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Thought by many to be a satire of reality television programmes, in Palahniuk’s words, the novel is actually about “the battle for credibility�� that has resulted from the ease that one can publish with modern technology. (A similar theme that occurs in more than one of Palahniuk’s works, Celebrity being a focal theme in his novel ‘Tell-All��.) Other dominant themes in ‘Haunted�� are Sexual Deviance, Sexual Identity, Social Distastefulness, Desperation, Death, and Murder.

The novel focuses on a cast of seventeen characters, and unusually, the main body of the tale is revealed through a series of short stories; each chapter comprising a poem about one character (the author of which is never revealed), a story section and a short story written by a character. The short stories all have a similar confessional tone, and each tells of the particular reasons that character has decided to abandon their lives for three months to attend the writers retreat.

The reputation of one short story ‘Guts�� is probably enough to put the faint hearted off reading ‘Haunted��, upwards of 30 people fainted at the first reading Palahniuk did, due to the fact the story starts by advising the reader to hold their breath whilst the story is told. Subsequent readings brought the total up to 60 victims of fainting, and Palahniuk is more than happy to make this fact known. Though not knowing the full story before I read the book made me think that ‘Guts�� was going to be a lot grosser than it actually was. Apparently the sensibilities of American school boards are easier to offend, as one teacher found out when admonished for letting high school students read ‘Guts��.

Palahniuk is not an easy read, with complex and dark themes that take a bit of thought, you’ll never find a Richard & Judy sticker anywhere near a Palahniuk book (now that’s a scary thought), and he can be hit and miss with his penchant for experimenting with storytelling devices and unusual formats, but ‘Haunted�� is definitely a hit. Darkly compelling, horribly illustrating the greed and self-centredness of modern society, I loved every minute of this book.

The floor is now yours to discuss��

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"Haunted" in many ways marked the start of Palahniuk's experimental period, something clearly shown here to give the reader here what could be considered to be a more explicit version of the Canterbury Tales, while seemingly playing a game of one upmanship with himself, as he attempts to find some new vice to exploit for his own twisted amusement with each story, whose sheer variety is a credit to his warped creativity he has long since become renown for. I mean what other author can claim to cover masturbation accidents, werewolves, folks being boiled alive, underage sex, gang rape and a blackmailing chef who really can't stand critics to name but a few of the dark delights which hide within the pages of their book, yet at the same time, Palahniuk's playfully dark sense of humor ensures that it never feels like he is just aiming purely for shock value, something which the likes of director Tom Six and horror novelist Shaun Hutchinson have long been guilty of.

The group and their attempts to build on the situation they find themselves in, through self mutilation, murder and sabotage however are only a further cutting observation on the celebrity culture we currently live in, were you only have to switch on any reality show or glance at any of the countless books released in the wake of "A child called it" to see how scarily close the group and their attempts to be the bigger victim are to these sob stories we are frequently bombarded with as they attempt to claw their way into the celebrity spotlight.

To be perfectly honest I found this book to be a let down. It was a collection of unfulfilled potential. I expected a lot more of a writer given so much credit & found this to be a cheap (yet readable) attempt at shock for the sake of it. Based on this I would not be in a rush to read more by Palahniuck (I'm glad I only paid 99p for this in a charity shop).

I also was a little disappointed by Haunted and I generally love anything by Palahniuk. I am also one that will almost always finish a book once I've started it, even if it turns out to borderline mediocre but I got more than half way through and lost interest (even made it way past "Guts".) As far as experimental I much preferred Rant over Haunted but I can see how a lot of people find this really compelling and totally respect that.

For myself his worst books are "Tell All" and "Diary" and while certainly not as good as his first books (Fight Club, Invisible Monsters) it does have the same sense of unrestrained chaos which those books did, especially as the groups attempts to become the bigger victim escalate, which also brought with it so many of my favorite moments, such as the fact that they cut off all their fingers bar one, for dialing phones and ATM's as they live in a new state of celebrity fame, they believe they can gain from the situation.

True perhaps not all the stories are effective, especially on a second read through as was the case for myself, but others such as the "Nightmare Box" are still quite chilling.

Has anyone else seen that this is now being made in a film, though personally I would have preferred to have seen it made as TV series with each of the stories getting it's own episode. Still be interesting to see how this turns out and what gets cut out.

can someone please explain to me the ending? and the overall theme of this book? i quite enjoyed it, haunted being the first chuck book i've ever read but certainly not the last. he makes amazing point about us being human being and always needing conflict and drama, not having humanity without animals. but i need to understand the ending. am i over thinking it? the writing was impeccable and had so much depth i had to re-read some chapters over again just to completely understand. but when i got to the ending i thought 'this is it?' after all they went through. someone help!