Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm...very, very interesting
Review: Okay, so I will admit that the reason I picked this book up is because I thought the cover picture was a naked man with really big pecs!!! Obviously it wasn't, but after reading about the plot I decided to give it a try.I have to say that I can't even figure out if I liked the book or not. It kept my interest, and I read it in one sitting, but I didn't finish it and think, "Wow, that's a keeper!" So, every other reviewer has gone over the plot, and I must say that it was an odd plot. I had never really thought about women body builders and the life that they lead. If this book is an honest example of the life they lead then it makes me wonder why anyone would do it? I did notice in the other reviews that people talk about the graphic, kinky sex in the book. The acts are definitely pretty kinky, but the author doesn't go into too much detail. Overall, I don't know if I would really recommend it, or read it again, but I don't feel that I wasted time in reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally Boss High Speed Read!
Review: This book is a fast paced ride through the seamy world of pro bodybuilding. While I'm not familiar enough with bodybuilding to verify or deny the accuracy of the complex usage of steroids, diuretics, and tanning methods portrayed in the book (though if I was the gambling type, I would bet the author is on the money!), this is a great story that vividly portrays members of a subculture that would go to extreme and destructive lengths to acheive their goals. Katie Arnoldi beautifully creates seedy characters. Their repulsive nature is so tangible and horrifying (especially Charles, the weasely perveted bodybuilding sponsor) that you feel like washing your hands between reads! If you're a writer who wants to brandish an effective villain, I highly recommend reading this book. I also enjoyed Arnoldi's full-speed pace in telling the story of Aurora, a womens' pro bodybuilding hopeful. Many of the chapters are no more than two pages, yet the author manages to paint up the scene with vibrant characters, sensations and crossroads. Ms. Arnoldi has the art of telling a story down pat, and I hope we see more of her work in the future. Even the finish of the story is in high gear. She winds up the story with a definite and clear ending, yet you hope for a sequel because there are still many possibilities for many of the characters. High energy book; don't read around bedtime, cuz it's a page turner that will keep you awake!
Rating: 
Summary: will leave your mouth gaping open, but your mind dormant
Review: My overview of this novel is that the author had very little concept of how she wanted to present a large collaboration of ideas and storyboards. She does not seem to possess a flare for fluid, concise storytelling and as a result, this novel "Chemical Pink" breaks up and goes many separate ways. The author hyper-develops one character, Charles, the eccentric female muscle hobbyist to such an exhausting degree and leaves the remainder of the characters as undeveloped afterthoughts. By the 10th instance of this creep's bizarre libido in the first 120 pages, I really wondered how this neverending lecherous spectacle would be essential to anything, and I still say this crude "Penthouse Forum" content had no major bearing on the story once it finally got going. It was just unconscionable shock value implemented to conceal (not very well) the story's deficencies. This is a very patchwork story; characters seem to always be at the right place at the right time, very reminiscent of a Wes Craven movie. The relationship between the female bodybuilder Aurora and her daughter Amy is so played out and uninspired it could have been pulled from any daytime soap. The dialogue, as a whole, is stale and predictable. I thought going in this would be a witfest imbedded with hauntingly funny dark humor, akin to Chuck Palanhiuk, whose novels always appear with this novel. It was nothing of that sort; it was dull, obvious humor with no signs of irony or underlying sentiment. I liken this novel, being a $13.95 psuedo-hardcover novel, to an expensive entree that sounds good on the menu printup, yet when you take that first bite, you wonder what you were thinking when you ordered it. Still, you feel obliged to cram the rest of it down your throat to feel that you at least got something out of the debacle. That is how I felt reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Tastefully Twisted!!! A 5 Star Book!!!
Review: THIS BOOK IS DEFINATLY MORE THAN I BARGINED FOR: Charles Worthering has a hobby and it is not boating, photography, fishing....His hobby is to take a woman and mold her into the heavy weight bodybuilder. What better place to do this than at Venice Beach, California. His last project, May, had destroyed her body with drugs to the point of no longer being able to compete, so Charles is now on the prowl for a new project....and he finds her - and her name is Aurora! What is great about this book is that Katie Arnoldi not only gives the details of the strict regimen that these women body builders have to follow, but the lives they choose to live in to succeed in this sport. Do not be fooled into thinking this book is all about workouts and steroid use; it goes behind the scenes with Aurora & Charles...the secret life that these girls live behind the scene!!! (EXTREMELY CRAZY!!!) How far will Aurora go to have the life she has always wanted? A life for not only her, but her daughter? How much will Charles expect in return for all the material things? You will easily finish this book in one sitting! ALL I CAN SAY IS, "OMG - WOW!!!!"
Rating:
Summary: Completely Messed Up
Review: I bought this book and I couldn't stop reading it ( I finished it the same day ). It was graphic, twisted, and in a lot of cases, undescribable. It's not for the squeamish. Don't let the "body building" part scare you off. It's more about some truly messed up people feeding off each other and getting more freakish by the minute. Some people have read this book under the impression that it was written by a female Chuck Palahniuk. No one writes just like another person. But if you have enjoyed Chuck's type of books, you'll most likely enjoy this too. Happy reading !
Rating:
Summary: a guilty pleasure diversion
Review: like many others, i was sucked into buying this book based on my palahniuk.fetish.
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it wasn't a horrid experience.
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the writing is crisp. the plot moves. it's entertaining.
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when i finished, i felt as though the novel was forced. not as in arnoldi didn't have the material, but lacked the time to flesh out her creations the way she could have.
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i later read that this was based upon a short.story. this may be a figment of my own imagination, but it would explain the feeling that i took away from the book.
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i'd still recommend this as a quick.n.dirty read that will give you at least one little gasp of surprise.
Rating: 
Summary: Get it if you need it.
Review: Although I am usually quite voluble when it comes to works of fiction, I have very little to say about Katie Arnoldi's CHEMICAL PINK except: Get it if you need it. I recommended this book to someone who was dangerously addicted to the art of body-crafting and it changed his life. If you also suffer from this increasingly widespread addiction, you must read this book. Please stop comparing this highly therapeutic novel to to the "work" of that illiterate known as "chuckpalahniuk." Unlike FIGHT CLUB, this isn't fiction for dumb jocks.
Rating:
Summary: 4... 3.... 2.....
Review: In retrospect, the most impressive thing about this book was the author's ability to get as grise an eminence as Joan Didion - whose neurasthenic "Play It As It Lays" was clearly a stylistic influence here - to provide a front-cover blurb. It starts out genuinely creepy, with a clinically sharp eye for the grotesqueries of bodybuilding fashion and steroid abuse. But it quickly becomes apparent that Arnoldi has only one effective shot in her posing routine. And the ending is so ludicrous that it wipes out any residual good will still remaining. Samuel W. Fussell's memoir "Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder" covers this same ground for more thoroughly and interestingly. And it's still available on Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: graphic sad tale
Review: Why would anyone put themselves through the mess that pro bodybuilders indulge in?...especially female bodybuilders...
read the book...fascinating, graphic and more than just entertainment
Rating: 
Summary: weird and uninteresting
Review: I couldn't figure out whether to be disturbed with the writing or with the fact that I convinced myself to buy it and read it.
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