Rating: 
Summary: only Chuck can tell stories like this
Review: An audible plague. A book written in "peter tracks" bound with human skin, nipple included. Counting 1, counting 2, counting 3...
"Lullaby" tells the tale of 4 deranged characters (one named Oyster for goodness sake) who travel cross country in attempt to destroy all remaining copies of a culling poem, a poem that if read aloud kills the listener. The journey begins as a quest to save the innocent from unnecesary deaths, but quickly turns into a power struggle between those who know the poem and those who know of the poem. There's a difference, and that difference is the center that "Lullaby" revolves around. Save books by burning books, save lives by killing. All these oxymorons make for an incredible read that won't let you put it down, especially if this is one of your first or second Chuck books. If not...
Chuck's stories are uniquely his own, and while "Lullaby" is filled with plots, observations (television is filled with laughing dead people)and analogies that could only be made by him, "Lullaby" was, well, too Chuck. No one writes like him, but perhaps he should experiment a little and apply his style to characters that don't have so much in common (and I mean all of his characters, not just those in "Lullaby") - the book just didn't seem new.
Rating:
Summary: observer of the absurd
Review: What first fascinated me was the "culling song" plot element. Really the only part of the synopsis you need to know is "The consequences of media saturation are the basis for an urban nightmare in Lullaby. Assigned to write a series of feature articles investigating SIDS, troubled newspaper reporter Carl Streator begins to notice a pattern among the cases he encounters..."
You don't need to read more as it will give away some plot points that are nice to discover rather than having them exposed on the dust jacket.The culling spell leads to even more old world spells which when used in modern day have some interesting applications... so of course I suggest it because it has magic and as one review put it "it's chock full of eco-hippie rhetoric and nihilistic tendencies". But I also found some beautiful paragraphs about color - yes it was the artist in me that drooled over these - and moments of startling profundity that awaken the reader to the absurdity of modern culture and make you wonder whose world is crazier - his or ours. This is a modern day Film Noir pulp detective story - complete with haggard-life-weary detective. It's got a lot of dark and dry humor and is a little gritty. Half way through it get even more surreal and though I finished it I thought there were two books under one binding... I was not as enthralled with the second half. In Fight Club I identified with Marla (yeah say what you will) in this one I'm just an observer of the absurd.
Give it a peek and see what you think. But if you did not like or see moments of profundity of the counter culture statements in Fight Club you won't like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best work...
Review: I very much liked "Choke" and "Fight Club", as I enjoy Palahniuk's gritty, hardnosed masculinity and the obscurity of his storylines. Unfortunately, "Lullaby" failed to compel me. While the nucleus of the story was intriguing, the character and plot development were weak and left me feeling unaffected and bored.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not great...Palahniuk has done better
Review: After having read "Fight Club," "Survivor," and "Choke," I had been anticipating another great Palahniuk book when I finally received "Lullaby". I have to say I was disappointed; mainly because it wasn't as dark as his other novels seemed to be. It does have it's moments though and they are the edgy, dark humour that I have grown to love. But if you're looking for a laugh out loud novel then try something else of his.
Rating: 
Summary: Chuck Palahniuk's Best!
Review: Every single one of Chuck Palahniuk's previous books are unique and fantastic landmarks in modern literature, and Lullaby is no exception. There are many things in Lullaby that you can find in Chuck's other books: a first person narrative, lonely, obsessive and somewhat psychotic protagonists, detailed insight on seemingly trivial topics, and plot twists that you can expect but never see coming. However, Lullaby seems to have at least two things that Chuck's other books don't: completely 3-dimensional characters and true emotion. Some of the best scenes in this novel are when the narrative takes a short break from the cynical, dark, cold stance that it usually has to dive into moments of true melancholy, or utter joy and love. Because of this and the characters that I can truely feel for, I place Lullaby as my number 1 Chuck book.
Rating:
Summary: Palahniuk hits paydirt again!
Review: Lullaby is another great novel from Chuck Palahniuk, one of my favorite authors. His previous novels are Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and Choke - all great twisted tales. This novel is probably his most mature work I've read, offering a sort of updated twist of Orwell's 1984.
