Rating: 
Summary: Experimental, original, whacked
Review: I thought this book was hysterical. Palahniuk likes to mess around and go places lots of other writers don't (or won't). Far-fetched, lacking plot, whatever - don't listen to that nonsense!! This book is excellent. I've also read fight club, and I liked this one a lot more - has a more mature feel to it, it goes deeper into detail... the characters essentially are the plot, what happens is what they make happen, not a bunch of events that happen to them. Highest possible recommendation. I'm going to pick up Survivor today.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Many Tricks, Too Little Writing
Review: In the immortal words of Sgt. Hulka, Settle down, Francis. While Fight Club made me laugh and feel immense paranoia at the same time, I think Chuck has taken to creating tricks vs. writing real stories. This is, in short, nothing less than a piece of paper put out to coincide with what will certainly be Fight Club mania as soon as the movie comes out. And good for Chuck. At least he's making money. Avoid this one and just read Fight Club again.
Rating:
Summary: MTV does books
Review: This book was handed to me by a friend who I can only descibe as hopelessly urban-cool. Palahniuk's novel is catered to short attention spans, and its no surprise to me that his other novel was made into a movie. I think the author's hope is that if he throws enough edgy disjointed bursts into a book, the juxtaposition will make it clever. Is this where fiction is now? There was so little honesty in the writing, not one element I could identify with. At least with Douglas Coupland there is a sence of tapping into history (even if the nostalgia is dripping with sarcasm). Skip this one. Or just stay tuned for the music video.
Rating: 
Summary: A Trifecta for Palahniuk
Review: If I had read this book before reading Fight Club and Survivor, I know I would have liked it more. I liked the book enough to give it four stars, but I think one too many bizarre coincidences kept this book from being as good as it could have been. Chuck P. again amazes with his satire and take on the world. The chapters where the narrator has dinner with her parents and subsequently opens presents with them on Christmas morning are both side-splittingly hilarious and tragically sad once you realize why you're laughing. If you're looking to inaugurate yourself to one of fiction's best new writers, read this one first. I was sold on Chuck after Survivor, hands down the best book of last year. I don't mean to be greedy, but I hope Chuck has something grand up his sleeve. My only real complaint is that his novels are too short! It takes me about a week to finish them. It's time for Chuck Palahniuk to give us his Infinite Jest.
Rating:
Summary: Very dark but very good.
Review: If you are looking for a novel that slams you in your face with what the ideals of society place in our easily modified brains, read this novel. If you want to have a nice, breezy read in the summer afternoon, look elsewhere. Palahniuk does not sugar coat his views on modern society. The characters in this novel all have some form of self-inflicted wound as a result of the world's idealism.
Rating:
Summary: Uproarious! Outrageous! Another Gem!
Review: Remember that old adage of nothing is what it seems? Well magnify your biggest notion of that a hundred times and you might come close to the wild twists and turns of Invisible Monsters. I've read Palahnuik's previous two and this one continues his bold, darkly hilarious style that spoofs our-mass-consumer-shallow-selves and reveals what's truly important. Best of all, Palahniuk knows how to have FUN, bringing sheer exuberance and biting wit to every scene. For instance, Nature and Man have a lot more in common than they know, ex. -- a bird mother's feeding is equated to bulimia and a man's hairdo is nothing more than "moussed fur." I especially loved the way he would alternate between two major scenes or descriptions -- producing a double-punch. In fact, the whole pace of the book is sometimes so frenetic that you might have to stop to breathe (for those of you too accustomed to run-of-the-mill books). It's a story that literally "jumps" all over the place, and yet amazingly you're never lost. Who says "serious" Lit has to be dull and stodgy? Palahniuk has practically re-invented the conventions of the novel. For behind the scathing satire and raucous escapades is the search for what really defines us -- the human heart. I was almost (unbelieveably?) tempted to rate this four stars not five simply because I found Fight Club and Survivor to be even better. But maybe that's me (I'm sexist and prefer male narrators with "macho" tales of brawling?) In short, my hats off (once again) to Palahniuk and thanks for bringing EXHILIRATION back into books. And Chuck, if your reading -- Could you send me an e-mail? I've got some fan mail for you (I promise to keep it short!).
Rating:
Summary: Uniquely Palahniukian
Review: I won't even bother trying to summarize the plot here; like his two other books, Chuck keeps things rolling in a dazzling stream of consciousness style that you have to either give in to or give up on. So let's talk about tone instead. "Invisible Monsters" plays like a cross between Palahniuk's own "Fight Club", and a lost "Road" movie with Bing & Bob & Dorothy. Only with drugs. And extremely confused gender roles."The Road to Hell", anyone? Give in and you'll be treated to a supremely comic ride. Give up and you'll miss one of the best novels of the year. Your choice.
Rating: 
Summary: IT was o.k.
Review: This is the first book by Chuck that I have read and I wasn't sure what to think. The book was interesting and annoying at the same time as plot twists showed that no one is who/what they seem. *shrug* Not the worst book I've ever read, not the best. But it was "good enough", I guess, since I'm now reading Fight Club.
Rating:
Summary: By far my favorite book by anybody named Chuck
Review: I read this book while driving and crashed into a fountain (one of the ones of an Angel pissing). You'd think I'd have had enough of it by then but no, I hadn't. It's that good. I read it three times in the hospital and once more in the waiting room at physical therapy (this I had to do collectively over a period of visits). If you like weird stuff and surprises, don't have that midget spring naked and ablaze from your closet when you get home from work. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Original!
Review: Invisible Monsters is the story of a famous fashion model, horribly disfigured by the slug of a rifle. The events before, during, and after the shooting unravel, jumping back and forth, until finally the whole story is laid out before you. In a style that will be familiar to those who have read other books by Palahniuk, the story starts near the climax of the action. After that, everything jumps around, narrated by the main character, in a stream of memories type style.
Even giving away a big portion of the climax of the story, I found that Palahniuk kept me guessing. Nobody is quite who they seem to be in this novel. Everybody has an interesting past, and most of these pasts end up woven together in one messy, dysfunctional, disturbing fabric by the end of the book.
Along the way, Palahniuk drops lots of interesting facts that you aren't really sure if you want to know. Do you take or know anybody who takes the hormone drug Premarin? Palahniuk will key you in on the way that particular drug is made. Have you ever pondered what a difference letter placement makes in the meaning of a word? The author's discussion of the meaning of the words feltching and fletching might get you thinking about this subject.
I found it particularly interesting that the main character, and narrator, of this story is female. Often, male authors don't seem to do a very good job of writing from a female's perspective. I think that Palahniuk did a good job here. I would appreciate comments from females who have read this book about this assertion, whether you agree or disagree. But in the end, I think a lot of the gender thing disappears, as the main character becomes just a very troubled human being.
This book raises a lot of questions. It gets you thinking. You will probably learn some facts that wouldn't be appropriate to share in polite company. You may reconsider your own boring, quiet, comfortable existence. Is this an existence, or just an opiate dream of the masses to dull the pain until we die? This is a good book to read if you are bored with television and cookie-cutter novels who recycle the same plot lines and paper-thin characters, again and again. So pick up a copy of Invisible Monsters! Another book I strongly recommend is one I picked up off Amazon last month: The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, another unconventional, funny, thought-provoking novel.
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