This book did not work for me. It was disjointed and took me about halfway through the book before I understood the plot. By that point, I was no longer interested in the book.

All you need to know is: Chuck Palahniuk. This is true to his style and was so weird, yet so good. Proceed with caution, but do proceed.

I envy anyone who understands a chuck book from start to finish. There were definitely gaps where I was completely confused but eventually things fused together and made sense. I really enjoyed this one. I felt it was a more digestible book of his that even my brain could somewhat follow. The whole plot was fascinating and I was completely hooked. The way his brain operates is mesmerizing.

This is one of those books that I struggle immensely to review. For the bulk of this book I was wildly confused. This is seemingly intentional on Palahniuk’s part and despite my stupefaction, I couldn’t stop reading.

I’m not even going to pretend like I can give a mini synopsis. This one is *wild*. There’s a theme of drugs being infused into books and this reads like a full fledged acid trip. There are so many various interludes and side notes and the book almost gives whiplash as you’re trying to gather everything. In typical Palahniuk fashion we’re given tons of interesting tidbits and the themes presented in the book are nailed as usual.

The imagery in the book is vivid. From the stained glass climbing wall to licorice scented green sludge, the reader is given so much to set the scene. The book is all over the place and it can be hard to comment on the pacing.

The characters were mostly detestable but Samantha was pretty great. War Dog was another fun one but that’s one sliver of the story that felt incomplete.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. The narrative is balls to the walls crazy so it’s going to likely be a struggle for readers who vibe with more traditional, linear storytelling. This one will stick with me for a bit.

I have read almost everything Palahniuk has ever written with gusto, but I feel like his last 2-3 books have been semi-disappointing. This book definitely reads like a Palahniuk novel; I just feel like it lacks substance. A lot of the plot was confusing to me at first, so hopefully a second read upon publication will help me out. I'll still read anything he publishes, I just hope his plot lines get back to how they felt in Haunted or Invisible Monsters.

I love Chuck Palahniuk books, I collect them, I hoard them, I recommend them. this one was too out there for my brain. I struggled through it, even though I only understood a quarter of what was going on. It's not unreadable, and maybe I'm just not the audience for it. Some C. P. books are not created equally.

This thought-provoking work delves into the deep-rooted societal structures that shape our lives from birth, influenced by our parents’ experiences and beliefs. It examines critical aspects such as education and social class, revealing the layers of ignorance that often cloud our understanding of the world.

The psychedelic elements throughout the book intensify its exploration of consciousness, suggesting that we are all somewhat mad in this intricate reality. Yet, it offers a sense of hope, emphasizing how literature and life experiences provide pathways to escape and deeper insight.

The author’s ability to intertwine these themes encourages readers to question their perceptions and challenge the norms they've inherited. This book is a compelling invitation to examine the fabric of our daily lives and the potential for transformation through awareness. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the intersections of society, consciousness, and personal growth.

This was the right type of "unhinged" that I look for in a Chuck Palahniuk book! High schoolers who are being vetted by billionaires to owe their life to them for more money than they could imagine. They must make a choice: follow their dreams or become insanely wealthy and be at the beck and call of a billionaire. Chuck's language in this book was fantastic and he definitely did not disappoint on this particular book!

I've been a fan of Chuck Palahniuk since Fight Club. I have followed his books ever since. I will say that the books have kept my interest over the years. With the addition of the last 2-3 novels, I've felt my enthusiasm of Palahniuk's books starting to wain.

Shock Induction is the latest in this observation.

I was looking forward to this book just based on the description alone. But as I read more and more of this book, I became confused. The book felt all over the place and it was hard to follow the main plot of the novel. By the time I got to the end of the book, I was left even more confused by what I had just read.

I don't want to give up on Palahniuk but his most recent novels have just not been what I'm used to from this author.

Okay then….. I actually don’t know if I’m smart enough to read his books. I was lost for most of it but I powered through. I will wait to research this on Reddit to see if smarter people make any more sense of this than I can. I mean I get it.. but I don’t. The synopsis was everything, the actual book was too much?? Idk if you haven’t read anything from this author before.. don’t start here. He is brilliant but at what cost?? If you can make sense of this book ignore this review okay thanks.
I’m giving this a 4 but I really mean 3.

