Lullaby

Rating:
Summary: Another Palahniuk gem
Review: How can you not love a book with a character named Oyster in it? The anti-societal messages that fill his other books are still present in this one, but somehow Lullaby seems to deal with human emotions, love, hate, jealousy, more personally. The generation gap ideas in the book are really funny. The fantastic plot seemed too far a stretch as I began reading, but by the end of the book I thought it was great. I read this book in one sitting and would guess most readers would.

Rating:
Summary: Great, until you think about the plot, but then still great.
Review: Lullaby is my 3rd favorite novel by Palahniuk, behind Survivor and Fight Club, ahead of Invisible Monsters and Choke. Lullaby is hilarious, chock full of the dead-on observations and comments on modern culture that made Palahniuk's first four novels so great. I'd imagine that if you liked them, you'll like this one, too.

(Warning - the following paragraph contains some possible spoilers, but nothing worse than the inside of the jacket cover, which gives way too much away.)
Now then, unless I'm missing something, there's some major logic problems with the search and destroy mission for the "Poems and Rhymes from Around the World" book. So there's 500 copies of the book. Helen, over the past few years, got rid of 300 copies that bookdealers were able to track down. Most of the other 200 copies are in libraries. Why did she ignore these approximately 200 library copies for all that time? These, obviously, are potentially much more dangerous than the bought and sold copies, with each of these copies easily resulting in many deaths. Also, it seems unlikely that 3 copies of a book with a print run of 500 would be in 1 library. Heck, with a print run that low, it's amazing 3 of these books would be in libraries, period. Also, a few things weren't explained that should have been, such as the exact source of the house hauntings, which was presumably Helen, Mona and friends (although this seems so important - maybe I just missed it), and also why some died immediately upon having the poem read or thought unto them, while it was a few hours before others, such as Duncan, died.

Even with the apparent problems listed above, though, this book is still great. After all, I didn't buy it expecting a plot completely devoid of holes.

I think that most Palahniuk fans and also those unfamiliar with his work will enjoy Lullaby immensely, as I did.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent satire on many levels
Review: I was drawn to this book not because of the author's so-called cult status among the hip and urban elite, but rather by his clever subject matter. He invented the culling song he told one interviewer. Wow! A contemporary writer who actually uses his imagination. There is such a monster out there. And thank God! Or in this case-- Thank the Book of Shadows. Whereas others find fault with the book's comic and satiric elements I think that the strength of the book lies in the funny parts. How can you take the supernatural seriously, Palahniuk seems to be saying. And what would happen if someone were given an unthinkable power to change the world? Oh sure there's all that stuff about the noise of the city. But the book is really about the seduction of power -- especially supernatural power. Gimme, gimme, gimme. I can kill you with words or even my thinking of words, so look out sucker. What's the running mantra (even emblazoned on the book and on the title page) that gets altered as the story progresses? "Sticks and stone may break my bones, but Words can really kill you." (Something like that. Don't have the book at my side now.) Each of the four characters wants something different from the culling song and eventually the grimoire. Oyster wants to wreak havoc and return the world to his version of Paradise, Mona wants to change the world for the better but seems to be willing to endure a little mess because of her love for Oyster, Helen wants to return to her life before her son died, and Carl wants a personal kind of Justice. It's a fast and gripping read. I highly recommend it. And I tell you, the scene where Carl and Helen meet Mona's coven is the funniest damn look at the New Age & Wicca movements I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Won't let you sleep
Review: Finally Chuck deals with issues that have been plaguing me for months and years on end. I'm talking about all the quiet-ophobics and sound-ohlolics. I'm talking about everyone with their cell phones, pagers, beepers, and bass booming so loud from the sound system of their cars. In this book Chuck tackles everything from the media to telecommunications.
The twists in this book aren't on the same level as fight club or even choke. This is more of a character driven book. Palahniuk shows you the different sides of everyone's personality. The fact that it's not a completely twisted ending is what makes me love this book so much. Out of all of chuck's books i would rank this as my second favorite. My first being Survivor which i gave 5 stars to.
Do yourself a favor, and read this Lullaby.

Rating:
Summary: Horror fans should give it a try.
Review: You have to love it when no one can really define what it is that a writer does, except to say that it's enjoyable to read. This one, I think, is a horror story.

I finished Lullaby last night and described the plot to a number of people throughout the day. Their reaction, almost to a person, based on the plot, is that it sounded like a Dean Koontz novel. (Admittedly, this may have more to do with my synopsis than with the book.) Well, yes, until you realize that there are more ideas in this book than in any half-dozen books by mainstream horror writers. This is well-crafted social satire amid the macabre elements of the human condition that Chuck sends up so well.

