While not as torture-porn as I was dreading, still dark as hell.

If you liked Fight Club, you'll get this story pretty well... The narrator's sanity comes into question and the reader has to decide what to believe and what to save for later.

While I liked the overall plot idea, I just couldn't follow some of the story, as in why total strangers were motivated to con someone, or why [ insert plot twist here ] happened. I get the overall plan, but without SOME kind of help I don't know why Deep State agent was on a sit-com? No, I'm not explaining that, just read the damn book.

The prose still carries it for me. Palahniuk looks at the darkest side of humanity because like it or not that side of us still exists.

**I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another mind melter from Chuck.
The premise is so outrageous and the scenarios so revolting that if he didn’t create characters that were so fun, flawed, and fascinating it might be too much to take. For a fan of Palahniuk’s work, it’s just right!
Highly recommended.

I've read most of Palahniuk's books, and I'll continue to read them. But I had to put this one aside. Maybe it's because children are involved. Maybe it's because the world is just too dark right now. He's still brilliant, twisted, and bonkers. Most of the time, I fully dig that. Perhaps I'll revisit this later. Or maybe I outgrew the self that could look past the brutality and sickness to simply enjoy the sheer talent on display.

I love this author. I have no idea where he comes up with his ideas, but they are all really unique. Every book, while having a similar voice, is totally different from all of the others.

Foster is still looking for his missing child, seventeen years later. He has it in his head that she was kidnapped by child pornographers (because that's the obvious conclusion, right?). I'm just going to stop there because I don't want to ruin the surprise. It's much better if you don't know.

Mitzi is a sound artist. She drinks a lot. She does some drugs. And she's on a quest to find the perfect scream. And maybe she's not totally sure what happens when she has someone tied up in her sound studio. How's that for a sound bite (story bite, whatever)?

Do you ever just finish a book and feel like you’re better for having read it? It didn’t just entertain you, but you learned something. That’s how I feel every time I read a Palahniuk book. I always leave feeling fulfilled and entertained but also more knowledgeable. I think that’s pretty fucking awesome.

There’s something about the way Palahniuk writes women that reminds me of how Vonnegut writes women in that they’re great. I loved Mitzi and Blush - they were the real stars of this piece. Them, the spectacular writing, the comedic timing, the fact that this book had NO CHAPTERS just three distinct parts, and the captivating story all shined here.

A+ on the newest addition to the Palahniuk library. I give The Invention of Sound a 9.5/10!

This is the first Palahniuk book I’ve wanted to read in ages and it was a bit of a let down. The premise sounded great but the story and characters just didn’t work out for me. Lots of plot holes and wtf moments but not in a good way. Just too messy for me.

Gates Foster's daughter, Lucinda went missing 17 years ago. Gates has never stopped looking for her or believing she was still alive. He attends a child lose group with pretty much the closest thing he was to a friend, Ross. Ross lost his son when he was still a toddler. Pretty much all Foster does in live is based on Lucinda and his desire to find out what happened to her. This obsession, if you will, leads him to Mitzi. Mitzi is a foley artist who specializes in developing screams for Hollywood movies. These two very different people are connected by Lucinda and when their paths meet that's when things really get weird. As if the entire book was not weird. I mean come-on, this a Chuck Palahniuk book. If you love Chuck's books, yes this is a true Chuck book and you will not be disappointed.

I used to be quite a big Chuck Palahniuk fan, my first books being Survivor and Fight Club. I read his first few books like they were the best horror literature that I’ve ever read. I read most of his earlier stuff, but quit around the time when he wrote the book about the guy waiting in line for the porn star who trying to set the world record for sleeping with the most people in a row. I kind of felt Chuck Palahniuk is for the young, and I had aged out of enjoying his new work. I still had fond memories of many of his books, particularly Haunted and Choke.

Fast forward to over a decade later. His new novel, “The Invention of Sound” is coming out by his new publisher, Grand Central Publishing, and I was thinking, “Maybe I should give him a try again. See what he’s up to.” I requested the ARC, and after a few days of reading, I knew that maybe it was time for me to pay attention to him again. “The Invention of Sound” is two stories that eventually intertwine. The first is Gates Foster trying to find his daughter, whom disappeared seventeen years earlier. He is kind of going crazy with grief, thinking that many little girls are actually his Lucy, even though Lucy would be much older than his memory of her. He spends his life trying to find her and trying to capture sex trafficers on the internet. The second story is Mitzi Ives, a person who works for Hollywood, selling screams to film productions. These screams are farmed with her special techniques, passed down to her by her father. Mitzi is a mess of a person, and the entire book seems to be her trying to find something other than herself to hold onto. These two stories crash into each other, and the novel feels like all of the characters are in a car, speeding toward a brick wall.

