Adjustment Day

Clever

There are some wonderful lines and overall the sarcasm is fun. It got a little too fantastical for taste, but it was entertaining.

Oof. Went into this with the same desire I had with Damned and Doomed, to read a newer Chuck and disagree with the popular opinion that his recent novels are trash. I couldn't do it.

This is the kind of book I would write if I was trying to emulate Palahniuk. It feels amateur-ish and low-effort.

Started Snuff immediately after finishing Adjustment Day and the difference is obvious. What draws me to Palahniuk's work is scathing subversive satire, and a deep, painfully intimate, understanding of the mentally ill. Broken people on the fringes of society making strange connections through stranger circumstances. For example, Snuff's main character is the abandoned child of a porn star. He accidentally discovers his heritage, and through wild deviancy (buying sex toys of mom, watching her videos, etc) and childlike sweetness (saving images of her fully clothed and vacuuming, cooking, folding laundry, etc) he begins to forge a confusing relationship with her. This is relatable satire.

I also feel like this book was poorly researched, or at the very least written without the bravery necessary to approach this topic. Writing a book like this, at this moment in time, and not mentioning Trump, or George Lincoln Rockwell, or The Turner Diaries or any of the myriad manifestos that would have been a direct through-line to Adjustment Day actually occurring was a massive mistake. What this book needed was something that made it visceral and possible, what it didn't need was a ripoff Wakanda, psychic black people, and a woefully problematic golliwog caricature (BUT SHE WAS ACTUALLY WHITE AND DYED HER SKIN BLACK SO ITS OK RIGHT?).

Fuck, dude. I miss the old Chuck-ye. Still a forever-stan though.