"Snuff" by Chuck Palahniuk

Cafe Society
1

Holy Jesus, this was a bad book.

I’ve come to expect good writing from Palahniuk, especially after Haunted, but his latest effort is a ponderous, one-dimensional piece of trash. Palahniuk, if you’re reading this, I hope you listen to what I’m saying, and I hope your next book is better. Really, I like you - I think you’re a cool guy and this is nothing personal - but Snuff is just not a good story. I’m sorry.

Palahniuk’s most common criticism seems to be that all of his characters have the same narrative voice, and nowhere is this more true than his latest work. They might as well all be the same character, because they have the exact same first-person voice. And it’s not even an interesting character either.

The “plot twist?” SO lame. Plot twists involving illegitimate children and the discovery of the true parents are SO played out, Palahniuk. Really, get it through that head of yours. And you fell back on the same gags over and over again - the goofy porno movie titles, for one. We get it, lots of porno movies have titles that are a play on actual mainstream movies. These titles are often humorous. I know it’s fun to make up fake porno movie titles. There’s no excuse for doing it a million times on every page, though, Chuck. Jesus! And how many different slang terms for “masturbator” can you invent? Enough!

Ugh. I wasted my time with this one.

Has anyone else read this? Was anyone else as disappointed as I was?

2

I read a bit of it in Vice and thought it was so-so, though my expectations weren’t very high. He reminds me of an X-rated R. L. Stine. He’s been producing same old, same old since Fight Club. He’s M. Night Shyamalan and that was his Sixth Sense.

I do like his non-fiction and short stories.

3

deleted

4

I was more hopeful after I read Rant, but I probably won’t read Snuff until a used paperback is available. Chuck seems not to get it that his gross-out schtick is not an adequate substitute for a plot and character development, nor that he has become predictable. He’s never trusted his own narratives.

The last page of Diary, for example, illustrates this clearly.

He has a hard time just letting the world he’s created stand on its own.