Thanks for the arc!

Boy this book was trippy as hell! I've never read from this author before, but obviously I know he wrote the novel, "Fight Club" and other beloved books. This book went over my head for the majority of it. I'm glad it was a quick and brisk read. I don't think I quite understood about 50% of what was going on, but I still enjoyed my time reading this bonkers of a book. This author's writing style is unique, also his storytelling is quite impressive as well. I don't know if I'll read this author again, but he's definitely got a gift for the eccentric.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this novel about the future, the past, our time and alternate time, and the weirdness that we accept in order to get ahead.

In many ways our reality seems much like a Chuck Palahniuk novel. A conspiracy theory that has embraced by many about the long dead son of American presidential royalty returning to save the chosen people from the paedophiles that run both Hollywood and pizza parlors. A candidate for president telling his followers in a speech that America doesn't have a gun problem, while talking from behind ballistic proof shielding, while many people doubt that there really was an assassination attempt on this candidate. A false flag of bad actors, equals fake news. Doubts about a global pandemic, while another one waits in the wings, with the word monkey in the title. I swear I read this book years ago. As usual Chuck Palahniuk is ahead of the zeitgeist, reality seeming like fiction, fiction becoming real as we read it or watch it. And it only gets stranger from here. Shock Induction is a look at a possible future, a future that seems if at all possible weirder, loaded with more tech-foolery, and lots of new ways to control people, and exploit the dreams and desires of another generation.

The book begins with a warning not to touch one's eyes or mouth as one reads this book, just in case one is exposed to a brand new drug that fills the pages. Also if one has a desire to read Moby Dick, one should see a physician, especially if this need persists. From here we met our hero Samantha Deel, who has been dealt a bad hand in the family sense. Deel's uncle once forgot a word, that left him with a record and a listing on a registry. Deel's mom has a problem with addiction of all kinds, and her father saved a suicide victim by shooting him while hunting. Samantha also has done the unthinkable of kicking out the stained glass from her church, pane by pane trying to free a hummingbird, something not her fault, as the church door should have been closed. At least that is what she thinks. There is also a school, a school where the kids are promised a great future, and all the wealth they need, but is having a problem as many of these kids are dying of suicide, in novel ways. Also that drug I mentioned at the beginning might be a bit of a problem.

Chuck Palahniuk is known for his plots that go to places that few want to admit exist, and that many are better off not knowing about. This one is no exception, a story that is told in bits and parts, part hallucinogenic, part encyclopedia like in detailing ways to commit harm to one's self and delightful other facts. This is probably not the book to give to people who have never read Chuck Palahniuk before. This is a novel that demands a lot of giving of control, to follow along and trust the author to be right, be fair and explain things, though it might take a while. Some excursions in the book go well of the highway deep into the desert where strange rites are performed, before coming back to the main story. There are a lot of themes touched on. The wealth gap, the drugging of children for education, the dumbing down of education. And of course a lot of weird.

A book that might divide fans, but one I enjoyed. I love the weird, the strange divergence into facts that don't seem to be about anything, but suddenly make sense. Chuck Palahniuk's version of the world is a little dark, and a lot creepy, but not so different than one sees on social media. Welcome to the future.

I'm a big fan of this author. Since I was 20ish and Fight Club came out. There have been books of his I've loved and some I just liked. I always respect his craft. I was excited when he came to Cumboa when I attended to do a reading and I had him sign my copy of Survivor. This book, well novella- really, is harder to quantify this way. This is an adbsurdist, experimental, nihilistic parable. Kind of like Candide meets Black Mirror take on the state of America, especially its education system, reliance on drugs, and "well-meaning" governmental intervention. If you loved Inception you will love this book. It too reveals itself as it goes, having the reader re-imagine what they thought was true. It also has an ending which can be interpreted in different ways.

I'm glad I read this book. I think I would like it more and understand it more if I read it again, but I don't think I want to. 3.5 stars. Worth a read and I will read his next book too. This would make a great class for a college course with Farrenheit 451. Thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

It had been far too long since I'd read a Chuck Palahniuk novel and Shock Induction reminded me that I have been missing out on his unique and incisive writing style.

