Rating: 
Summary: crazed social commentary
Review: the hypocrisy of mass modern american society revealed in the life of a man born a few minutes too late in order to live. also a great book for those just looking for a fictional reading.
Rating: 
Summary: No Fight Club--Not Even CLose
Review: I have to disagree with the reviewers who applauded this book. Hey, I loved Fight Club. This, however, was a hugh let-down. It read like a book of Fight Club outtakes. The cutsie numbering of chapters and pages backwards was ultimately irritating--reminding me how many pages I still had to slug through. And what was the point? Religious cults are bad? Am I supposed to like the narrator? It's very hard--I don't feel I know him at all. Must the book turn on a character who can unrelentingly predict the future? Is that cool? Funny? Meaningful? Clever?
Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This book met and surpassed my highest expectations. This book blew me away from begining to end. The dialogue and the narrative from Tender was hilarious, and I don't laugh in books all that often. Palahniuck's got a way with words, and it definitely shows here.Fight Club is my favorite movie, so naturally I needed this book. I saw Fight Club, then read it. Fight Club is a great movie, but as far as novels go, SURVIVOR is superior. I'm not gonna waste anymore time, go out and get this. Plain and simple, if you do not read this book, you will be missing out on a lot. If you like satires, this has got to be next on your list. GO READ IT FOR CHRISSAKES(or Tender's).
Rating: 
Summary: Unique Look at Modern American Life by a Great Author
Review: I read Survivor because I really liked Mr. Palahniuk's first book, "Fight Club", and I read "Fight Club" because I thought the movie was great. "Survivor" is a great book, despite it's thematic similarity to Fight Club. The plot on the other hand is very different, although some of the characters seem very familiar to ones from the author's first book. I wanted to be sure not to spoil the plot, one of the difficulties I had with "Fight Club" was my knowledge of the basic premise through having seen the movie (although I do feel there are enough differences to merit a reading of that book), however the entire plot is spelled out on the back cover of the book. Avoid that if you would like some surprises. Mr. Palahniuk has again succeeded in creating a very unusual plot, which is as good as that of "Fight Club", but its primarily used as a vehicle to provide the same lambasting of modern society that "Fight Club" provided. The lambasting takes some new turns and has a few new targets (although cornflower blue does make a return), but the method is the same. The characters are written in much the same method and the book-ending cataclysm is very similar. While I do hope that the next book of his that I read, "Monster" is different than his first two books, I was still very pleased with "Survivor". The reason is very simple, while the two books are similar, they are both so drastically different in both style and character development than the rest of the books out there that they are very compelling and thought-provoking reads. There are few authors capable of delivering the same sophisticated, yet still blunt, critique of both the excesses and shallowness of modern American mass society. In this end, the author succeeds in reaching a more convenient tone than have many other authors with similar messages, such as Pynchon, Camut or Thoreau. It is the delivery of this critique that makes Mr. Palahniuk such a promising author (please note as of this review I still haven't read his third book, "Monster"). Criticism of the many contradictions of modern society is as easy to find in literature as the faults themselves while walking the street, however, the author delivers the blows using a masterful combination of both hyperbole, subtlety and the voice of his characters that the words are received with both laughter and disdain. If Mr. Palahniuk continues to use these methods as he has in his first two books, his works can only become more interesting. I thought this was an excellent book, and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in modern literature.
Rating:
Summary: Stains, planes and automobiles
Review: Palahniuk, through his carachter Tender Branson, shows us how to remove stains, details the nomenclature of artificial flowers and plants, and maps out how to travel the USA in a pre-fabricated home. His writing style, to me, is original and effectively tells the story of a cynical-yet-passive cult member who survives his cult's call for mass-suicide, and becomes uber-famous. The way Palahniuk tells this story -- paragraphs of plot and dialoge divided by related facts, such as "how to remove a bloodstain from silk" -- is what makes this book one of the coolest books I've read in a while. Very entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: The man has great ideas
Review: His writing needs some work though. Fight Club became a WONDERFUL movie, from a book with incredible ideas in fiction and satire, but was written very poorly. Chuck just can't keep his words flowing, things come in, stop abruptly, and sometimes you don't know where the story just went. Was a surprise just revealed? Where are they now? That would be my only gripe, though his writing has gotten better since Fight Club (Invisible monsters was actually his first written book) he still has along way to go. But I don't wanna sound like a gloomy gus. This book is certainly a ride worth taking, its funny, interesting, and is a revolutionary world of characters and plot line. Chuck can do this like no other, his love for "loser" characters who believe that hitting bottom is the ultimate goal in life, and true freedom comes only from going as low as you can go. In fight club Tyler created fight club and led to vandalism and a revolutionary cult that aims to destroy societies norms. In Survivor the main character sells his soul to the media and becomes a Messiah super star. Yet cannot escape his past, in an emotional confrontation at the end. His fait seeming inevitable after the first few pages, but we even feel bad for him at times, and you'll never forget his big "revelation" at the end of the book before the Super Bowl. (lol) The only other prob is some pages are wasted with knowlege the main character has on how to clean and eat and cook. It gets a bit boring, but once you eat through that you get to the real meat of the story. Its written better than Fight Club, and contains the same great ideas that chuck just keeps pulling out. I highly recommend this book. I'm truly inspired and introduced to a whole new world of books that aren't sappy happy and truly tug at the heart of the human instinct. Can't wait to read Invisible Monsters
Rating:
Summary: Schism
Review: I'm not going to give you a 'review' of this book. What I'm doing is telling you, if you remotely liked Fight Club, the movie or the novel, the dialogue or the impact, the violence or the controversy, you must buy this book. Chuck Palahniuk, (if I may be a tad cliche here) is a brilliant writer. This guy gets inside your mind and really digs deep into your reality and shatters your everyday thoughts. If after reading this book, you still think the same, you're Chuck Palahniuk.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: Chuck Palahniuk has written 3, count 'em, one, two, three, books...Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Survivor. Each one better than the other. Buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read in years
Review: When you hear people constantly giving an author great reviews for a book turned into a movie like "Fight Club" you can't help but see what else he has done. Survivor keeps all of the satire that fight club had except it has a certian edge to it. I know fight club was a great novel but the only reason people say this one isn't quite as good is because more people know about Fight Club. This novel deserves five stars. It keeps you guessing and lets you laugh at what happens throught the novel. A man from a cult which thinks suicide is delivering yourself to heaven is the last remaining of his kind. The Creedish, the cult he originates from, tests him and then throws him out into the world and now he is famous. This novel gives you a look at the world from a stars eyes and it keeps you guessing. Amazing job Chuck.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: Survivor is one (if not the most) of the most origonal books I have ever read. It is so dark, sarcastic, and perverse that one can hardly put it down. It has many twists and turns and keeps the reader enthralled through the entire novel. Palahniuk saved me from never wanting to read a book again, and this is the fastest I've ever read a book. I just could not put it down long enough without needing to go back to it. I strongly recomend this novel and all other novels by Chuck
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