Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Reviewed by Hailey Lofdahl

Unlike the vast majority of American college students, I chose to engage myself in the world of Chuck Palahniuk for reasons other than Fight Club, or more specifically, the movie version of said book. I mean, really, why waste time reading when there’s a Brad Pitt movie instead? Upon reading Choke by Palahniuk (a somewhat unexpected reccomendation from my “Amazon.com Gold Box”), I fell victim to a literary world I had no previous knowledge of. Like a drug, Palahniuk sucked me in and instantaneously became my favorite author. Haunted is a perfect example of Palahniuk’s amazing ability to be enticing, entertaining, engaging, and enveloping.

The book centers around a mysterious writer’s workshop. Forced into isolation allegedly leading to a masterpiece, the somewhat insane individuals divulge, into great detail, some of their warped stories as they fight against the desperation for survival.

As always, with Palahniuk, the typical, or what we’d like to think as “typical,” human behavior is not always exhibited by the characters. They are indeed absurd but offer an amazing insight into the perverse craziness that can become the psyche.