In Lullaby, a journalist begins investigating a rash of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) deaths. When a rare book of poems is found at each location, the journalist discovers that one of the poems contains a spell that kills whoever hears it read aloud. One thing leads to another and the journalist finds himself on a cross-country road trip with a couple of witches and a hippie who are hunting down the remaining copies of the book. Turns out it is a rare collection and only 500 copies were ever printed. When the book hunters learn the poem and use it to kill of anyone that gets in the way of their mission, the group starts to turn on each other, all the while trying to keep their secret from getting out.
On the surface, Lullaby is a great science fiction thriller about a new kind of epidemic. There was actually a Radiohead video much like this story, where a man lay in the middle of the street, afraid to speak. When a crowd gathered and finally forced him to speak, they all dropped dead. The video never revealed what the man said, and this book never reveals the actual poem.
However, Lullaby is really a satire on censorship. What if something like this actually existed? How would it be stopped? Palahniuk mentions that the government would have to step in and ban all music, movies, books, televison, magazines, and so on. Something like this would effectively end all forms of mass communication that were not regulated by the government. Sounds like Big Brother, right?
The author makes one very valid point about people in that so many of us can't stand silence. What we might consider quiet is really noise. Some people always have to have a television or radio turned on, providing some sort of constant distraction. It's like we're pickling our imaginations with entertainment.
Lullaby is not quite as bizarre as Palahniuk's previous work, and it certainly isn't as sexually charged, either. He writes with a break-neck pace, using lots of short, stand-alone sentences to imply blunt descriptions of people, places, and situations. If you are a fan of his previous work, you must check this one out. Fans of George Orwell's 1984 should definitely consider reading this. In addition to Palahniuk, another recent short novel I read and loved is The Losers Club by Richard Perez -- one hell of a book! I picked up a used copy off Amazon by chance, and it really made an impression on me.
Rating: 
Summary: It was good, but not as good fight club
Review: I enjoyed the book. Palahniuk always delivers, but it is impossible to match Fight Club. I've read Survivor, and liked it as well. I'm also planning to read all the other books. For me, it is similar to reading Kurt Vonnegut. There are a few books that really standout and many that I enjoyed. What I appreciate about Palahniuk are the original ideas, characters, and stories, not to mention the hummor. I would recommend this book to anyone who goes for things off the beaten path.
Rating: 
Summary: and I'm counting...
Review: I read this book to see what all the Chuck Palahniuk fuss is about. And I am counting 1, counting 2.... and this book still makes no sense.
The only credit I can give to this author is his style. It is unique. It is scattered and oddly descriptive.
I read this book in one night, hoping that, at some point, the story would make sense. It never did.
The characters are hardly more than mouthpieces for Mr. Palahniuk's opinions. I found none of them to be particularly believeable or interesting.
The author seems more interested in colors than plot. He spends more words describing the color of a dress than of the characters' thoughts, feelings, actions, etc. The writing changes from narration to dialogue, often switching points of view within the same paragraph. This shreds any sense of cohesiveness the story might have had. This reads more like a journal than a novel.
In my opinion, this book is nothing more than a creative soapbox on which Mr. Palahniuk reveals that he does not like loud music, television, or noisy neighbors. Referring to Orwell's 'Big Brother' as the media.
I do not intend to read anymore of Chuck Palahniuk.
Rating:
Summary: Not My Cup Of Tea
Review: I purchased the unabridged audio version of this book, and am struggling to finish listening to it - I could not imagine trying to finish READING this book. My first and last from this author, the audio version was very tiresome, very repetitive. I found the characters very superficial, and frankly, the entire story very under-developed. After 4 of 5 cassettes, I'm still wondering what the book is about. In one scene, Mona is 'digging' pieces of a model doll house out of Carl's foot. Excuse me? Maybe I'm just dense, but who exactly would crush something with their foot, then walk around with the object still in their foot, till it became infected? Not one of the characters we are supposed to believe in in this novel - not someone with supposed intelligence at least. Very disappointed, as I've heard good things about the author.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: And I mean terrible. Really bad. Surprisingly, it reads like an After School special from the 80s. It's almost like a computer wrote this.
Pure drivel.
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