History Main / Haunted

* SmallNameBigEgo: In-universe, Chef Assassin... [[{{Understatement}} who does not like critics]].

* ADateWithRosiePalms: The first story, "Guts", deals with stories of masturbation gone wrong, so it would count as a bit of a {{Deconstruction}} of this trope.

* {{Incurable Cough of Death}}: Subverted in a brilliant way. Everyone assumes Miss Sneezy has poor health due to her sneezing all the time. In reality, she sneezes all the time because her sinuses are wrecked...[[spoiler:from walking several miles underwater when she escaped from the island she was being held in for carrying an incredibly deadly airborne virus.]]

* CompleteMonster: Mr. Whittier. He presides over the isolation game, created the Nightmare Box, [[spoiler:tricked women into having sex with him ([[{{Jailbait}} a thirteen-year old suffering from progeria]])]], apparently all just for kicks.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In "Guts", the narrator describes people being found dead due to auto-erotic asphyxiation (choking yourself while masturbating), and having to clean up the site to make it look more like a purposeful suicide. Enter David Carradine...or rather, ''exit''...
** YourMileageMayVary here because it's not like he was the first ever person to die that way. The line was so throwaway and impersonal. I read it after his death and thought nothing of it.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Palahniuk stated that his goal in the story was to create horror among ordinary things. It works.
** When Comrade Snarky wakes up [[spoiler:after being thought dead and eats some of the flesh her 'friends' cut off her.]]
** 'Hot Potting' is probably the most horrifying story in this book. [[spoiler:After several descriptions of people falling into hot springs and dying horrible, horrible deaths, the Baroness Frostbite tells her own story. A religious chef wandered off to the hot springs, slipped, and fell partially in. He was able to climb out, but ended up pulling off half his flesh and lower body in the process. [[ItGotWorse Then the wolves come]].]]
** 'Speaking Bitterness'. [[SurvivalMantra Keysdon'tgotherekeysdon'tgothereKEYSDON'TGOTHERE...]]What's worse is that [[spoiler:the 'man' might have been a woman all along.]]
*** I fail to see how that would be any less horrible if that woman was really transgender.
*** Because it would have been totally senseless. The reasons the women [[spoiler:attacked Miranda]] was because they thought she was a man and it was their "revenge" against men. The fact that [[spoiler:Comrade Snarky and her comrades pretty much raped a woman]] in an attempt of empowerment made a horrifying story even worse.
** 'Guts', which amongst other things includes [[spoiler:a teenage boy getting wax stuck in his bladder as well as another boy accidentally having most of his "large intestine sucked out of his rectum" while being dangerously close to drowning.]] ''[[ItGotWorse This is the first story in the book.]]''

* SmallNameBigEgo: Chef Assassin...[[{{Understatement}} does not like critics]].
* {{Squick}}: It really deserves its own page.

* TearJerker: In a really weird way, "Exodus".

* WhatAnIdiot: The Matchmaker [[spoiler:ends up dying after he gets someone to chop off his dick, despite knowing that in his story, the general dies right after accidentally doing the same to himself.]]

* GroinAttack: Director Denial's story describes how a fellow Social Worker became so fed up with the local cops having sex with the anatomically-correct dolls she used with sex crime victims that she put [[VaginaDentata razor blades in its orifices]].

** It's been a while since I read the book, but I assumed it was [[spoiler: what you see in the Nightmare Box.]]

Some of the stories have supernatural elements, most have sex -- lots of sex. It never becomes clear how much of them is made up by the characters as they go along. Although quite a few of them (often the ones that sound downright impossible) are very closely based on real events.

The novel's first chapter, "[[http://chuckpalahniuk.net/features/shorts/guts Guts]]", was published in Playboy magazine well before the book came out proper. Palahniuk did readings of it during his worldwide book tour for ''{{Diary}}''. [[BrownNote Over 80 people fainted]].