I did not know that this was how Palahniuk is writing now. There is still the crazy, shock horror elements, and some of themes still seem to be about longing to belong and creating a space in a society that does not exactly what to give you that space, but there is also a maturity here that I do not recognize from some of his later works that I had read. It feels like Palahniuk might have realized that his audience is growing up, and instead of trying to go with “let’s overthrow the corporate structure,” like in Fight Club, it is “let’s prey on the biggest fears of parents and adults.” This can be the novel that brings back those older fans that have strayed away from his works while continuing to satisfy everyone with the shock and horror that he has brought since the beginning. I know that I will start following his works closely again because I feel like he is maturing with his audience.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another creepy spine-tingler from Chuck Palahniuk, although his books are original, this premise felt more so and I'll never feel the same about movies especially horror movies again. A foley artist (sound designer) for horror films uses the real screams of murder victims in her horror films. Truly frightening.

I am a Chuck Palahniuk fan. I would have stopped reading this early on but for being a Palahniuk fan. I cannot recommend this book to anyone who is not already a Palahniuk fan. Horrifying, sadistic, just too disturbing. (And what’s with the odd, distracting, Shelly Winters-type Yiddish syntax?)

DNF.

Let me be clear: Every so often, I enjoy a good Chuck Palahniuk story. I wanted to like this one. Really, I did. The early reviews had my literary chops watering.

Only to be let down.

The story is compelling, the plot clever. Characters…so-so.

But, Chuck took to writing like Yoda, he did.

I don’t understand it–maybe it’s just an author trying to “break the rules” since he’s thoroughly learned them, but I found it to be very annoying. Too annoying to finish reading the damn book.

I don’t have much more to say about this one because I really couldn’t handle every few sentences reading like they were crafted by Yoda. If this is his new style, I’ll have to count myself out of future Palahniuk novels.

Want to like, I did. Enjoy, I did not.

Special thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this title.

If you have ever read a book by Palahniuk before, then you know what you're in for. I loved the premise of the book, and it was just as his other books are - pure horror and really great writing. Be warned if this is your first book by Palahniuk, you are in for some real gruesome stuff. But in a good way!

It's been several years since I've read a Chuck Palahniuk book but it seems his writing is just as twisted as it's ever been. This horror novel explores some sick ways that a Foley artist gets his sounds for movies. There are some interesting sub plots that tie the story together for a crazy twisted ending. If you enjoy horror this book will be right upyour alley,

I really didn't think Chuck had this in him.
This book is as twisted and fucked up as his early work like LULLABY (in fact, it feels like a spiritual sequel to that novel in particular). It's truly a horror novel, although you wouldn't necessarily know it from the jacket copy. It's been a long time, probably since RANT or maybe HAUNTED that Chuck turned my stomach like this -- and while I'm a very different person over a decade later, and the world is much darker and I'm maybe not so willing to have my stomach turned like this... I can't help but admit that it felt a dark-kind-of-good, too. I'm glad I gave this a shot (particularly after the disaster of ADJUSTMENT DAY). I don't know if Chuck'll keep it up in the years to come, but he's still managed to keep me on the hook with this one.

Classic Palahniuk. A fast-paced story, with a plot that is filled with mind melting layers. It will be a title I highly recommend for fans of Chuck, and will cautiously recommend to anyone not familiar with his previous work.

Is there something wrong with Chuck Palahniuk? Probably. But he really channels it into the right place. I was interested in this one because 1. I've read many of his other books and 2. my husband is interested in the stuff the foley artist in this book does. This one was weird but not AS WEIRD as some of his previous books, so if you're into his more stable books, this is a good choice.

Chuck Palahniuk is warped in all the most amazing ways. His books leave me with crazy fever dreams long after reading. This novel gave me similar vibes to Marisha Pessl’s Night Film (which I loved and was another novel with a lingering creep factor).

The Invention of Sound is a Chuck Palahniuk acid trip for a Hollywood junkie. Like Mitzi and her George Hodel-like father before her with their obsessive and unmatchable -- nearly supernatural but definitely more than movie magic -- gifts for the art of Foley, Plahniuk layers his story with angry, desperate, exquisitely flawed characters and fascinating tidbits about the world of sound recording. If I've overloaded the lede with descriptives, it's because I'm still tripping through the sinister Hollywood/Deep State of the novel. Palahniuk captures our shared desire/coping mechanism of starring in the movie of our own lives, or perhaps our lives being a movie. In addition, he fearlessly tackles the universal question of what happens at the moment of death. His skill keeps the reader balanced just behind and chasing the key to unlock the mystery and this reader could not put down the book. Warning: this one may not be for the clinically paranoid. The run-of-the-mill conspiracy buff, on the other hand, should have at it. A joyful, chilling thrill ride. Read This Book.

Chuck Palahniuk delivers another bracing novel that is not for the faint of literary heart. This is an author who takes the right and wrong of the world and spins all into ironic stories. The Invention of Sound is yet another in a line of novels that examine the world through Palahniuk's often dark funhouse mirror.

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC. You never know what to expect from a Palahniuk novel except that it usually scares the bejeebers out of you. I am not sure if this is scary or just plain weird. One of the main characters is trying to find what happened to his daughter who he thinks was abducted by a child pornographer, while the other protagonist works on perfecting the sounds for movies like screams, and more screams.... Needless to say, their paths must cross.