Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

11 reviews

semisinful's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I expected this to be a hard read but boy oh boy did I not expect just how hard of a read it was going to be. The first time I tried reading this I gave up three chapters in because the violent descriptions and the talk of how to make homemade explosives gave me that weird phantom pain in my knees. But this time I pushed forward and got through the whole book. I love the movie, it’s one of my favourite movies. But it was far more difficult to actually be in the narrator’s head the way you are in a book versus how it is watching it in a movie. 

Man some of this was really hard to swallow. I loved it though. It was so brutal but it felt incredibly authentic. My problem with a lot of books this brutal is inauthenticity. This was great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

fujiopples's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Palahniuk might not say this book is gay, but it is actually one of the gayest books I've ever read.

1. The fact that the narrator calls his lye scar "Tyler's kiss" throughout the entire book?? 2. The fact that he literally says "I want Tyler"??? gay as hell.

This is a Teenage Boy book and I mean that in the best way possible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, and Alcohol

elwh's review against another edition

dark reflective tense

4.25

Interesting to see the differences between the book and the movie. The lengths at which the narrator and Tyler go to destroy each other is greater here. I liked the movie more, but always love having another medium to engage with a story that puts my thoughts in a full nelson. Would not recommend listening to the audiobook while drifting in and out of sleep…your subconscious might take notes. (But seriously, the repetition makes it difficult to track where you fell asleep.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Addiction, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

frannieman's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

12_gon's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

'gotta admit! love to fight club, but we only fight club outside... '

Palahniuk tunes Intersectional Feminism to young men lost in the dissonant notes of white male rage and mommy issues. As the reader wanders through the protaganist's self-harm adventure stealing the pain of others and discovering the highs of sleep-deprived mania, we meet Marla and Tyler.

See, Tyler is how the quiet, polite boy ignored by his mom, turns into the schizophrenic mass shooter. Tyler tells the protaganist about Caste Necropolitics patriarchy CAPITALISM$$$ "You see reader, us guy bros who like know about Ruby Ridge, can see past the bedtimes and sobriety the (m)asses are so fond of hehe.. like communism could just work if us genetically superior MEN(!!!) just destroyed everything! Then us group of guys undergoing psychosis cause we haven't slept in a bit, can solve the Jewish CAPITALISM$$$ question... OwO x3"

Like terrorism, but way cooler cause our Turner Diaries is the Communist Manifesto BAYBEE!

The book's appeal to me has evolved over the year's. I enjoy Palahniuk's embrace of psychosis and the "sad clown" ending of Tyler winning terrorism. A lot of people pretend they read the book, when they just watched the movie and probably didn't think about it much. In the book, when you don't sleep, self-harm (beat yourself up hehe [cause Fight Club]); you become abusive to the point of homicide. You know, the bad guy. Palahniuk is pretty literal, and meth psychosis is well-known in the seedier parts of the LGBTQ community. Ask around. The prose is very accurate, but not precise. Which I find the fear of failure mirrors poetically in Realistic Horror. The absurdity mirrors survivor's guilt. It'll grow with you.

Sucks for Bob though. RIP... hmmm... you ever think the guy with tits, no balls, and who spent the first two weeks in-utero as a female fetus like every human does might be a woman? Well I'm not going read his chromosomes or diary, so yeah.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

necroplasm's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

picked this one up bc i really enjoyed the movie and was curious what the book was like! while overall i still like the movie more bc i feel it trimmed what little fat the book had while also making some of the more abstract plot moments a little more understandable, the book is definitely worth reading too. somehow even gayer than the movie, which makes sense considering what i know about the author but it was still a nice bonus to me lmao

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

nb_leftist's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It seems to be a commentary on white supremacist right wing extremist movements and how they’re fucking idiotic, but I can’t tell if that’s what the author meant it as or not. I don’t think it really matters cause there’s not one specific thing that a story can mean and in the afterword Palahniuk even writes about how he kind of just wrote it. Either way it’s definitely a good piece of writing. It keeps you interested and it keeps moving throughout. I finished it in probably 2-3 hours and it felt like 30 minutes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

gniu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

ellagewerwhite's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Car accident, and Alcohol

sandybree7's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder