Bea

Look, this was beautifully written, I can't lie. But do not read this if your patience is extremely thin and hate no-plot books. This took me almost a month to slog through. I actually do love no-plot books and I was really feeling the vibes, especially during the first half of the book. By the middle up to the end, though, I found it super hard to finish and I didn't enjoy the Hungary part as much as I wanted to. Still loved it, but really put me through a reading slump.

I really wanted to love this book, but surprisingly, it didn't click with me. I feel bad for saying this about a memoir but I felt so bored—but it might have something to do with me not being from the Western world so I didn't really know or care for most of the references and namedrops (and they made up 40% of the book). It took me 12 days to get through this because I was falling asleep all the time. Ending chapter made up for it though

(3.5) Most definitely not for everyone, but I can't lie, I enjoyed this book so much. Very depraved, sometimes very hard to read, but like watching a bloody car crash, I couldn't keep my eyes off it anyway. However, Palahniuk's voice is so strong that the short stories and the characters are all clearly written by the same person—it just seemed like a cartoonish guy with DID (like James McAvoy in Split). Largely hit or miss collection, too, but the hits are great. Favorites: Foot Work, Dog Years, Exodus, Product Placement, Swan Song, and Speaking Bitterness.