***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***

I have heard so many great things about Chuck Pahlaniuk that one day, many years ago, I bought his book Haunted. Years passed and I still hadn't opened the darn thing. Instead, I decided to wait until the day where I felt inclined to grab it off the shelf, walk away from the books (since it's so easy for me to change my mind), and just start reading.

I don't want to say that I was disappointed, but I kind of was. Don't get me wrong - I really loved Pahlaniuk's writing and hope to get into another book I have of his, Lullaby, sometime soon. What got me was that I read so many reviews where people were squirming in their seats and it was really only the first chapter that did that for me.

In my eyes, the first chapter is what sets up the rest of the book-it has to be enough to grab me so I can keep reading. The first chapter of Haunted definitely got me. I was quite happy that I wasn't eating at the time, but after that, the book just didn't have the same effect. It was a decent book, full of aspiring writers who are at a sort of writing camp. Little did they know that they were going to be kidnapped by a madman who wants them to write the best story of their life.

I kind of felt that the finger and toe chopping happened a little early that as the book progressed, I wondered what was going to happen next. Well, even though the stories written by the kidnapped (24 chapters in total, 23 "stories" written by characters in the book, along with an accompanying poem) seemed to get a little tame after the first chapter, what actually went on in the house started to make me squirm again-I don't want to completely give it away, but it has to do with the "below the belt" area and very sharp objects.

I was happy to finish reading Haunted, but I did leave feeling intrigued by Pahlaniuk's writing. I can't wait to give more of his work a try. Haunted did a great job of taking seemingly ordinary people and showing the reader their dark side-as a reader, you start the book just knowing their nickname and then you're slowly taken into the story of "why" behind that name. Of course, there's not only the gory and gruesome, there are also some very hilarious moments. Someone hacking off their manhood, only to have someone else eat it and choke on it, leaving both characters dead, was just a funny part to read.

Thanks for reeling me in, Chuck Pahlaniuk!

Before reading this book the only exposure I had to Palahniuk was the movie Fight Club so to say this book hit me upside the head would be an understatement. Palahniuk creates a story in which the grotesque and gory become ordinary and at times the stories become physically difficult to read they are so graphic. The story itself is interesting and the premise is rather original so if you can withstand the graphic descriptions this book may be worth your while

A bunch of fame craving "want-to-be" artists signed themselves up for a freaky retreat in the hope of putting on hold their daily mundane lives for a chance to create some great works. They did, in some ways, each told their stories of how crooked and horrid things can go when you let it so. Extremely explicit and visual in the depiction of gory details. This is the only work of novel so far that when I was bombarded with "what you're reading?" from my already-19-yet-a-bit-naive-students, I actually halted them from flipping; after my honest general description of the storyline they retreated willingly on their own.

I have always been a bit of a fan for Chuck Palahniuk, especially since Lullaby. But when I first got hold of a new copy of "Haunted" a few years back, I actually put it back down. I couldn't get pass the boring bus trip (prelude) and was not warmed to the idea of a compilation of short stories. Now, on a re-read (or first reading in truth) of "Haunted", it is actually quite interesting. If the attention can for once not only focus on goriness, then one can see how human behaviour sometimes is more suitable as materials for nightmares then their supernatural counterpart. For the highly controversial "Guts", I didn't mind the corn and peanuts, it was more so the idea of how desperate we can be when we are truly desperate, and hope that I would never put myself to this extent of desperation.

I am a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan and his new novel impressed me more than his previous few. His writing is great, the stories are excellent, and the novel is really amazing. I would highly recommend this novel for any Chuck Palahniuk fan, or anyone who likes a very intriguing read.