In this one Palahniuk takes on late stage capitalism, the many pitfalls of the American education system, oligarchy, and the commodification of children. As usual, I love his use of literary devices to keep things focused and moving along, and I'm disgusted, shocked, and angry about some of the things I've read. I'm also thrilled to my core at some of the revelations carefully laced into this book. See what I did there? Go wash your hands.

I'm not sure why I expected much from this novel. I'm waiting for Chuck Palahniuk to produce something that doesn't reach to ridiculous extremes. The overall story was ok, but I really wanted less shock factor and more plot building.

I loved this book and was enthralled with the writing. I loved the character study. Would read more from the author!

For fans of Chuck Palahniuk, this book will not disappoint. Fun facts, interesting characters, and a book whose plot moves breezily along.

Palahniuk has produced a distinctly weird novel. His fans will love it. Those who really want to think will love it. I maybe loved it. Young people with enormous potential become a commodity in this dystopian story, where, for a huge payout, they can be removed from their lives and cast in any role the highest bidder wants them for. In a messed up system the lives of children are lifelong mind games to groom their responses to be certain way, and the results are brutal, grim, and graphic. This book features, self harm, child death, murder, maiming, and more, and operates on multiple levels. I don't think I understood all levels of it, but I look forward to think pieces explaining this weird and detailed novel.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Chuck Palahniuk’s Shock Induction is a dark, satirical exploration of a dystopian future where meritocracy and ambition have spiraled into a nightmarish reality. Known for his provocative and unflinching storytelling, Palahniuk once again challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about society, success, and the human condition.

Set in a near-future America, Shock Induction follows the lives of high school students who are under constant surveillance by an ominous online service called “Greener Pastures.” This service monitors and measures their every move, from academic achievements to extracurricular activities, with the ultimate goal of auctioning off the brightest minds to the highest bidders. The stakes are high: a life of luxury and servitude to the world’s elite or the risk of following one’s true passions.

The novel’s protagonist, Samantha Deel, is a standout character. Destined for greatness yet yearning for a simpler life, Samantha’s journey is both harrowing and inspiring. Her struggle against the oppressive system and her quest for personal freedom form the emotional core of the story. Alongside her is Garson, her once-dead boyfriend, and War Dog, a gender-bent interventionist, who add layers of complexity and intrigue to the narrative.

Palahniuk’s writing is as sharp and incisive as ever. He blends elements of classic literature with his own unique brand of dark humor. The result is a novel that is intellectually stimulating and deeply unsettling.

The themes of Shock Induction are timely and thought-provoking. Palahniuk examines the cost of ambition, the illusion of free will, and the ethical implications of a society that commodifies its youth. The novel’s dystopian setting serves as a stark warning about the dangers of unchecked technological advancement and the dehumanization that can result from it.

Shock Induction is a powerful and unsettling read that will leave a lasting impression. Chuck Palahniuk has crafted a novel that is both a thrilling dystopian tale and a poignant critique of modern society. Fans of Palahniuk’s previous works will find much to appreciate here, and new readers will be drawn into his darkly imaginative world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC.

I had no idea what to expect with this book nor did I have any idea what kind of reading journey Palahniuk was about to take me on. The writing in this book is so unique and different and I really found that to be so appealing. It was not always easy to get through but I really did find myself sitting at the end wondering what on earth did I just read in the best way.

This was really out there for my usual type of read. I have to say, if I ever see the word "avacado" anywhere from here on out, I will always think of this book. This was different, to say the least, but in a good way. Satirical but thought-provoking and a bit confusing at times, I couldn't help but love this. If you are looking for a unique read to really immerse yourself in that you find yourself wondering what the heck you just read, this one is for you. Four stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Simon and Schuster, for this ARC.

After the shitshow that was Not Forever, But For Now, I was worried that Chuck lost his touch. But boy, is that not the case. This is definitely in my top 5 favorite Palahniuk books, not to mention one of his most digestible. Most of his books leave me completely lost through 50% of it and I really have to sit and think about what I just read (which I love, that’s a compliment), but I actually followed this one start to finish, and I’m so proud of myself for that 🤣. I love that his books are always a satirical critique on real societal issues, and this one is no exception. His take on the education system and those who hold the most power in this country was both hilarious and terrifying, and done in a way only Palahniuk can do. If you’ve never read him and are looking to start, this is a great place

I am a fan of Chuck Palahniuk's novels, though I feel like they've had diminishing returns since the early 2000s. And I was extremely intrigued by the premise of <i>Shock Induction</i>: overachieving high school students being poached and groomed for power by billionaires so they don't do anything meaningful with their genius (like cure cancer or solve climate change) and instead preserve the status quo? Sign me up! It promised to be a biting satire of capitalism and education, and I eagerly dove in.