* {{Loads and Loads of Characters}}: The seventeen writers, Mr. Whittier, and Ms. Clark. Props go to Palahniuk for making everyone fairly unique.

Some of the stories have supernatural elements, most have sex -- lots of sex. It never becomes clear how much of them is made up. Although quite a few of them (often the ones that sound downright impossible) are very closely based on real events.

This novel by ChuckPalahniuk is a collection of short stories. Seventeen [[DysfunctionJunction unusual people]], all of whom happen to be [[MostWritersAreWriters writers]], are invited by the mysterious Mr. Whittier to attend a three-month writer's workshop. What results is the telling of many stories, a {{deconstruction}} of reality TV shows, and a whole lot of {{squick}}.

This novel by ChuckPalahniuk is a collection of short stories. Seventeen [[DysfunctionJunction unusual people]], all of whom happen to be [[MostWritersAreWriters writers]], are invited by the mysterious Mr. Whittier to attend a three-month writer's workshop. What results is the telling of many stories, a {{Deconstruction}} of reality TV shows, and a whole lot of {{Squick}}.

* AdamAndEvePlot: [[spoiler: The end of Mr. Whittier's second story, "Obsolete." It's never clarified if it's really happening in-universe or it's just a story he made up.]]

* BlackAndGreyMorality: [[{{UpToEleven}} Good. Gravy.]] Absolutely '''NO ONE''' in this book gets off clean. If they didn't do something horrendously evil in their story, then they became a CompleteMonster during the writer's retreat. The closest thing to a "good guy" we get is Ms. Clark and even she [[spoiler: murdered her daughter.]]
** There's also Miss America. Even though she's a catty bitch, the worst thing she does is [[spoiler: eat Cora Reynolds...the cat, not the lady.]]

*** Cora Reynolds was just trying to protect inocents. She was one of the few people in the book with altruist motivations.

* BodyHorror: The Baroness Frostbite, whose mouth has been reduced to a greasy hole without lips due to...[[{{ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin}} guess.]]
* BrownNote: A RealLife one, if you can believe it. Chuck has read the short story "Guts" several times while promoting the book, and almost everytime, someone has fainted. There's also accounts of others reading this story to their peers with similiar effects. Oddly, [[{{BigAppleSauce}} New Yorkers]] seem to be immune to the story's effect.
** As an anonymous audience member responded when Palahniuk expressed surprise that no one had fainted: * snort* "This is [[NewYorkCity New]] [[BrooklynRage York]]."

* CompleteMonster - Mr. Whittier. He presides over the isolation game, created the Nightmare Box, [[spoiler: tricked women into having sex with him ([[{{Jailbait}} a thirteen-year old suffering from progeria]])]], apparently all just for kicks.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: "Guts". Horrifyingly (or [[{{DeadBabyComedy}} hilariously]] ) enough, all three accounts are based on true stories.
* DownerEnding: It's pretty much hinted that [[spoiler: everyone dies.]]

* GroinAttack: Director Denial's story describes how a fellow Social Worker became so fed up with the local cops having sex with the anatomically-correct dolls she used with sex crime victims that she put [[VaginaDentata razor blades in its orifices.]]

** When Comrade Snarky wakes up [[spoiler: after being thought dead and eats some of the flesh her 'friends' cut off her.]]
** 'Hot Potting' is probably the most horrifying story in this book. [[spoiler: After several descriptions of people falling into hot springs and dying horrible, horrible deaths, the Baroness Frostbite tells her own story. A religious chef wandered off to the hot springs, slipped, and fell partially in. He was able to climb out, but ended up pulling off half his flesh and lower body in the process. [[{{ItGotWorse}} Then the wolves come.]]]]
** 'Speaking Bitterness'. [[{{SurvivalMantra}} Keysdon'tgotherekeysdon'tgothereKEYSDON'TGOTHERE...]]What's worse is that [[spoiler: the 'man' might have been a woman all along.]]

