The Invention of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ever since I got into Fight Club and then read the book, I've been something of a fanboy of Palahniuk. It's the mixture of over-the-top yuck with strong goals and the willingness to double-down on taboo-breaking disturbing topics that makes me tip my hat to him.

Courage. The guy's balls can fill a swimming pool. And if any of ya'll have read his short story Guts, you can add all that to the image and nod ya'lls heads and go, "oh... yeah...". Courage.

Well, this one goes there, too. But it's on an interesting side of an otherwise very disgusting topic, with rather disturbing revenge to make us feel better for having wallowed a bit in the truly bad. Did I wig out a little? Yes. But did I also enjoy all the movie trivia and the backstage stuff and the post-post-production stuff, the insider stuff? Yep.

Between the two, I was constantly on edge between enjoying the novel and being disturbed by it.

Of course, this kind of thing might vary a great deal between readers. I'm frankly a lot more comfortable with blood and guts and torture than this particular kind of cruelty.

It's still a decent novel, however, and pretty wicked.

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