But the novel just didn't deliver enough as a satire, as much as I wished it would. The narrative is through the eyes of Sam Deel, a precocious high schooler who's sucked into this seedy world once her boyfriend apparently dies by suicide, but then turns up alive and under the influence of a secret society called Greener Pastures. The parts where she grapples with the system of educational institutions and corporations colluding to poach the top 10% and use the rest for fodder were great, and there were many segments that so strongly resonated in Palahniuk's voice.

Ultimately, though, there's a very meta plot thread of <spoiler>drugs being administered through the pages of books</i> that undercuts a lot of the satirical elements of the novel. If all of this is a meta exercise in narrative and not being able to break free to exert free will (since the story is already written), then why root for anyone to overcome the system? Maybe that's the point. But I did feel like <i>Shock Induction</i> is trying to balance one too many motif-balls, and a few fall down as a result. I give this one 3.5/5 stars.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for my copy of SHOCK INDUCTION. This one is out October 8.

I think my time with Chuck has come to an end. I used to get so excited when a new one came out, but I keep getting let down. This one I don't recommend. Maybe it's me, maybe Chuck was good for me twenty years ago, but not so much now. I do not recommend this one.

I finished this less than 36 hours ago, and yet I find myself unable to recall specific events or plot points. The story is there, the characters move about, but the plot, itself, is not particularly memorable.

What has stuck with me, however, are the themes and style. It's no secret that Palahniuk has lost his way a bit (to put it mildly) in his last few books, but Shock Induction is a return to the style that made him a transgressional punk icon in the 90s. This book is fragmented and purposefully disorienting to feed into the themes of mindlessness and brainrot, to steal a Gen Alpha term, that is now so typical: we are inundated with information, no matter how banal or inane, as we scroll and consume that we're constantly being marketed to or groomed or hypnotized into a kind of complacency or else an exhausted saturation. How do we break free from that? How do we turn off the noise? (Samantha does it quite literally in an early chapter.)

It's a book with big ideas and clever execution, some of which will likely go over casual readers' heads. For those in search of an absurd, obscene story of ghastly event after ghastly event (a la Invisible Monsters, Not Forever..., etc), Shock Induction will feel boring and confusing. But for those who allow Palahniuk's vision to consume the reading process, it can be rewarding, if not really enjoyable.

I was nervous to read this - I can be a bot of a scaredy cat with horror and gore and I know much of Chuck Palahniuk's work features heavy gore. I was okay reading this, but was often confused. I get that the author was trying to do something kind of meta, but about halfway through, I was barely tracking what was going on.

For readers open to something more experimental, this might be a great read! I just think it didn't come my way at the right time.

**Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the eARC of this title!**

While I would consider Chuck Palahniuk one of my favorite authors - I hate about 20% of books. He is an eccentric and a nihilist and sometimes his books hit the mark perfectly for me. Other times (like with Pygmy - they do not.)

Shock Induction is a fun and fast romp that had all of the normal fever-dream elements that Palahniuk usually employs. Unfrotunately, this was one that didn't quite work for me. I loved the concept and even enjoyed the writing. With the way this book is structured I do feel that I would enjoy this more as a physical copy and think I will give it another go later on.

This one was a bit more disjointed than I could stand with the leaps through time and perspective. I will give this book another try when I am able to give it the focus it deserves. For now, Shock Induction is in the middle ground of Palahniuk's books for me. Definitely better than Snuff and Pygmy, but leaps and bounds behind favorites such as Diary, Invisible Monsters, and Fight Club.

If you are already a fan of this author - give this one a shot and let me know what you think. If you are not - please don't start with this title.

The newest novel by Chuck Palahnuik, Shock Induction, is another of his recent novels that feels like another step away from Fight Club, Choke, Haunted, and the type of novels that brought him fame. The story takes place in 2037, where Samantha Deel is a highschooler, a strong student, and a singer, living with her parents and sex offender uncle. She is the perfect recruit for Greener Pastures, a company that auctions talented kids off to the highest bidder. This is the simplest part of the plot. The rest of the novel is the challenge that Chuck Palahnuik is giving his readers, hoping that he can manipulate them.

