Does Haunted get....better?

don't expect too much more from the connective material linking the stories...poems either...just stick it out, because the short stories [I]are[/I] worth it

A somewhat general consensus around here is that it's a great short story collection that should've been left at that without trying to wrap a story around it. If I could re-experience it for the first time, I'd skip that stuff and would have a higher overall opinion of the book.

Also, I hated how he info-dumped all the characters on us at once at the very beginning. Way too hard to keep track of such a large cast that would've benefitted from more gradual introductions.

Been awhile since I've read it, but if I recall, I just figured the stage was where they presented the material they'd been workshopping.

Yeah, the joy of that book is definitely in the individual episodes. And the ending kinda bites. Still a fun book, though.

Short stories are definitly worth it. But yeah, the story is extremly hard to follow, especially in the beginning. If you just read all the short stories you wouldn't really be missing too much.

[I]Haunted[/I] is by far my least favorite of Chuck's books. Even as a collection of short stories, I think most of the better stuff is in the beginning...so I'd say no, it doesn't get better.

aaawwwww... Well I've decided to put it down anyway and start a new book. I'll go back to this....sometime.

i liked it. even the joining sections.

I forced myself to read more of this last night and today. I'm actually starting to warm up to it a little bit now. The progeria guy dying was quite a surprise to me. I figured he'd last longer than that.

I find people either love Haunted or hate it. I f**king loved it to the core, but you have to read it a certain way. Don't be too concerned with keeping track of the characters, just remember the story for them and that's the extent of it. Kinda like how Rant will let you down if you spend the whole reading time trying to memorize each character.

Also, the main story is not to be taken literally, as though each action is a real life occurence, it's sort of comic-booky.

-------------
I protest not getting a signature by writing this after each post.

i started reading Haunted a few days ago,and all i think about when i am not reading that book, is when will i have time to read more of this book? I love it.

I always viewed the whole plot of the book as a dark metaphor for what our lives have become...forcing tragedies in order to tell a catchy story.

I absolutely adore this book. It introduced me to Chuck, so I think having no prior knowledge of his style helped me appreciate it more. Having read everything except [I]Diary[/I] now, it remains one of my favourites.

I agree with Josh. Haunted is in my psyche. It is more about its themes than plot and the way our society has been consumed by celebrity rather than accomplishment. They don't write, they plan their Oprah appearances, think about the soundtracks of their lives.

It's one of those books that, with the indelible impression made by Guts, and actually the lethal foot massage, didn't necessarily live in my imagination as I was reading it. But, it has entered my consciousness and stayed there for two years now. I found it amazing and for that reason it is my favorite Chuck book to date.

I liked Haunted a lot, but I found it very difficult to keep up with all of the different character names and profiles that are thrown at the reader in the very beginning.
Some of the short stories are classics, but the poems leave much to be desired.

I liked the character's short stories but I didn't care for the poems much. Overall, it's a pretty amusing book but not his best. Uhuhuh I Liked the make up names the aspiring writers had...they kicked ass.

Haunted is the first Chuck-book I read, and I loved it! The short stories. <3 Have to say that I wasn't too crazy about the poems, but they weren't bad either. I wanna read it again. I've been away from home for several months now and I didn't bring the book. I miss it, haha.

i fucking love this, a catchy point of what writers do while twisting from the inside out..

Well, it never got better. Thanks to everybody who participated in this thread. Caligula, tom, giggan, jkabol, imke, jinxed rockabye, huxtable, molly, kaetea, jsh092, elegantly bitter, byskyb, oh jeez...umm... mom and dad, Chuck....I couldn't have done it without all of you.

Did you not even like Obsolete?

I dug Obsolete.

 I actually started to get into the story more and more actually more than the short stories I loved haunted, I loved they way it ended and I loved the short stories too but they didn't make the book

I'm currently reading it, and I personally love it.

I think the poems and joining sequences add a lot to the book, to be honest. I love that a few of the stories make sly references to each other... for example, in Dissertation by the Missing Link, he mentions being on the Today show, "Maybe even the A Block . . ." (306) which reminds you of the earlier Miss America story.

I don't know, I think those little nuances make the book so much better than just a bunch of random horror stories strung together. I'm thoroughly engrossed in it. But I don't think it really gets better, it is mostly the same level of awesome. So if you hate it at the beginning, you will probably continue hating it. But I'd vote give it a shot to see it through, it's at least worth a read. 

Haunted is also my least favorite Palahniuk novel. I had the same issue as others (introduction of all characters at once, not finding cohesion, etc) but I also found myself losing touch with the narrative itself a few times. Particularly the rump roast; it just felt too self consciously subversive. I found myself thinking it was as though Palahniuk teamed up with an assload of French horror makers and, I dunno, maybe they reanimated Fellini and... they just all fucking... brainstormed... to see just how far they could push it.

I'd read Guts a long time before Haunted and it never bothered me. None of the shorts/poems bothered me, it was only instances of things which were happening in the narrative.

The poems don't serve much of a point other than a view of how the characters perceive each other, but the connecting story is some of the best, goriest, nastiest stuff. Plus, you have no idea what these people are driven to do because of their background short stories if you skip the connections.

Man I loved this book. But really I read it for the short stories. The story itself had priceless moments but nothing equal to the poems and stories by the characters.

Thats kind of what I had to do at first was force myself to read it, but then it got more interesting and I got really into it.
Overall, I loved it once I understood what was goin' on.

If you really only like the short stories, check out "Stranger than fiction". It has some of them in there, and then also, a lot more like it. Some of those stories are true (in Haunted), too, the intestine one, and also the candle wax/carrot guy...can't remember which of the others...

I remember the day I made this thread exactly, cause it was Christmas! I had the flu and stayed home alone while my family went to visit my other family. I laid on the couch and watched those Robert Redruiguz(SP!) and Tarantino grindhouse movies. Sick on Christmas. How about that?

i tripped and twisted the shit out of my ankle like around 4 pm on New Year's Eve 1999. Talk about shitty timing for a freak accident! I missed the party of the Millenium!!!
I remember spending the night with my leg propped up on the desk here, goofing off on the old WebTV. That was like adding insult to injury.

This thread is wow. Every few weeks, it gets another lowly post.

Sickness on Jesusmas is something everyone must go through, its like a right of passage. I've never had it, but I've done the sick on new year's thing twice. But you can only feel so bad when there's a TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON!!!

you ever see the christmas one with art carney and he's a drunk bum and gets a hold of the REAL santa claus's magic sack and starts giving everyone toys and whatnot? I think they stole that one to make that Santa Clause movie.

Sounds familiar, I'm sure I have.

I love the one with the gorilla dude on the wing of Shatner's plane...it's so incredibly stupid a premise, but works so well.

I like the Christmas movie with Mickey Rooney playing the retarded guy. I think it's called Bill.

it took me a few chapters to really get into this book. I agree with who said that without the story of Mr.Whittier and the others...maybe just the short stories would have been pretty cool. At the same time though the inbetween stories are the ones that really tie everything together (in my view) i really enjoyed this book.

It is worth it, though for a while the short stories get worse and worse.
Some of the short stories are phenomenal, which makes the book worthwhile.
Very hit and miss, but yeah, keep going !