Rating: 
Summary: Not a survivor, but definetly worth listening to
Review: Lullaby definetly has the ambience of Palahniuk's earlier works. It contains the dark satiric style rarely seen in contemporary fiction these days and is filled with pitch black comdey and his venting towards the rituals of life. I love the premise of the story and the characters surrounding it (yes, even Oyster), But I thought the plot went to an unimaginable tangent halfway in. It's a great idea, but the follow through was not "Survivor -esque" If you love Palahniuk's work, I don't have to tell you to read it for you to read it. For the rest, read it with an open mind and earplugs...
Rating: 
Summary: More of the same
Review: OVer the course of his last three novels, Chuck has become more and more repetitive. His writing has become gimmicky. I wish I had kept the receipt.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best.
Review: I've been a Palahniuk fan through the years and this isn't his best work. It's a little too over the top - a real check your brain in at the door type thing. Not that his other books weren't like that, this one really goes over. Everything was fine until things *really* got supernatural. Then it just fell apart.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe it's just me...
Review: Maybe it's just me, but I loved this book. The day it came out, I woke up early to get to the bookstore by the time it opened, then I holed myself up in the library all day to read it.
I thought it is a brilliant book. Palahniuk needed to change a bit from his earlier work, and I feel he did so just well enough. True, there was a time when I was almost disappointed with it, but that moment when I realized exactly where he was going with the plot and idea was incredible. This truly is a great book, no matter what the people who gave it low ratings say.
Rating:
Summary: A Time to Grow
Review: This, like all of his previous novels, is a fantastic satire and commentary of the world we live in, however this book feels rushed. I had read on his website that he completed the book in 6 weeks and it shows. I'll list my problems with the books, and the the good points. Problems
1. Character Development - For the first time Chuck tries to have a real ensemble of characters, but he doesnt properly build their motivations and backgrounds. The brief overviews dont allow the reader to understand all their interactions. Oyster especially remains a mystery, which, i think, does a disservice to the novel. 2. Not sticking to the selling point - This was supposed to be a horror novel, i dont know about anyone else, but i no point was i scared, and the only shocks i had came from the plot or the trademark one line zingers that seem to sting the world today. Good Points
1. Just another great satire - As much as i think it's time to grow, all of his novels present a different moral quandary, and this novel keeps that traditions. The message of negative mass media and constant sensory overload to distract us from our lives, like a not so hidden Big Brother, i thought, was fantastic. 2. Such and easy read - The whole story just flows and all you want to do is turn the page to find out what happens, or what stinging message might be laid out for the world. Overall
This book was excellent, but it is time for Chuck to sit down, take his time, and craft something truly magnificent, so i can feel inside the characters, imagine the oddball settings of the story, and just be able to immerse myself in a novel that is as literarily sophisticated and it is philosophically thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: A small masterpiece of both imagination and reality
Review: With biting humor, brutal honesty, and more than a touch of magical realism, Chuck Palahniuk examines and satirizes American culture in his latest novel. In LULLABY, his fourth novel, the author of FIGHT CLUB again turns a critical eye on materialism and consumerism, reinvents the road trip novel and turns the idea of big brother upside down and inside out. Carl Streator is a journalist who has put the mysterious death of his wife and baby daughter behind him until he begins a five-part series on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. As he interviews grieving parents he discovers a pattern: all the nurseries have the same book of poetry open to the same page. Page 27 of "Poems and Rhymes from Around the World" has an ancient African culling song. Could its recitation be responsible for the deaths of babies and adults around the world? As bodies begin dropping around him, Carl teams up with Helen Hoover Boyle, realtor of haunted houses and assassin for hire, to destroy all copies of the culling song. Soon Carl, Helen, Helen's assistant Mona and Mona's boyfriend Oyster are on the road, determined also to find the original copy of the song. But, as they travel across the country it becomes apparent their goals are not all the same. Carl is a reluctant hero, but a likable one. Surrounded by disturbing and disturbed characters, Carl struggles to control his thoughts, which, he finds, have gained a new and awesome power. Helen is as hilarious as she is evil. She creates and then profits from the very misery she once suffered from herself. Still, there is a wonderful glimmer of humanity in Helen, and the reader cannot help but enjoy her honesty, wit, and instinct for self-preservation. Oyster and Mona, the symbolic children of Carl and Helen, have confused ethics and priorities, yet their values are admirable. Carl, Helen, Mona, and Oyster quickly form a twisted nuclear family. However, like all children, Mona and Oyster eventually strike out on their own, much to the consternation of their "parents." Across the dizzying landscape of an America that is both more and less than it seems on the surface, our fractured and amazing family blazes a trail of miracles and struggles for ultimate power; the power of life and death. Dark and clever, LULLABY pits youth against middle age, optimism against cynicism, love against lust, truth against appearance, big brother against the gullible, soulless masses, not to mention Carl Streator against calm-ophobics and distraction-oholics. A scathing presentation of life in America and a new justice that lacks morality and kindness, LULLABY taps into the greatest fears of those who are willing and able to question the assumptions made all around them. Uncomfortable and nihilistic yet thrilling and funny, LULLABY is a small masterpiece of both imagination and reality. --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money!