*** Because it would have been totally senseless. The reasons the women [[spoiler: attacked Miranda]] was because they thought she was a man and it was their "revenge" against men. The fact that [[spoiler: Comrade Snarky and her comrades pretty much raped a woman]] in an attempt of empowerment made a horrifying story even worse.
** 'Guts', which amongst other things includes [[spoiler: a teenage boy getting wax stuck in his bladder as well as another boy accidently having most of his "large intestine sucked out of his rectum" while being dangerously close to drowning.]] ''[[ItGotWorse This is the first story in the book.]]''

* ImprobableWeaponUser: [[spoiler: Bowling ball?]]
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Subverted in a brilliant way. Everyone assumes Miss Sneezy has poor health due to her sneezing all the time. In reality, she sneezes all the time because her sinesus are wrecked...[[spoiler: from walking several miles underwater when she escaped from the island she was being held in for carrying an incredibly deadly airbourne virus.]]
* ITasteDelicious: That's what [[spoiler: Comrade Snarky thinks until she notices a familiar tattoo.]] "[[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} You fed me my own ass?]]"

* KnifeNut - Chef Assassin
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The seventeen writers, Mr. Whittier, and Ms. Clark. Props go to Palahniuk for making everyone fairly unique.

* OfficialCouple: Invoked. Saint Gut-Free and Mother Nature believe that a romantic couple will draw sympathy from audiences.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The boy and dog from "Hot Potting?" [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/hotspring.asp They're real.]] [[{{TearJerker}} Sadly.]]
** At least part of "Guts" is true: Faulty pool drains can and have sucked out people's intestines. Former politician John Edwards made his name [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_edwards#Legal_career representing a five year old girl]] who suffered that fate.
*** Actually, all three stories in "Guts" are true stories recounted to Chuck, the first two by friends, the third by a man he met at a Sexoholic's meeting (research for {{Choke}})

* SmallNameBigEgo: Chef Assassin...[[{{Understatement}} does not like critics.]]

* StrawFeminist: Comrade Snarky and her clan. Granted, many of them have good reasons for being distrustful of men, but it really doesn't give them the excuse to [[spoiler: essentially rape a [[strike:man]] woman who may or may not have been born a man.]]
* {{Tearjerker}}: In a really weird way, "Exodus".
* ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: According to the museum curator, the Nightmare Box [[spoiler: contains the truth of reality, which drove three people into a state of near-madness.]]
* UnreliableNarrator: Possibly. There is the potential for tons of it. Keeping in mind that these people are writers, it's easy to start second guessing their stories. When the stories first acquire an air of MagicalRealism and then become increasingly fantastic, it is left up to the audience to decide what to believe, (if anything) and what to doubt. (If anything).

* WhatAnIdiot: The Matchmaker [[spoiler: ends up dying after he gets someone to chop off his dick, despite knowing that in his story, the general dies right after accidently doing the same to himself.]]
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mr. Whittier, a [[spoiler: thirteen year-old suffering from progeria.]]

** 'Guts', which amongst other things includes [[spoiler: a teenage boy getting wax stuck in his bladder as well as another boy accidently having most of his "large intestine sucked out of his rectum" while being dangerously close to drowning.]] This is the first story in the book.

* StrawFeminist: Comrade Snarky and her clan. Granted, many of them have good reasons for being distrustful of men, but it really doesn't give them the excuse to [[spoiler: essientally rape a [[strike:man]] woman who may or may not have been born a man.]]

* StrawFeminist: Comrade Snarky and her clan. Granted, many of them have good reasons for being distrustful of men, but it really doesn't give them the excuse to [[spoiler: [[strike: assault]] essientally rape a man.]]

* AdamAndEvePlot: [[spoiler: The end of Mr. Whitaker's story, "Obsolete." It's never clarified if it's really happening in-universe or it's just a story he made up.]]

*What An Idiot: The Matchmaker [[spoiler: ends up dying after he gets someone to chop off his dick, despite knowing that in his story, the general dies right after accidently doing the same to himself.]]

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