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cubistvowels's review against another edition
2.0
Maybe I steeled myself too well, but I didn't feel that I'd been transgressed on hard enough. A few I swear I read before, perhaps rephrased from Chuck P himself. Isn't the story about the 'game' at the supermarket a retelling of that bit from Fight Club? Some others I kept waiting in vain for the transgression. I'm not even that difficult to shock, some just seemed like pedestrian short stories you could read in any ol' anthology, perhaps adding a 'shocking' detail or two. Lots of stories about suburban white boys abusing animals, rapists, and girls with super icky girl problems. Snoozers. Just flip through a Chuck P book and read any given five pages and you'll get the same experience.
cubistvowels's review
challenging
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, and Rape
1of3bookgirls's review against another edition
3.0
Thought provoking but I really don't enjoy reading short stories
moreadsbooks's review against another edition
3.0
A lot of these read as Palahniuk-lite, which I suppose gives me a whole new appreciation for him as an author because the lite versions here rarely come close to being as exciting as his writing used to be. There's a story about women who have sex with dogs that sort of feels like it's trying to hard, and there's a story about The Game that bored women who work at supermarkets play that reads well but seems totally implausible as a concept. I'd like to read a whole novel about the characters in "The Line Forms on the Right", and although I wouldn't call "Survived" particularly transgressive, I do think it's quite good. And then there's "Bike," wherein Bryan Howie demonstrates how to write short stories the correct way while making it look easy. "Give me six pages," he says, "and I will give you characters, make you have feelings about them, and then I will destroy them. And you will be left thinking about them for days afterward." And I am. Worth it just for that.
thebookmistress's review against another edition
4.0
I got this book because I will NEVER recover from reading Palahniuk's "Guts," and I was hoping for more of that type of writing. the kind that leaves you disoriented, but just clear enough to hand the work to someone else & say "oh my god, you have to read this!" Then giggle softly while watching them gag. This anthology did not disappoint. "Live this Down and " Heavier Petting " were the real stand-outs for me, but I'm kinda jaded!
emersonamiller's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ghosthermione's review
2.0
This book promised "boundary-breaking", "transgressive" stories. They really aren't. They're not a bad read, per se, but they're disappointing.
First off, for a "boundary-breaking" book, there are only two female authors out of 20.
And then, it's all classic stories of boring white people, probably somewhere boring in the US. What I read so far anyways.
The intro by Palahniuk makes it sounds like we're going to get stories that have nothing to do with our own lives, which is what makes them brilliant, yada yada. Then the first story (written by a guy) is about three middle-school girls trying to kill themselves, and I'm sorry but not only does it sound familiar for me and a good dozen of my female/afab friends, but characters like that have peopled the stories of my teens.
Suicide is not boundary breaking or a new topic. The story of a girl who was abused by her ex and now has a crappy job? not a new topic. This one guy who's obsessed by a woman who doesn't even know him? Not new. Also not boundary-breaking to make the mentally disabled guy the perv and villain of this story. Guy remembering how cruel he was to his sister as a kid (and basically killed a cat)? not really groundbreaking either. I stopped after those.
Overall it seems like this book is a bunch of guys stroking their egos by making it look like they're writing Never Written Before stories, which are actually just the stories women have been telling for years, OR the stories those dusty old drunk "classic" authors have been telling all along and been revered for them, for some reason.
First off, for a "boundary-breaking" book, there are only two female authors out of 20.
And then, it's all classic stories of boring white people, probably somewhere boring in the US. What I read so far anyways.
The intro by Palahniuk makes it sounds like we're going to get stories that have nothing to do with our own lives, which is what makes them brilliant, yada yada. Then the first story (written by a guy) is about three middle-school girls trying to kill themselves, and I'm sorry but not only does it sound familiar for me and a good dozen of my female/afab friends, but characters like that have peopled the stories of my teens.
Suicide is not boundary breaking or a new topic. The story of a girl who was abused by her ex and now has a crappy job? not a new topic. This one guy who's obsessed by a woman who doesn't even know him? Not new. Also not boundary-breaking to make the mentally disabled guy the perv and villain of this story. Guy remembering how cruel he was to his sister as a kid (and basically killed a cat)? not really groundbreaking either. I stopped after those.
Overall it seems like this book is a bunch of guys stroking their egos by making it look like they're writing Never Written Before stories, which are actually just the stories women have been telling for years, OR the stories those dusty old drunk "classic" authors have been telling all along and been revered for them, for some reason.
wesleymccraw's review
4.0
The style of the stories starts to become repetitive, but still some good ones worth reading.
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