Shock Induction explores a phenomenon where incredibly bright teens are committing suicide at an alarming rate, and we soon find out the culprit behind this is an organization called Greener Pastures, that auctions teens off to the highest bidder to become influential members of society at the highest levels. We follow Sam Deel and Garson Stavros down the rabbit hole as they are inducted into this world. Along the way, Palahniuk provides us excerpts from A Guide to Greener Pastures, full of stories of families and their efforts to get into the institution, and we read testimony about the ESE program, a project designed to get more teens literate by infusing books with different manners of substances so that you directly experience what happens in the book. These interludes are all in the name of Shock Induction.

Despite the fact that I'm not entirely sure I understood the whole book, I was down for the ride. I found myself googling items from the book like "Jim Carrey syphilis" and "Self-Amputation of Penis and Tongue after use of Angel’s Trumpet" two things I was rather horrified to find were entirely true, but I should not have been surprised. I was really invested in Sam's journey throughout the book and why she had been selected to go Greener Pastures. I also very much appreciated the broader critique of the commodification of every single thing and experience.

Overall, I definitely recommend the book - if you've enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk's writing before, you'll feel right at home.

I really wanted to love this. I’ve been a fan of Chuck Palanihuk for years so when I saw Shock Induction on NetGalley, I really wanted to read it. Unfortunately, I often found myself very confused and unable to follow the storyline and how things were relating to one another. I did like that he included his typical dark humor and witty prose as is to be expected from Palanihuk but overall, this one left me a bit bummed.

What a cover!
Shock Induction introduces us to a strange strange dystopian story. The smartest high school students at a special school are disappearing, apparent suicides. It's almost a daily occurance. Palahniuk introduces a twist - the students are being surveilled - always - by billionaires scouting talent. It's a scary story that is a little too close to the contemporary high school rat race to be honest! A new writing style sometimes lost me, but I enjoyed the premise and love anything from Palahniuk's dark mind!

#simonandschuster #shockinduction #chuckpalahniuk

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and especially Mr. Palahniuk for this eARC of Shock Induction.

I'll start by saying that my last review of one of Mr. Palahniuk's books left me less-than-enthused for another; Not Forever but For Now was simply awful. I was so grateful then to get my hands on Shock Induction and see - if not a true return-to-form, certainly a return-to-enjoyability and appropriate risk taking.

His characters are more fully developed: Samantha, our lead protagonist, is particularly delightful. The fever-dream-esque narrative was a bit jarring, but somehow I struggled to put the book down for the majority of my readthrough.

If you're okay with a bit of 'what on earth is happening now?' and being left with many questions, this may be the book for you. I certainly enjoyed it. But if the midseason finale of "The Black Tapes" or the absurdity of "A Scanner Darkly" left you unfulfilled, this may be one to pass up.

It is hard to review Palahniuk. While I loved the style of the writing (quirky, throwing in other literary references, written in short chunks), this story is still lackluster. Maybe too much of the story is just going over my head but I was often annoyed and just "didn't get it". There are a lot of good (satirical) points made about the US Education system amongst other issues. But I never felt devoted to the main character Samantha and what this larger system of Greener Pastures even meant.

As with all of Chuck Palahnuik’s books I either loved it (give me Invisible Monsters, give me Fight Club, give me Choke) or it went right over my head. This one was a miss for me it may have been in the somewhat confusing execution or in my, sometimes, completely unfocused brain. The concept was fascinating but I just couldn’t follow what was happening, but it was still interesting. I’d say give it a try, especially if you’ve loved his other works, truly he’s a genius.

This is actually the first Chuck Palahniuk book I have read and wow, what an absolutely confusing book to review. This book says a lot about our modern day society, maybe too much. The first half of the book was hard to get through, the in and out of the main story with references, quotes from all sorts of novels & research, and side character plots was disjointed, playing very well to the result of the book that was intended. The second half was some of the most creative and brilliant writing I have seen - it felt new and the aspects that weren't working for me really started to make it meaningful and thought-provoking - so don't give up on this book if you don't like it initially. The content of this book was really rough at times and I am not sure it was warranted, the focus felt off for me and it did detract from the excellence of the book in my opinion. This is a book that will stick with you and you will think about for awhile after. The polarizing reviews are no surprise but if you know what you are getting in to, it is an interesting and profoundly timely read.