Bottom line, it's a fun, dark, fast read -- told with an economy that proves that one doesn't need to write 700 pages to tell a horror story. It has the ambitious goal of drawing attention to the infectious nature of information, while following the adventures of some sardonic and very twisted characters. If you like Chuck's other books, you'll like this one, but if you like to read mainstream horror, this might be a fun departure from the horror-by-the-pound formula that has dominated the field for the last twenty years.

It's irritating to read reviews saying that Chuck is doing the same old thing, when what he does is so damn good. I suppose it might be the same sort of people who called for Faulkner to stop writing about Mississippi or Steinbeck about California. I'm just grateful that there's someone out there who is consistently turning out books that are fun to read.

(I do wish that he'd change his last name to something that's easier to spell. That's probably unreasonable, huh?)

Rating:
Summary: It's just his style
Review: I see many reviews complain that this new novel from Chuck is the same as his others. This is simply not true. Lullaby is a story centering around the paranormal, something only Choke has lightly touched upon. The paranormal is at the core of this work, and it is interesting to see our favorite satirical writer going into this area.

The characters do have the usual Chuck feel to them. This I expect though. Most all authors I've read have similar traits, attitudes, etc. in all their characters, mainly because the authors are putting parts of themselves in these characters. But if you actually do think for a quick moment (which is part of the message of this novel, thinking) it's easy to see that Carl of Lullaby and the Narrator of Fight Club are hardly the same.

As for plot, yes the usual cross-country road trip is there. Though it hardly matters. The setting of Chuck's novels hardly matters at all. Wheather the story takes place in Denver, Chicago, New York, or Moscow, Chuck's message and humorous satire will still be spread across each page. In this case the road trip was vital to a major plot point though, unlike Invisible Monsters.

Chuck continues to mature with his writing. Each book is better than the last. He is truly a literary master.

Rating:
Summary: Another Brilliant Novel From Palahniuk!
Review: I'm sure you all know what the story is about by now, so I won't go through that.

This is really one fantastic novel...once again from Palahniuk.

It starts off very interesting and good, then as you go along, it gets even better all the way to the end, where it just has a great Palahniuk ending.

This has a very strange and interesting story...a good interesting though. It does have a little creepy feel to it and it can be scary at times. Scary as in, if something like this can happen and happening right now, it's a bit scary...well, everyone in the world.

This is a Palahniuk novel, so of course we're getting our great dark comedy and there are quite a few that will make you roll on the floor. What we get best from Chuck is him interlacing our culture and mass media into his books...

"The mass media, culture, everything laying its eggs under my skin. Big Brother filling me with need...Do I really want a big house, a fast car, a thousand beautiful sex partners? Do I really want these things? Or am I trained to want them?"

So, we're getting his great messages on our culture...which I love about Chuck and his books.

We're getting the great characters we always get from him and I guarantee any Palahniuk fan won't be dissapointed with Lullaby.

Highly recommended to everyone, especially people who need something a bit different than their usual law/crime books they always read.

Rating:
Summary: Palahniuk just keeps getting better.
Review: Once again Palahniuck proves jsut how good he is.
And how good is that? I think that it's safe to say
that he's the best out there today. Nobody is as
fearless with their imagination. Nobody tests thier
readers more. With lullaby, Palahniuk is getting pretty
damn close to perfection.
The only reason I could think of someone not falling for this
book is...well, for some reason Nash comes to mind.

Rating:
Summary: The first book I ever read in one day!
Review: I'll keep this short. I agree with another reveiwer that says that this is simply a rehash of other Palahniuk novels. I felt as though I had read this book before, but not quite. I struggle to say that it wasn't as funny as Fight Club, Choke, or Survivor, but not one of them kept my attention as rapt as this. Oh well, if you like Palahniuk you should like this, it does make some really good points, even if they are lifted from other sources.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Palahniuk
Review: Like Chuck's other books, Lullaby has a dark, intriguing premise, a hyper-fast plot, and a savage twist in the tail. It's a great read, a solid story, and Palahniuk fans will love it.

But yes, it would be fascinating to see Chuck stretch his style a little, since what's a literary breakthrough in book one is not so much by book five. And all his female characters (with the exception of the protagonist of "Invisible Monsters") are starting to bear a suspicious resemblance to Marla from "Fight Club." Lullaby is terrific, but I'm hoping for even more from Chuck in the future.