Book Review: Damned by Chuck Palahniuk

Last fall, I ventured into the hub of all things nerdy: New York Comic Con. My affinity for geeky things started early. I grew up with three younger brothers, and instead of watching My Little Pony or The Care Bears, I spent Saturday mornings with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Power Rangers.

Following a full morning of Comic Con panels like Once More With Feeling: 15 Years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Women of Marvel,  I arrived 1 hour early to wait for the panel I was most looking forward to; a discussion with a favorite fiction author Chuck Palahniuk. And it was a long hour as I had to sit through Vampire Combat Tactics (yes, I’m completely serious and can say that when I meet Edward Cullen in a dark alley, I’ll be fully prepared to kick his melodramatic butt).

5 minutes before Palahniuk took the floor, his publicist disbursed free copies of his latest publication Damned. Then, as if it couldn’t get any better, Palahniuk himself started the panel off in the best possible way—by throwing plastic, bloody, and most likely severed, zombie body parts into the crowd.

The person to my right caught a bluish foot and my friend Julie snagged a leg. I didn’t know what I would do with a severed zombie body part, so I decided not to try too hard to catch one. But after noticing that Julie’s leg was signed by Palahniuk, I channeled my inner teenager and got a little feisty. Presently, there’s a bruised and bloody autographed hand sitting pretty on my dresser. I look at it each and every morning and smile….

I finally got around to reading Damned and enjoyed it. The novel follows the plights of a 13 year old girl named Madison, the child of a movie star and film producer. When we meet her, she’s been cast into the depths of Hell, and thinks she’s died from a marijuana overdose. Madison bands together with other dead adolescent misfits, and eventually, becomes quite popular in the underworld. After sometime, she begins to remember fragments of her past and learns the truth, which of course, changes everything.

I feel it’s important to point out that this book is disgusting. I found myself laughing at the images of Hell, however gross, and kept wondering how Palahniuk thought of this stuff. I will say there are a few moments where the book losses its pace. They are rare and I didn’t lose interest, but the usual fast action I expect from Palahniuk wasn’t entirely present. Once I reached the midway point though, I couldn’t put it down. Palahniuk’s talent for taking an off the wall tale and turning it into something meaningful is, in my opinion, unparalleled. He’s a true master of satire.

If you like strange, gory, descriptive and innovative story telling, then this is the book for you. Palhniuk is gifted. He can talk about something so terrible and raw, but fill you with compassion at the same time. Damned is a rollicking world of extremes and laughter that leaves you questioning life… maybe even your purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

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