how pathetic would a person have to be to do that ?

I'm reading The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson. Its actually pretty disturbing, right up there with my favorites.

Haha, I'm not sure. Some of things he writes are pretty gross, but they mostly made laugh more than want to puke. Guess some people just have weak stomachs.

Especially Haunted. I actually love Chuck, but that book was so horrible I had to put it down (no offense, Chat). He simply does not have the writer's talent to pull off multiple character voices... I thought that the book would be interesting... But he was just trying to be as repulsive as humanly possible... Which is fine, but I'd like it from someone who can actually write. I felt like I was reading the notes and rantings of a bored sadistic high school boy.

Ouch! Tough crowd.

www.DunbarAuthor.com

Hey, I like Chuck... he was just reaching way too out of his league with Haunted. The concept was locking would-be writers away (not unlike Shelley's writing Frankenstein) and reading all of their stories. If you are going to show "stories" from different character, then each voice has to be different and distinct... But he's just not that talented. Each story had the same voice, the same formula, the same type of twist. And, if I recall correctly, each chapter was introduced with a seriously melodramatic and not well-envisioned poem describing the speaker/character on the stage... I was embarrassed that this book actually got published.

I'll agree with you about the poems that started each chapter. They could have been left out. It definitely had it's flaws, but I was still entertained by it. I actually liked Haunted a lot better than Diary. Those are the only two of his I've read, but I've been meaning to check out Choke and Rant.

Diary I haven't read, though I've been curious about it for quite some time.

I thought that Fight Club was great, but I had seen the movie first and Fincher adapted the book to a T (except for the end and a rather memorable scene in a broken down bus), so I felt that, even though I was reading it for the first time, I had already read it (and, to tell you the truth, I liked the end in the movie better).

Choke was actually really good; if you liked Haunted, I think that you'll love Choke; I find it more inventive (Chuck has this innate knack of just being ridiculously clever) and definitely better-written. And the shock-value parts, to me, seemed to fit in better with Choke than with Haunted (in Haunted I felt as though he were trying too hard just to gross people out as opposed to use torture and gore as a means to an end).

Lullaby is a personal favorite of a friend of mine's, though I have to say that, after he talked it up to me I was rather disappointed... I think that the concept behind it is brilliant, though all of the characters really annoyed me (which I guess is kinda the point)... You might enjoy it, though; if you liked Haunted, I think that you'll like Lullaby (and, again, it's a HUGE favorite of a friend of mine, so I think it's worth recommending to Chuck fans, even though I didn't care for it much myself.

Rant I know nothing about. I'll have to pick it up.

...

Back to book recommendations, Choke made me think of Train Spotting which, as a book was absolutely fantastic. I love the movie, but I thought that the novel itself was colorful and brilliant (Choke makes me think of Train Spotting because I read them consecutively).

Try anything by Brian Keene or Steve Gerlach...both brilliant writers