Damned

Chuck Palahniuk

Oct 2011 · Sold by Anchor

About this ebook

“As gleefully, vividly, hilariously obscene as you'd expect. . . . Irreverent and hugely entertaining." —NPR

From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a dark and brilliant satire about adolescence, Hell, and the Devil.  
 
Madison is the thirteen-year-old daughter of a narcissistic film star and a billionaire. Abandoned at her Swiss boarding school over Christmas, she dies over the holiday, presumably of a marijuana overdose. The last thing she remembers is getting into a town car and falling asleep. Then she's waking up in Hell. Literally. Madison soon finds that she shares a cell with a motley crew of young sinners: a cheerleader, a jock, a nerd, and a punk rocker, united by their doomed fate, like an afterschool detention for the damned. Together they form an odd coalition and march across the unspeakable landscape of Hell--full of used diapers, dandruff, WiFi blackout spots, evil historical figures, and one horrific call center--to confront the Devil himself.

Ratings and reviews

Not Chuck's best, but definitely not his worst. Actually it's his best book since Rant (which, besides Haunted, isn't saying much). Damned made me laugh out loud with it's clever take on modern Hollywood, but much of the book felt as if it had no real purpose. Madison was not an ideal protagonist, and the ending bugged me because I felt that only a few more chapters could have completed the story. An entertaining read, but let's hope Chuck starts to get back to writing like the Chuck we all know and love.

I went to the library to check out Fight Club, but they were temporarily out of copies. So, I decided to give this book a try, since Fight Club the movie is so good. Parts of it were funny. I didn't like the ages of the main characters, especially Madison. She was too insecure for my liking. I didn't like her narrative. I felt like a was reading a book with a plot an adult wrote that was reworded by a 12 year old. I finished 4/5 of the book, but it just got annoying after a while.

Some well-turned phrases, but that's about it; the repetitive whinings of a 13 year-old, ridiculously entitled, fat American girl hardly make for a good read. One gets the notion the protagonist would be in Hell no matter where she actually is, but I doubt the book's message is supposed to be "fat girls should shut up and lose weight," and yet it should be ... really disappointing book from an obviously overhyped writer.

About the author

CHUCK PALAHNIUK’s eleven best-selling novels—Tell-All, Pygmy, Snuff, Rant, Haunted, Lullaby, Fight Club, Diary, Survivor, Invisible Monsters, and Choke—have sold more than five million copies in the United States. He is also the author of Fugitives and Refugees, published as part of the Crown Journey Series, and the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.