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    Snuff
    Snuff
    Snuff
    Audiobook5 hours

    Snuff

    Written by Chuck Palahniuk

    Narrated by Todd McLaren

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Cassie Wright, porn priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication. On camera. With six hundred men. Snuff unfolds from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600, who await their turn on camera in a very crowded green room. This wild, lethally funny, and thoroughly researched novel brings the huge yet underacknowledged presence of pornography in contemporary life into the realm of literary fiction at last. Who else but Chuck Palahniuk would dare do such a thing? Who else could do it so well, so unflinchingly, and with such an incendiary (you might say) climax?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 3, 2008
    ISBN9781400177332
    Snuff
    Author

    Chuck Palahniuk

    Chuck Palahniuk’s fourteen novels include the bestselling Snuff; Rant; Haunted; Lullaby; Fight Club, which was made into a film by director David Fincher; Diary; Survivor; Invisible Monsters; and Choke, which was made into a film by director Clark Gregg. He is also the author of the nonfiction profile of Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, and the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. His story collection Make Something Up was a widely banned bestseller. His graphic novel Fight Club II hit #1 on the New York Times list. He’s also the author of Fight Club III and the coloring books Bait and Legacy, as well as the writing guide Consider This. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

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    Reviews for Snuff

    3/5

    1,169 ratings55 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 3/5
      An okay story. The twists and turns typical of Palahniuk's other work are glaringly obvious in this book. The subject matter itself is at first shocking but becomes gross and mundane throughout the tale. He hits home with some good points about the industry and the titles he makes up are hilarious. As a whole the book is okay but the more you read through it, the less exciting it becomes. The finish isn't at all interesting as the resolution happens much before hand which makes reading to the end a chore rather than an enjoyable experience.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Only Palahniuk could step up to the challenge of writing the most messed up book possible with his trademark style of loners looking for meaning in new communities. It is balanced out with a significant satirical statement on masculinity, desire, and objectification. This is a great story but just be prepared to pause this a few times so you can take a breath to absorb some shocking imagery and all too accurate observations on human nature.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Equipped with every masturbation euphemism and the creative limitations imposed by just Chuck's grasp on the English language. This is a love story, it's a grudge, and self destructive story, and an influencial "leaving of age" story in first person from multiple participants, all in the midst of working through each of their personal struggle; each "pud puller" "hose honker" "wand waver" "dong dangler" and "pussy pounder"awaiting a turn and mentally placing judgement on every other "handy helper" "pipe Petter" "horse handler" and "spooge splasher".
      The climax was... unexpected...I liked it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This was the first book I ever read of his - interesting and I think I'll read some earlier ones.
    • 3/5
      Not the best Palahniuk I've read. Too much of it was repetitive. The ending wasn't as slap-in-the-face out there like others. It is a quick read, though. And I liked the style he used - the story was told by the alternating between four different characters' points of view.
    • 5/5
      Graphic, intense, and interesting. Morbid but comedic, dark humor. ?
    • 5/5
      This short read is graphic and definitely not safe for work, but the clever writing and signature twist ending is well delivered and enjoyable. I laughed out loud more than once :)
    • 5/5
      Grotesque, obscene, and brilliant. I love this book. Beware, Snuff is as graphic, if not more graphic, than anything else Chuck has written. Sometimes gross but never any less genius.
    • 4/5
      Definitely not my favorite Palahniuk book, but better than I was expecting. It must be the shortest of his books (though none of them are very long) and I zipped through it very quickly. As usual, his writing style is engaging and easy to read. I really wish he'd stick to one POV character per book, though. His narration is so quirky and distinctive that while I can believe one person per book sounds like that (though really, it's stretching things considering how vastly different the people he writes about are), but having four POV characters, totally different people, all of whom sound exactly the same? Really doesn't work that well. 3rd person POV or a single narrator would have been much better. (This is not a new problem of his by any means, but I think I noticed it most here than any previous novel, though I'm not sure why.)For the most part, if you like Palahniuk, you'll probably like this, and if you don't, it certainly won't change your mind. It's pretty much just more of the same. The quirky writing style, the extreme gross-outs, the way things are never what they seem. Different setting, but same type of story.Also, wasn't he going to be writing more stories like Rant? I was looking forward to more cyberpunk from him.
    • 5/5
      One of the funniest books I've ever listened to. The numerous porn parody names alone would be worth the price of admission.
    • 2/5
      I was a little disappointed in this one. Chuck's stuff is usually so well crafted. Plus, the giant margins and huge font were an obvious attempt to make the book seem longer than it was. I read it in the course of a weekend. I would still recommend it to CP fans, though, just not as highly as his other work.
    • 2/5
      Up until this novel, I had been a faithful Palahniuk reader.
      I don't mind a gross out as long as it rewards with a great story and characters to connect to or care about... but that didn't happen for me.

      I guess add another author from my 20's to the heap I doubt I'll read again.

