The Invention of Sound

By: Chuck Palahniuk

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A father searching for his missing daughter is suddenly given hope when a major clue is discovered, but learning the truth could shatter the seemingly perfect image Hollywood is desperate to uphold.

Gates Foster lost his daughter, Lucy, 17 years ago. He's never stopped searching. Suddenly, a shocking new development provides Foster with his first major lead in over a decade, and he may finally be on the verge of discovering the awful truth.

Meanwhile, Mitzi Ives has carved out a space among the Foley artists creating the immersive sounds giving Hollywood films their authenticity. Using the same secret techniques as her father before her, she's become an industry-leading expert in the sound of violence and horror, creating screams so bone-chilling, they may as well be real.

Soon Foster and Ives find themselves on a collision course that threatens to expose the violence hidden beneath Hollywood's glamorous façade. A grim and disturbing reflection on the commodification of suffering and the dangerous power of art, The Invention of Sound is Chuck Palahniuk at the peak of his literary powers - his most suspenseful, most daring, and most genre-defying work yet.

©2020 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"This dark, humorous tale sparkles with the inventive details - including a scream powerful enough to crumble buildings - and provocative insights on the 'commodification of pain' and what it means to turn 'people's basic humanity into something that could be bought and sold.' The result is a wry, devilish delight." (Publishers Weekly)

"Palahniuk expertly balances skewering of cultural institutions with profound insights into the nature of authenticity and the myriad ways we become damaged. The sheer abundance of creative ideas buoyed aloft by the vibrancy of the prose signal a master storyteller energized by delight in his own ingenuity....After his foray into literary advice, Consider This (2020), Palahniuk's heralded return to fiction will galvanize his many avid readers." (Booklist)

Bone Chilling Enjoyment

An impulse purchase that ended up being more enjoyed than originally thought. The characters and the twists are deeply enjoyable, making a second listen an absolute MUST to get the full imprint this story leaves upon the listener. The narration was masterfully done as well!

good one chuck

I have read all of Chuck's books, this is my favorite one since doomed. seems more like a classic chuck than some of the more recent stuff

A difficult read

The story was interesting, though it was hard to read some parts of this. The main character is essentially a serial killer, and seriously broken in innumberable ways. The other main character lost his child when she was very young, and is obsessed by dark web child pornography in his attempts to either locate the person who took her. So, this is where we start--unpleasant people with unpleasant preoccupations. There aren't any sympathetic characters, and there are a lot of grisly scenes. However, some of the gross-out scenes seem positioned to take our minds off some of the poor plot devices. Not to give anything away (this isn't a high school book review), but the way the child loss support group folded into the whole thing was a little forced. The Oscars and the "weaponized scream" didn't make a lot of sense and was a bit illogical. The book ends with a lot of unexplained stuff still hanging... This isn't a happy book. I chose it because I liked Fight Club and was curious about other books by the author. I'll read the reviews more carefully for his books in the future before purchasing. All that said, I learned some things about sound recording and the plot was good enough to make me finish. I'm glad it was fairly short, though, since I could not have endured too much more! Jefferson Mays did a fantastic job, though I felt a little sorry for him because of some of the things he had to read out loud.

fantastic story held back by the oral delivery

If you like Chuck's flavor of writing, then you'll love this. The issue is that this seems like a book that would be far easier to comprehend through the written medium, as I'm assuming paragraph breaks/ new chapters on paper would telegraph when the narrative switches to another storyline. The exclusion of this telegraphic caused some confusion among the first few hours of listening, but once the separate storylines became clear the book began to shine. I've since ordered this in print to get the full experience of a story that is absolutely worthy of multiple reads.

Not Palahniuk's Best

Where I usually hang on every word of Palahniuk's books I found my mind wandering.

Chuck returns to forn

As much as I loved Chuck's earliest offerings - Choke, Fight Club, Survivor, Diary, Haunted, etc, I haven't gotten anything out of his output in the past 10 years. Fans of older Palahniuk will love this.

Great narration as well.

Not Chuck's best

The root concept of the evil folly artist is amusing, but the overall journey was a disjointed fever dream that was less than enjoyable. I have been a fan of Chuck's works for over 20 years, and this is only the second time I've been ambivalent to his work.

Twisted Creepy Satisfying

As usual Palahniuk wraps the reader around and around and around his finger waiting for the next reveal

Insane

This is why I love Chuck!

The whole concept of this book is insane. A woman whose job it is to make soul-piercing screams for movies. A man who can't help but search for his child, who has been missing for decades. The two stories don't seem like they'll tie together at first, but there is such a good plot twist in this one, that rivals that of Fight Club.

This is my second favorite book of Chuck, behind Fight Club. I obsessed over it and will be coming back to this one over and over again. Perfectly executed. Well-written characters. The pace of this novel is excellent. By the time the book is over, you'll be begging for more.

Buy it, you won't regret it.

Broken People Doing Broken People Things

Broken people doing broken people things. a story that hits at generational trauma and paints a very dark world surrounding a niche industry- making screams for movies.

some parts of this story I got so disgusted with the imagery and some parts I was laughing with the author's same powerfully descriptive imagery.

I had to listen to it twice to catch/reaffirm devices used. check it out!