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Gran Leon Books - Haunted: A Novel
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.17
Your Save: $ 4.78 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Anchor
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781400032822
ISBN: 1400032822
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2006-04-11
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 2006-04-11
Studio: Anchor
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Editorial Reviews:
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Haunted is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach-churning stories. They’re told by people who have answered an ad for a writer’s retreat and unwittingly joined a “Survivor”-like scenario where the host withholds heat, power, and food. As the storytellers grow more desperate, their tales become more extreme, and they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show that will surely be made from their plight. This is one of the most disturbing and outrageous books you’ll ever read, one that could only come from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Gross, Stupid, and Pointless
Comment: It's been a few years since I read this book. Written at the height of 'reality show fever' that seemed to grip the US. This book dealt with a bunch of people thrown together and locked up together for an extended period and then it dealt with the depths to which they'd all sink while in this place.
The book was completely stupid and pointless to the extreme. I remember such things as a CPR doll being "used" by some antagonists (imply what you want by "used") and razor blades being put into the thing to get revenge on said antagonists. I remember someone being eaten, etc. There was absolutely no point to the book other than to try and gross out the reader. Honestly crappy stuff.
Waste of money and time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Better read as a collection of short stories.
Comment: This was my first Palahniuk novel, though I had seen Fight Club like the rest of the world.
To get right to it, the frame story is trash. It's repetitive, unrealistic, and more than anything boring. Without the stories in between chapters, the overarching tale would read something like this: "These people thought they could get famous if they suffered. They made themselves suffer. Someone died. They suffered more. Someone died. They cut of body parts. They think they'll get famous. They suffer."
That being said, however, there are some truly good stories contained within the novel. The "shock value" of the stories is overplayed unless you are particularly sheltered, with perhaps "Guts" being the exception.
I would suggest you pick up this book and read it as a collection of short stories, and consider the pages in between to be decoration.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Fix for the Palahniuks
Comment: This is Chuck Palahniuk, if you aren't sure exactly what that implies or figure that I'm simply restating the authors' name, then you don't understand what Chuck Palahniuk, the given name, the sound of the syllables as they leave the tongue, the impact they make as they enter the eardrum and make contact with whatever part of the brain which keeps the memories of Choke or Diary or Lullaby, represent. If you don't know, you better find out. Because lemme tell you, it's a stone-cold rush. And if I'm the one to turn you on to this mad, gut wrenching, head spinning, superfly high...
Then you're welcome.
Seriously- if you like feeling this weird kind of "this bastard is sicker than me so I must be ok", than Palaniuks your guy. Especially this one, damn, he broke the crazy train mold with 'Haunted', or your money back.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The WORST book I have ever read
Comment: Hearing the premise of this book I was intrigued to find out more. The idea of authors gathering together to create their master works, and said master works would be included in the text in the form of poetry and short stories had me hooked. But as I read Haunted, I became very disappointed. The pieces, both short stories and poetry, are all derivatives of a single mind. Pahlanick is completely unable to write from variant perspectives. The pieces are all obviously his, and the fact that they are the supposed "master pieces" of the writers involved shows they deserved all of the ridiculous self serving torture they endured.
The storyline is pitiable. The pieces included are trash. And the behavior of the characters involved are beyond ridiculous. There is not a single surprise along the way. This is one long winded piece that can be summed up completely in one sentence: A group of authors, on a retreat in hopes of creating great works torture themselves so their personal stories sound more pathetic so as to gain success.
Customer Rating:
Summary: wow
Comment: I thought that this book was entertaining, novel, and well written. It tells a frame story beautifully, although beautiful is not really the right word at all. Not only was it thought provoking, but it provoked a strong reaction in general, a trait that is losing strength in literature today.
Bravo!
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