HAUNTED: A Review

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk was like reading a darker, more twisted, disturbingly funny, awkward episode of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964). It's about a group of writers who get locked together for three months and have to write. That reminds of writing for school. I feel like I'm being forced and I won't write under those circumstances. I like writing on my terms, like this blog or when I get inspiration to write not during school. I was also reminded of Clue (1985); a cast of characters put together over a period of time. In Clue it was just overnight, but in Haunted it was longer causing it be much better.

It was hard for me to determine how many writers were in the group, that was the only confusing part of Haunted. I thought of some possibilites to how many writers there were:

1. Twenty writers not counting the unnamed narrator and counting Brandon Whittier and Mr. Whittier as two different people.
2. Twenty-one, counting the unnamed narrator, Brandon Whittier and Mr. Whittier.
3. Twenty writers counting the unnamed narrator and Brandon Whittier and Mr. Whittier as one person. 
4. Nineteen writers not counting the unnamed narrator and counting Brandon Whittier and Mr. Whittier as one person.

I think that's all the possibilites; I went over this about three times and wrote it down. Personally, I think there were twenty writers counting the unnamed narrator and Brandon Whittier and Mr. Whittier as one person. You can try to keep track of the writers yourself while you read Haunted, but it gets more confusing with the character as the story continues. The emphasis is obviously not on how many writers there are. The emphasis is on the story, the writing and the characters. So don't stop reading Haunted just because you get confused about how many writers there are. And if this whole section of the review confused you even more, I'm sorry. 

Here's a list of all the characters in Haunted who were also part of the narrative, not just the ones who told short stories. 

1. Saint Gut-Free
2. Mother Nature
3. Miss America
4. Lady Baglady
5. Earl of Slander
6. Duke of Vandals
7. Mrs. Clark
8. Director Denial
9. Reverend Godless
10. The Matchmaker
11. Sister Vigilante
12. Chef Assassin
13. Comrade Snarky
14. Agent Tattletale
15. The Missing Link
16. The Countess Foresight
17. The Baroness Frostbite
18. Miss Sneezy
19. Mr. Whittier

Haunted is made up of these short stories that explained something about the character telling it. These stories actually felt like real things that could happen in real life. Especially Saint Gut-Free's tale. I had to stop and remind myself that the "facts" in that story aren't really facts, at least I hope they're not. There is an unnamed narrator, but the characters take turns narrating their stories. I like how to all flowed together as the narration changed. It was never confusing, in fact it kept me more involved in the story. When I first started reading Haunted, I thought the short stories were backstories to how they got their nickname, but that changed as I read more. The last few chapters really revealed the theme of Haunted, "Every story is a ghost." It became very clear and I actually left sympathy for the characters in the story. My eyes were opened wide and I finally got it. I also got a little skeeved out. The twist in Haunted came to me when I became aware of the theme. There might have been a bigger, better twist, but I didn't notice. Maybe you will.

Palahniuk have a tendency to have more than one storyline going and they all come together when the twist happens. In Haunted, it's no different, but I did feel as if even more was going on because of all the different characters and all the different twists and turns the story takes. It wasn't as funny as the other Palahniuk novels I've read, but has its very own brand of humor and you have to be a fan of Palahniuk to really enjoy it, which I did.

What I really enjoyed about Haunted was the repetition of the writers being "The camera behind the camera behind the camera" and that they were writing stories. Their twisted goal of wanting to be famous is similar to me wanting to be famous for my stories. Although I don't want to become famous the same way they become famous. 

Haunted was such an unsettling novel and I don't mean that in a bad way. I loved how unconventional it was and the myriad of characters and all their personalities. It had a similar feeling to Lullaby because of the off putting-ness.

I'm sorry if this review was riddled with spoilers. I tried not to go too in depth about what happens while trying to tell you about Haunted. I don't think I've ruined it. Maybe I gave you some more things to think about while you read Haunted and you can form a better opinion about it. Writing this review was like writing my review of Rant. However I think my review of Rant was better, probably.

I recommend Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk if you want to read a Palahniuk novel unlike any other.