Review: Fifty pages into this book, I was simultaneously bored (how clever does the author think "his password was password" really is?) and horrified. I flipped to the end, read the last two, over-the-top pages, and dropped the book into my handy dandy garbage can, something I've only done one other time in my 43 years of non-stop reading. SIDS, necrophilia, and non-stop violence somehow work together to create a silly, yet evil novel. Ughh!
Rating:
Summary: Originality meets Similarity
Review: As other readers have so clearly stated, this book is not lacking in originality. The subject matter and execution are incredibly thought provoking and, as always with Palahniuk, meaningful to today's world of consumerism, selfishness, and general insanity. Where this particular installment of Palahniuk's work falls short is in narrative voice. There will be parts in the novel where you'll catch yourself hearing Ed Norton's voice reading the story in your head. Ah, the magic of cinema and its skewing effect on our perceptions. While this is not a fatal flaw, Carl's (male lead) attitude is very Fight Club-esque and Helen (female lead) is sometimes just as annoying as Marla. The crux of the story: what would you do if you had the power to destroy the world with a thought? Or, more importantly, what would you do if you were not the only one with this power and it was available to the general public? Carl struggles with these questions throughout the story, so much so that the reader is forced to asked themselves these questions as well. However, once the particularly gruesome ending rears its head, one wonders what all the conscience struggles were for. The first few pages, especially if you're a supernatural buff, will leave you drooling as they introduce Helen and her incredibly strange choice of profession. However, the supernatural aspect of this story takes a different turn as soon as the prologue ends and never really finds a good balance with the rest of the story. In the end, this story almost seems like "Fight Club meets Harry Potter on Pay-per-view" - an alternatingly brutal narrative about the state of today's community (or lack thereof) and a tale of magic spells and general weirdness. All in all, this book is certainly worth a read, especially for Palahniuk fans, but it isn't likely to be a story you'll want to read over and over for the joy of it.
Rating:
Summary: Best One Yet
Review: All of Chuck Palahniuk's books are world-class, but Lullaby is the best yet. From page two through the end, I was laughing out loud. It's black comedy of the sweetest sort. His heros are so appealing because they process the wildest experience with equanimity. If nothing's right, nothing's wrong. "This is my life now." Palahniuk's novels are a lot of fun. You rarely know what's coming, and it's always entertaining and worthwhile. Plus he's a master of minimalist writing. A joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: This is Chuck Palahniuk
Review: Yes, indeed, you may say this is Chuch Palahniuk, what's the point? I woke up this morning to a ringing phone, Caller ID: "Unknown Caller", added to the previous 22 "Unknown Callers" that have come before. I arrive at work, clear my email inbox of 15 emails trying to sell me Viagra and Breat Enlargement pills; others worry about whether I have the lowest mortgage rates. Afterwards, I proceed to my fax machine, throwing away reams of paper advertisements, saying goodbye to a couple arces of Amazonian rainforest. I then log on to the Internet to come here to tell you about this book, but first I must Alt-F4 a few times and kill ads for X-10 spy cameras that lurk under my browser window. Confused about what this has to do with the book you've come here to purchase? Read it, you will understand. In Lullaby, Palahniuk once again comments on the life in which we live. Life where words, information, noise flow at us in an uninterrupted stream of consciousness. What happens when a viris can be spread to our ears just as easily as to our email? There is no Blue Screen of Death for the people in Palaniuk's novel.
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