Rating: 
Summary: If you are looking for a beach read, move on...
Review: This is a great book, though it isn't entirely enjoyable for the plot, nor is it for the characters. The plot is jumpy and unrealistic at best. The characters are, unless you are an OCD sex addict, completely unrelatable. But that's not what this book is about. To glean any pleasure, you have to be ready to move past the gross-out sex and bodily function narratives. It is about the delving into the post-modern subtext within. The call for self-examination as well as examination of the world around us almost jumps off the page and bites you on the face. For the message, "make the journey count because goals are futile otherwise", to be as powerful as it is in this work, the extreme nature of the book is almost necessary. I see a great many complaints as to the book's content on these reviews. So, if you are a wee bit squeemish in your pursuit of intellectual stimulation, pick up something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for sissies.
Review: And I wouldn't give this one to mom or dad as a gift. Perfect for most men...might be offensive to women, although I was not. I thought it was hysterical. My teenage daughter (not knowing the book's content) came home from school and told me her (male) social studies teacher was reading the same book. I almost asked her if he was hot, but then I walked it off.
Rating:
Summary: I'll have a Hemlich, please . . .
Review: Like all of Chuch Palahniuk's works, "Choke" is stunning in its conception. The idea for the book--that the main character has mother issues and hangs out at 12-step meetings to get a date--is brilliant, but then, so were the premises of "Fight Club" and "Survivor." With humor and horror, Palahniuk pulls us into this stellar novel, much the same way that Jackson McCrae does in "Bark of the Dogwood," or perhaps some of Vonnegut's or Boyle's works (think "Drop City"). Those looking for the Pulitzer Prize won't find it here, but what you will find is some of the most original writing to come out in the last hundred years. Also recommend: McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood."
Rating: 
Summary: 3 1/2 stars
Review: I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting out of this book, but I almost got it. This is my first Palahniuk novel. I haven't read Fight Club yet (though I've seen the movie and it is one of my favorites). It's an interestingly dysfunctional novel with some of the most interestingly dysfunctional characters. But there is little cohesion to the story. Some of the most interesting episodes we only get the beginning of and Palahniuk doesn't finish other than in telling us later rather than showing us at the time. The characters tend to be irritating and as a whole the story is a bit unbelievable. It's a good effort that falls just a bit short.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: Choke is brilliant as it is sick, I loved it, I have read all of Chucks books. I put Choke off to the last one because a friend told me it wasn't that great, well needless to say, I shot that friend after reading this book. Some of the sexual situations seemed like hashed out fantasy's that Chuck may need to deal with in the future, but all in all it was a great read. Plus this book has some of the best side characters in a novel I have ever read, especially his friend Denny, which I think holds a tie with "Invisible Monsters" Brandy Alexander. And the ending is just a wonderful piece of art (If you didn't get it, read it again.) Especially the last paragraph, Which I would say are the best finishing lines I have yet to read from Chuck. Hazardous isn't the right word, but it's the first one that comes to mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Less Favorable of Chuck P.
Review: I really enjoyed Palahniuk's first two books, Fight Club and Survivor. His style and cut throat in-your-face narration keeps you propelled to read on. However, Choke does not do that. I could not even finish the book after getting to page 90. For some reason, the narration got very repetitive and annoying. The content is over-the-top gross, and overshadows the characters and story. Chuck's first two books kept a good balance of satire and the explicit to the development of the main characters. Choke read as though the author was trying to out do his other books by being too ridiculous with repulsive language. By the time you read Choke, Chuck is not so much fun or a shock to read. It's just flat out silly. His latest novels tend to go beyond the repulsive language and try to create a different atmosphere with characters.
Rating:
Summary: Chuck's work keeps on getting weirder and weirder.....
Review: This is one of the most weirdest novels I have ever read. Choke is about Victor; a dropout from Medical School who is trying to help his mom in a nursing home, so in order to keep her there, he has to pretend to choke on food to make someone a hero. They send him money, and with that money, he pays the people taking care of her. So now, Victor goes to sexual addiction meetings where he has sex with the attendies and also his mother's doctor. His friend then nurses rocks in order to build something but we dont know until the end. So now, as we see this, Chuck branches away from Victor about him choking on food, and we see in Victor's childhood where his mom takes him cross-country painting shadows of him and teaches him some weird stuff. He then discovers that when his mom was in Italy, she took Jesus's semen and planted it in her, so he is Jesus' kid! Then his friend builds a temple full of rocks and the rest I dont remember because it was just weird. The ending was not all that good, but the writing was very good, but also very repeative and can get kind of frustrating. The sex scenes were kind of graphic and there was a lot of sex in this novel. It is worth reading, but nothing like King's writing. Chuck is not another King, but he can write. Good book, but just WEIRD!
Rating:
Summary: why all the stars
Review: I couldn't wait to get through this book, just to be done with it. People love a big name and risque characters. Which is great and all, but I found it plain and lacking madness.
Rating:
Summary: A Chokingly Disappointing Novel
Review: "Choke" is a novel about completion: protagonist Victor Mancini attempts to complete the lives of others as well as his own. He plays a sort of savior to people, giving them a reason to be by faking choking in restaurants and having random people rescue him. This is a very interesting concept for a novel. Unfortunately, it's as though Pahlaniuk tried to cram every other intersesting novel concept into "Choke", essentially making it seem unrealistic and written ad lib.
When i read the plot synopsis on back of the book, i was lead to believe that the story would focus on Victor's seemingly interesting choking prank, and i trusted Pahlaniuk would put a smart spin on it as he did in "Fight Club", the other Pahlaniuk novel i have read. However, the novel is full of crude sexual descriptions and troubling concepts. Victor's dialogues are far too simplistic and peppered with juvenile slang to be coming from a med-student. Victor's twisted childhood, which is recounted through a series of scattered chapters, also seems somewhat outlandish. Pahlaniuk has a sort of conspiracy theory that he convey's in both "Fight Club" and "Choke", a theory that everyone everywhere is doing something secret and forbidden. He pulls it off very well in "Fight Club", but rather poorly in "Choke". Victor works at a colonial theme-park where supposedly everyone is doing drugs and fornicating, a completely unrealistic and vulgar concept. Not to spoil too much of the plot for potential readers, the most disturbing plotline involves Victor's relationship to Jesus Christ. All of these useless aspects distract the reader from an interesting theme, instead of enhancing it.
In conclusion, "Choke" dissapointed more than it pleased. Pahlaniuk's wit and intelligence were sadly overshadowed by his perverted side. "Choke" could have been so much more.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome. Also see: spectacular. Also see: stellar.
Review: "The best book ever written" isn't the right phrase, but the first that comes to mind. This is the first Chuck Palahunik book I've read, and I loved it. Chuck's knack for satire is amazing. I found myself laughing several times while reading this book. I'm very impressed with Chuck, and his wonderful imagination. With this book he's definately become one of my must read authors. I'd recommed this book to most. Next up for me: "Survivor"
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