Richard Powers in a recent interview says that a book is actually a full circle between the reader, the writer, and the things that the book is trying to say. Palahniuk sees this as the way he is going to write. He is not only telling the story, but he is trying to get a reaction out of the reader, a change in perspective. In this case, it is an attempt at a form of hypnotism that comes from trying to keep track of several different stories swirling around one main story. He also slips into sections of other pieces of classic literature, including The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, Shakespearian plays, Alice in Wonderland, and David Copperfield. (I am sure that I missed some of the references, but these are ones that I caught.) He writes in the very beginning about ERE poisoning and how the government placed drugs on the pages of classic literature to entice people to read it, and keep reading it. Chuck Palahniuk is trying to explain how he feels while reading all of these classic novels, how the words on the pages are like a drug to him, that quickens his heart rate, makes him feel high, and makes him keep turning the pages. He is trying to show the reader that there is value still in those classic stories, and that literature can be hypnotizing and impactful. He is trying to get his readers to follow him.  

There are many elements to this novel that I am sure that I did not catch the first time through. Shock Induction is not only a love letter to reading and to classic literature, but it is a challenge, almost a dare. He is alienating his casual fans and casual readers in general and is doing his best to step away from the person who wrote Fight Club thirty years ago. He has grown as a writer, and he is forcing his readers to grow with him. His last three novels, The Invention of Sound, Not Forever, But for Now, and now Shock Induction is taking him further and further away from his Fight Club origins, and this is something that I have really enjoyed more than some of his other early fans. Maybe his hypnosis is working.

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

Chuck can do no wrong and this is another example of that. Will continue to be a Stan forever. He always does such a good job of disturbing and enticing.

Avocado. Was Chuck Palahniuk trying for a world’s record for the repetition of one word in a novel? “According to Marcel Proust, the writer’s job is to place the reader in a world so terrible, such an unhappy hellscape of overall chaos, that going back to the real world will feel like escaping to a paradise.” For me, reading is an escape and I had to fight hard to continue reading this book. Unfortunately none of the drugs mentioned in this book, that were “baked into these pages” are available in the ebook or audiobook version. Probably not the paper version either but fingers crossed. Only the Enhanced Reader Edition/ERE. “To repeat, while reading these pages, make a special effort not to touch your nose or mouth. Wash your hands frequently with plenty of soap and warm water. If you experience any feelings of lightheadedness, dizziness, confusion, or heightened sexual arousal, please seek immediate medical attention.” But what is this book about? Poisoning, repetition, mind control, cognitive reframing, visual induction, guided meditation, lucid dreaming, dirty talk, pattern repetition, hypnosis, shock induction, sleep walking, body scan meditation, amygdala hijack, and psychonautics. This book was a trip. Maybe upon a second reading, I’ll understand it. ARC was provided by Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I honestly cannot even review this because I was far too dumb to even begin to understand what I just read. This was so jumbled and all over the place that I just gave up trying to figure it out because I had a headache. Very Alice in Wonderland.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for this very underwhelming but honest review

"Want to know another way to induce a hypnotic trance? Shock induction."

Chuck Palahniuk is a master at writing unhinged, bizarre, uncanny works of fiction and his latest work, Shock Induction, is an absolute fever dream.

I was dazed, I was confused, I was absolutely hooked! Shock Induction is odd, to say the least. I wouldn't recommend it to a first time reader of Palahniuk - I'd say start with Dairy or Fight Club instead - but for the avid fan, this will be easy enough to jump into.

Short chapters, random musings, and off the wall tangents fill up the pages of Shock Induction, but for all its chaos I found myself reading it rather quickly. It was short, not too difficult to read, and just quirky enough to keep me invested even when I had absolutely no idea what was going on. All in all, it was a Chuck Palahniuk book - do with that knowledge what you will!

Shock Induction is the 13th Chuck Palahniuk book I’ve read. Chuck was a big part of what made me a reader in my high school and college years, and honestly probably one of the first authors to get me into “weird lit.” So, naturally I was excited to hear that he was coming out with a new book & to be approved for the ARC!

Shock Induction is without a doubt a Chuck Palahniuk book. I spent a good portion of this book thinking “wtf is going on?” And in this case, I think in some ways that worked, and in some ways it didn’t.

The positives: there’s a lot of absurdity here that I found hilarious. For example, the word “avocado” repeated for literal pages. A chapter that reads in its entirety: “psych!” This book is also geared largely towards people who love to read! A big part of the plot leads to full passages from classic novels like Moby Dick, David Copperfield and more - but with minor detail changes - and I found these to be fun little nuggets.

However, the negatives: while I appreciated the topics tackled by Palahniuk in this book (book banning, media literacy, capitalism & the control major corporations have over us), the approach felt disjointed. At times, it almost felt like there were two solid ideas for stories here that Palahniuk tried to knit into one.

On the one hand, the chaotic energy is what I’ve come to expect from Palahniuk and made this novel a fun ride. On the other, I’ve read more cohesive novels from Palahniuk and think this could’ve used just a little bit more of that as well.