Beautiful You

Palahniuk had one really good book years ago ("Fight Club") and it was all downhill from there. Die-hard fans have written some breathlessly positive reviews of this book but to an objective reader, it's a poorly conceived and written mess that fails in its one goal: satire. The only thing Palahniuk successfully satirizes here is himself: a successful author phoning it in. Do not waste your time or money. You will only be annoyed with yourself.

The story was extremely exciting for about half the book, and then became very trite. When he said she wanted to give Gloria Steinem a sisterly hug, I wanted to throw my phone across the room. But the idea that he brings to life in this book, that unless we are aware, the progress that women have made WILL disappear rapidly, is a very very important one.

Great concept but bogs down. Exposition of villian's research is just more mommy porn. There is no reasonable explanation why the protagonist was only selectively affected by his machinations. And the 'old hag' section.... ugh. Some of those mental images cannot be unseen. She shows up at the end and I had to wonder, "who would let her on a plane like that?' Glad when the book ended.

Great concept but bogs down. Exposition of villian's research is just more mommy porn. There is no reasonable explanation why the protagonist was only selectively affected by his machinations. And the 'old hag' section.... ugh. Some of those mental images cannot be unseen. She shows up at the end and I had to wonder, "who would let her on a plane like that?' Glad when the book ended.

Wow. This was pretty much the stupidest book I've ever read. I am a big Palahniuk fan and have been aware of his downhill trajectory for sometime now, starting with "Snuff." But this...this just takes the cake in being just plain STUPID.

There were so many points in this book where I read a sentence and thought, "Did he realize what he just wrote? How stupid that was?". I read through it rather quickly and once it started getting really stupid, I realized I was 2/3 of the way finished and that I might as well just endure the rest. "How much worse can it get?" I thought. A lot.

I'm giving it two stars just for the fact that some of the overall concepts are pretty interesting and could have made a decent, thoughtful book if it weren't for Palahniuk trying to be ridiculous just for the sake of it.

Ew. Almost like 50 shades but gross. I literally got tired of reading all of the graphic scenes and honestly had to muster the motivation to finish the book so that I could at least know the ending. I really do not recommend.

Crazy imagination. Crazy good. The concept itself is crazy, but it's so well written and entertaining that you forget how ridiculous the synopsis sounds and just fall into the world he creates. He's amazing.

After just finishing Chuck Palahniuk's Beautiful You: A Novel, I can't help but think that this may be Palahniuk's return to form. Many fans may argue that some of his latest books don't quite match up to his early work, and with books like Snuff and Tell All, I agree. Beautiful You feels like Palahniuk has been released from some shackles and is now exploring human sexuality, consumption, consumerism, and gratification in a way he hasn't done in years. Reading through it, I couldn't help but think that this book has been floating around in his mind for years, and that only now has he "been given permission" to write Beautiful You.

Beautiful You often feels like an amalgamation of a lot of his earlier works. There is Fight Club anti consumerism, a weird, almost dystopian future you would find in Rant, the perverseness and uneasy "wrongness" that he wrote about in Haunted and Choke. Yet, he tells an entirely new story about a young 20 something female fresh out of law school trying to find her meaning in life. He hits on some of old stomping grounds in which every thing has already been done and accomplished, and what do you do when you have no clue what you want to do? He takes you on a ride barely lasting 136 days, making you question what your world would be like if suddenly roles were reversed.

Be forewarned, this book is highly sexual, and I believe is meant to be a parody of the adult erotica novels "50 Shades of Grey". It feels like almost half of the book concerns women discovering their bodies for the first time. At best, it can be erotic, and forces you to think about sexuality in ways you haven't before. At worst, it's uncomfortable and disturbing (which is great if you like reading Palahniuk). I can't recommend it to beginner Chuck Palahniuk readers, as it may turn you off forever, but those that enjoyed Choke or Haunted should also enjoy Beautiful You.

Bizarre, twisted and just plain gross. The story line is no where close to believable (even for fiction!) and the graphic descriptions are strange, gross and use too many scientific and dry words to be entertaining. I finished the book in the hopes it would somehow get better but was terribly disappointed.

While initially intriguing, this book totally lost me the moment the finger of a corpse was revealed to have been stored inside a woman's vagina. I have read many of Chuck Palahniuk's books, and I, for the most part, have loved them. I can't put into words all the things I disliked about this book. The main thing though, was laziness. The story feigned depth, and every "twist" was basically a slap in every intelligent person's face, even the ending was insulting, and boring. I was highly disappointed with this book.

What a fantastic ride. A twisted tantric thriller that spears the yoni of modern cultural sex morés. A fast paced flagellation, delivered with porn star like stamina and precision. Stop what you are doing right now, and go queue up to buy this book, then never leave your room for anything except batteries.

I have read every novel written by Mr. Palahniuk. This was terrible! Not even close to the quality of writing and imagination he has produced to date.
I recently read " Burnt Tongues". Every story in there was better than this novel.
Save your money.

As ever, the author approaches a plethora of social and psychological matters sideways. Which is awesome, every time. I refuse to include any more commentary because I don't want to inadvertently cause spoilers. Wonderful food for thought. I will definitely be rereading this multiple times.

Forget Fight Club. Don't ask yourself where has the author of that masterpiece gone. Put it into perspective: if you were, like me, a young male with some issues when you saw the film or read the novel, it was spot on. Just great, an awesome plot and critique of modern consumerist society and the male role in it. Well, Palahniuk has certainly continued with his nihilism and disgust towards consumerism and modern society in general.

He just went completely to the extreme and made everything ridiculous. This isn't meant to be a serious novel. The premise and everything that happens is ridiculous on purpose. In an interview, ha said that his approach to writing is to find a problem and then blow it out of proportion. He certainly did that with Beautiful You.

If you like grindcore, bands like CockAndBallTorture, Rompeprop and SpermSwamp, you will find this novel funny. It is certainly disgusting in a lot of places. He takes female sexuality and stuff like stupid Cosmopolitan headlines, modern consumerism, mixes it and comes out with something that's absolutely retarded.

I found it funny that this book was next to 50 Shades of Grey in the bookstore, right when the movie of the same name hit the cinemas and all the hysteria that followed. Why did I give it 1 star? Price. Almost $24 for something that should be priced $2.99. I seriously can't believe that Palahniuk values his 'novel' so much. To me, it seems that he cashed in on his Fight Club fame. I would have given it three stars if the price was different. Because that's what this book is about: a trashy, stupid story with some humor to entertain you while you are hung over. Avoid.