphic and disturbing

I know it’s chuck, it’s supposed to be graphic and disturbing but this one was a miss for me.

A bridge too far

Sexualizing children or childhood was too much. I enjoy the counter-culture but this was bad.