Review: Survivor

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I did not want to finish this book in a day. I did finish this book in a day because it does a semi-decent job of building just enough mystery to keep you reading if you have nothing better to do.

It's very sardonic and cynical in some ways, but weirdly optimistic in other ways. There are moments that are surprising and moments of anti-climax where you go, "Oh" and realize that maybe the book did that on purpose but you can't be sure that it did. It's dark and terrifying, entertaining but just a little thoughtful. It's uncomfortable, but not too disturbing. It's a very conflicted book, which makes a lot of sense because of the themes it deals with.

The themes it deals with are cynicism, modernity, purpose and everything else, but also not really.

It's paradoxical.

In some ways, the writing is almost juvenile, but I can't tell if that was satire that I did not understand or bad writing. That's never a good sign. I think the payoff was lacking, but the same thing stands. And I don't mean, "I thought it was bad, but maybe I didn't get it." I just don't know.

There were some really good bits.

There were some not-so-great bits.

It's a flawed novel, but I liked reading it.

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