Lullaby

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not Great
Review: This is the third Chuck Palahniuk novel that I have read. The other two are Fight Club and Survivor. Those two novels I loved. The prose was short sweet and to the point. The stories moved along quickly and were darkly comic.

Lullaby had all of this as well, but for some reason this novel just didn't click for me. Maybe it is the fact that the other novels that I have read by Chuck were very distinctly saterical, and I could not find the satire in this novel? Was Chuck saterising the american family? Modern society's need to impose itself on nature?

This novel moves along at a very quick pace, and the ending is pretty good. However I would recommend his other works before you read this one. My personal favorite: Survivor.

Rating:
Summary: Palahniuk recovers after "Choke"ing
Review: Most readers of Lullaby, like myself, have read most if not all other novels by Chuck Palahniuk. And most were disappointed with the author's previous novel, Choke. Thankfully he rebounds significantly with Lullaby.

In Lullaby we have a world where black magic exists. Most significantly, a "culling poem" contained in a children's book kills the recipient (listener) of the poem. In comes a very eclectic mix of misfits who both abuse this culling poem and try to limit its distribution. Granted, the premise of the book is a bit ... weird. But story moves at a good pace, and the ending is particularly ... weird (in a good way).

However compared to Palahniuk's early works (Fight Club, Invisible Monsters) Lullaby is still a bit of a disappointment. Missing are Palahniuk's scathing wit and his brilliant humour. However compared to Choke it is much better written, and its plot better defined.

Bottom line: Palahniuk has woken up! Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Chuckie's best so far..
Review: well,
just finished it and I have to say, in my opinion, this is Palahniuks best work so far. It's dark, funny and very moving and that last is a first for him. His work before this, Choke, I wasn't to impressed with but this one puts him back on the map.

Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: by the end i felt like i had read only the most interesting parts of buddhist texts, harry potter novels, vegan propaganda, steven king books, and a george michaels biography. chucky p does it again. the journey is sick, twisted, with little, but elegant moments of hope and beauty. like life.
this one is up there with choke.

Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: by the end i felt like i had read only the most interesting parts of buddhist texts, harry potter novels, vegan [views], steven king books, and a george michaels biography. chucky p does it again. the journey is sick, twisted, with little moments of hope and beauty. like life.
this one is up there with choke.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not as good as.....
Review: I liked the book a lot, but after reading Palahniuk's 4 other books before this one, I found that Lullaby didnt stand up as much to them. But I guess that you cant expect an author to hit a home run every time.

If you like Chuck Palahniuk's previous work, then you will definitely like this. I guess I personally didnt think it was as good as Fight Club, Survivor, etc. Enjoy the book.

Rating:
Summary: Rather pointless
Review: This book had me going for quite a while, and then let me completely down at the end. I just don't get it. Not much point to it. Utterly forgettable.

Don't waste your time.

Rating:
Summary: The Ring meets Fight Club
Review: M.Palahniuk explores his typical themes here (mass media criticism with a greek philosophy flavour, overpopulation...) in his trademark style (staccato writing).

I had a lot of fun reading it but can't help being afraid of M.Palahniuk new turn in the horror genre. When he writes about witchcraft and "book of shadows", you just hope he won't end up like Anne Rice & co and try to lure in a new readership...

The idea of information as a virus is very exciting. Beware quiet-ophobics!

Rating:
Summary: interesting but could have been pushed further
Review: This is an enjoyable read, although more conceptually interesting than narratively. By the end of the book I didn't really feel like any of the characters were that flushed-out and I didn't have a great deal of connection to them, and consequently of their outcome. Other than that this book is fairly engaging and has an interesting premise and was pretty fun, but it probably could have pushed a bit further.

Rating:
Summary: When Great Books Go Bad
Review: Lullaby is a very strange read indeed. The concept is highly original and intelligent and yet, in the end, you never really care for any of it. This is one of those books that has a great concept but, because of its poor execution, you can't ever fully enjoy the ride.

Carl wakes up one morning to find his wife and six-month old daughter dead in their beds. They died in their sleep for no apparent reason. Now, twenty years later, Carl is a journalist. He comes upon a case where babies all over the country are dying of 'crib deaths', which means that their deaths cannot be explained. He traces these deaths back to a lullaby of African origin that has the power to kill people. Now that Carl has this power in his hands, he soons becomes a killing machine, whether he wants it or not.

And of course, like in all of Palahniuk's novels, Carl meets a woman who looks normal and sane on the outside but who is everything but. Helen has also lost her family because of the culling song. They embark on a journey to destroy all of the existing copies of the song so that innocent people will stop dying. But they also want to destory the song so that they'll be the only ones to hold the power over life and death.

There is a very unnecessary withcraft subplot, but that aside, Lullaby is a great story that should have fully entertained me. Instead, I often found myself bored with it. Palahniuk needs to stop trying to be so self-analytical and sarcastic all the time. His style is getting a little old. I like the way he can look at the real world and ridicule it, but sometimes, less is more. And in this case, I would have taken less of that world analysis and more of the plot.

Palahnuik is supposedly the voice of today's generation. And I can see why. His writing is witty and post-modern and often darkly funny. But without any characters you can ever really care for, and without enough plot to sustain a whole novel, Lullaby is a failed attempt at greatness.