u/zzuhruf

Just finished reading *The Exorcist* and I want more. The ending was very anticlimactic in my opinion. Other than that, it was such a great read. Had me hooked up during my boring night shifts.

I think I will have to watch the movie and see if it was tweaked or faithful to the book. The author made sure to confuse us if this is a psychological thriller or a supernatural horror till almost the end. Of course, reading a horror genre book isn’t going to give the jump scares but it didn’t fail to give me some creeps (maybe because I work night shift alone and recently I’ve watched the Obsession movie, but you never know).

Funnily enough, Regan cussing had me laughing out loud.Father Merrin’s minuscule subplot could have been avoided as I don’t see it adding anything important to the main plot. >!He came, he saw, he died!<. Adding nothing substantial to the plot.

Detective Kinderman is one of the characters I found very annoying. It’s his beating around the bush kinda talk and those profuse apologies, and his somewhat pretend civility.

Doubts:

&gt;!Father Karras killed himself or was he killed?!<

&gt;!Why was Regan staring at Father Dyer’s Roman collar in the epilogue?!<

The book stays true to its name. Let it be the weird experiences in America, Palahniuk wrote about or even his own personal life. The book is a non-fiction anthology but reading it you’ll have the doubt if Palahniuk is shitting you or not. As the title suggests some stories are really strange and makes you wonder.

Reading a non-fiction book that’s written in Palahniuk’s style is a very fresh experience for me. Maybe, it’s the Palahniesque style that made me wonder if he is shitting his readers or not.

There are three types of stories:

People Together - Talks about all these unknown activities (unknown for most people ig) coming together for something that makes them feel special or something that brings them together.

Portraits - This about individuals Palahniuk interviewed.

Personal - Stories derived from Palahniuk’s own experiences.

Funnily, his own experiences are much weirder and almost unbelievable. The fact he has gone through all this makes you wonder if this is what inspired him to write all his books in his style. Yes, Fight Club is basically his experiences and information he learnt through his surroundings.

This book borders around being very philosophical and being a Ripley’s Believe It or Not!. Overall, this book kept me engrossed the whole time. If you are looking for Palahniuk’s gross and disturbing style, this ain’t the book.

Edit: >!Fight Club is based on some of his experiences. He didn’t fight in any underground fight club!<