I’ve read Survivor, Snuff, Choke, and his non-fiction Stranger Than Fiction. Looking forward to reading his new book Damned that will come out later this year.
Any fans of his work? Anyone that dislikes his work?
is survivor backwards? i picked it up and couldn’t make head or tail of the first few pages
I normally would stay out of the thread, but the OP did specifically ask if anyone disliked Palahniuk. I thought Fight Club wasn’t bad at all. Promising even. But the sudden success that the movie brought with it wasn’t kind to Chuck or his writing skills. I felt Choke, despite an interesting premise, was super thin and completely fell apart.
Survivor is one of the few books so bad that it actually made me angry. It’s paginated backwards yet is told in almost completely chronological order. It’s just a gimmick, like everything else about that execrable book. I truly despised it and so haven’t read anything by Palahniuk since.
I read Survivor and really hated it but I loved the movies Fight Club and Choke.
Maybe I just need the visual to go with the weirdness because after Survivor, I doubt I’d waste time reading his work again.
Invisible Monsters is my favorite.
I don’t know if I can say it’s my favorite, but I thought the way the characters obtained drugs in ‘Invisible Monsters’ was clever.
Haunt was the first one I read and I liked it enough to go on to read Survivor and Choke which weren’t as good. I didn’t even finish Pigmy.
I read Fight Club and liked it a lot. Then the movie came out and I liked it better than the book. Then I read *Survivor *and decided that I didn’t actually like Palahniuk very much.
I have been thinking recently of giving some of his other books a shot. But my reading list is long and I am not all that dedicated to squeezing him in.
The pages are numbered backwards, yes. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but I believe it begins near the end of the story, with the protagonist narrating events leading up to the point. The backwards page and chapter numbering are “counting down” to the end.
I found this very interesting because the ending is basically given away in the beginning, and there is no real secret as to what will happen at the end. Like the pages in the book counting down, the protagonist is “counting down” to the inevitable end. Seems kind of vague, but I don’t want to ruin the book for anyone.
I find the subject matters that appear in his work to be very interesting—cults, sex addiction, the world of porn, secret organizations, etc.----the seedy underbelly of society. Thoughts?
I agree here.
I read fight club - that was good.
Choke wasn’t that good, but had it’s moments.
I didn’t like Lullaby at all.
I couldn’t even make it through Haunted and it put me off of his books entirely.
Loved Fight Club.
Liked Lullaby, Haunted, and Pygmy.
Didn’t care for Choke, Tell All, or Rant.
Hated, hated, hated Snuff.
Haven’t read *Survivor *or Invisible Monsters.
If you get the chance and you like Palahniuk at all, try to go to one of his book tour stops. They’re great fun. He’s actually a very nice guy who comes across as very normal on the surface (until he starts telling his stories!) I enjoyed getting to meet him, and still have as one of my prized possessions a realistic-looking severed arm I had him sign for me. He also handed out steak air fresheners. 
I really enjoyed Survivor. Didn’t care for Rant or Snuff. Haunted was ok.
Ex huge Palahniuk fan here, “Survivor” is his best by far, for me.
All I’ve read so far is Choke, Snuff, and Pygmy. Pygmy was a difficult read, due to all the three-quarters-broken English, but I can at least appreciate that the idea was interesting. Didn’t really have anyone to root for in Choke, so it was hard to get into. I actually kinda liked Snuff, which had an interesting structure to the story, though a ridiculous ending. Of the three, I liked Snuff the best, but it’s good to know there’s better stuff out there. Fight Club never seems to be in at my library.
Is there any point to reading Fight Club if the ending has already been revealed to you by the film?
Well, yes and no. The ending of the movie is different than the ending of the book (although the bit about Tyler Durden is the same). So I would say yes, it’s worth reading the book even if you’ve seen the movie.
ETA: *Fight Club *is one of the rare books where the movie and the book are both equally good, even though they’re not quite the same. IMO, anyway.