Snuff (original 2008; udgave 2005)

THIS BOOK MADE ME SO UNCOMFORTABLE, and not because of the sex. uuuuuuugh, chuck palahniuk, why must you try to be so edgy. ( )

I was a little disappointed in this one. Chuck's stuff is usually so well crafted. Plus, the giant margins and huge font were an obvious attempt to make the book seem longer than it was. I read it in the course of a weekend. I would still recommend it to CP fans, though, just not as highly as his other work. ( )

This a weird book. A little cringe worthy at points, but that's mostly because the nature of the content. The ending was also kind of confusing. Not really a fan of the ageism aspect of it either, but maybe that's the reality of the industry. I wouldn't recommend this one unless you've bored and have a day to kill. ( )

Up until this novel, I had been a faithful Palahniuk reader.
I don't mind a gross out as long as it rewards with a great story and characters to connect to or care about... but that didn't happen for me.

I guess add another author from my 20's to the heap I doubt I'll read again.

( )

"Snuff" was a sick, disgusting book, and I enjoyed every page of it.

It's a story about Cassie Wright, an aging porn star who wants to do one last film to cap her career, with six hundred different men in it. Nearly all the story is told in the waiting room from Mr. 72, Mr. 137, Mr. 600 and Sheila, the "talent wrangler" in charge of keeping the filming running smooth, making sure there's enough snacks and drinks and calling the men, three at a time, for their turns on the set, while they're waiting around outside the set, doing what they can to be, well, prepared for their five minute on screen appearance.

Mr. 72 is a young fellow, whose obsession with Cassie Wright took on epic proportions when his adopted mother told him Cassie was his real mother, given up for adoption as an infant. He comes with red roses and an intention of, as Sheila puts it "saving Cassie from a lifetime of bad decisions".

Mr. 137 is a former TV detective show star whose show has recently been canceled and like many other actors waiting their turn, thinks an appearance in a record breaking movie will help his flagging career. He has complete encyclopedic knowledge of every movie of Cassie's career. He's nervous and instead of buying on Viagra tablet from Sheila buys the whole jar, and despite her warnings takes at least ten by the end of the book.

Mr. 600 is an aging former adult movie star himself, who'd starred in many movies with Cassie. From his point of view he points out how to tell the pros in the crowd, they're the ones covered with so much bronzer, tan in a bottle, that when they walk their feet leave foot prints and when they clasp each other's arms in greeting they stick together. He critiques many of the men in the Cassie videos playing on TVs around the waiting room, and for most of them, whether he thinks they look great doing it, or if they look like they should've retired years before, someone else points out "dude, that's you in that movie!".

At one point, Mr. 137 even points out to Mr. 72, the exact scene in which something went wrong with filming between Mr. 600 and Cassie, that would've resulted in Mr. 72's conception.

While not the best Palahniuk book, with a fairly weak ending, all the way up until then was a good read. ( )