    • 4/5
      "Snuff" was a sick, disgusting book, and I enjoyed every page of it.It's a story about Cassie Wright, an aging porn star who wants to do one last film to cap her career, with six hundred different men in it. Nearly all the story is told in the waiting room from Mr. 72, Mr. 137, Mr. 600 and Sheila, the "talent wrangler" in charge of keeping the filming running smooth, making sure there's enough snacks and drinks and calling the men, three at a time, for their turns on the set, while they're waiting around outside the set, doing what they can to be, well, prepared for their five minute on screen appearance.Mr. 72 is a young fellow, whose obsession with Cassie Wright took on epic proportions when his adopted mother told him Cassie was his real mother, given up for adoption as an infant. He comes with red roses and an intention of, as Sheila puts it "saving Cassie from a lifetime of bad decisions".Mr. 137 is a former TV detective show star whose show has recently been canceled and like many other actors waiting their turn, thinks an appearance in a record breaking movie will help his flagging career. He has complete encyclopedic knowledge of every movie of Cassie's career. He's nervous and instead of buying on Viagra tablet from Sheila buys the whole jar, and despite her warnings takes at least ten by the end of the book.Mr. 600 is an aging former adult movie star himself, who'd starred in many movies with Cassie. From his point of view he points out how to tell the pros in the crowd, they're the ones covered with so much bronzer, tan in a bottle, that when they walk their feet leave foot prints and when they clasp each other's arms in greeting they stick together. He critiques many of the men in the Cassie videos playing on TVs around the waiting room, and for most of them, whether he thinks they look great doing it, or if they look like they should've retired years before, someone else points out "dude, that's you in that movie!".At one point, Mr. 137 even points out to Mr. 72, the exact scene in which something went wrong with filming between Mr. 600 and Cassie, that would've resulted in Mr. 72's conception.While not the best Palahniuk book, with a fairly weak ending, all the way up until then was a good read.
    • 2/5

      Hrm. Well.



      I was really into Chuck Palahniuk during high school. I read several of his books and loved them. And perhaps high school is just the right time to read Chuck Palahniuk.



      Because this book is just sooooooo edgy. Its transgressiveness is so manufactured and artificial. The concept for the book sort of gives you the idea that it's going to be one of those painfully obvious look-how-edgy-I-am books, but I guess, for some reason, I hoped it would be more.



      Maybe this is just not a good example of Chuck Palahniuk's work. I might have to reread Fight Club or Lullaby and see how those hold up for me, because I really loved them at the time. But again, the time was age fifteen or sixteen when this sort of overtly provocative stuff appealed to me simply because it was overtly provocative and gave some contrast to the entirely uchallenging material covered in high school lit classes.

    • 4/5
      This book sickened me, both from making me laugh and making my stomach churn at the same time. Apart from the many potential - and probably existing - film-titles in this book, there are a lot of traces of Palahniukisms that crept into my mind while reading this seemingly simple story about three men who are among the 600 waiting to have sex with Cassie Wright in the gang-bang that she hopes will take her to history.

      Of course, there is more to the tale than this, simply put.

      Apart from the wonderful characters, the stories within the story, the history of the main characters, there are a lot of wonderful little facts strewn throughout, which may or may not be true; I feel like it's not very relevant to find out whether or not they are.

      Palahniuk writes in a very subtle way, which I cannot even fathom doing given the subject. Imagine the Monseigneur Creosote skit in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" without the effects, and you might find out what I mean.

      And I don't mean he excludes sex, sperm, rubber, sweat, bronzer, the risk of death through too much sex, your mother catching you masturbating, fecal matter, cyanide and Oklahoma.

      Highly funny, very recommendable and a small, neat modern classic.
    • 3/5
      This book was quite difficult to read through. Not only for the subject matter but because absolutely zero of the characters in it were even semi-likable. Honestly, none of them had any redeeming qualities. It was entertaining but nothing groundbreaking. And the only real eye opening thing about the entire story was the vast number of different ways to describe men that the author came up with. Amazing!
    • 3/5
      Interesting characters with a closed room setting like no other. Classic Palahniuk.
    • 3/5
      This book is ways-away from my comfort zone, and I'm the type of cat who welcomes any piece of art which has the gall to fling shocking shit at us the spectators/consumers/readers. I always read that Chuck Palahniuk was the kind of writer whose not afraid to ruffle some feathers, I can see that in this narrative. The book is not for everybody as this is the book your parents warn you about. Picture this:
      Six Hundred dudes. One girl, a world record for the ages. Yep, that's right, it's exactly what you're thinking about.

      You like to snack while reading? you'll be wise to quell the cravings while reading this book (specially chocolate) or anything resembling body fluids. Yep, nasty descriptive prose comes at you when you least expect it. Fancy a bit of Necrophilia? Yep, it happens here--somewhat--all told to us in the first person narrative by four of the participants/protagonists(I found that narrative vehicle interesting) strangely though; the aging porn star who is to accomplish this world record, is not one of the narrators which kind-a bummed me out, I would have liked to see her point of view, but then again it might just be that her story or arch was too depressing hence the reason why he left her out? still kinda strange tough.

      Writing to shock the reader,to get people talking about the events in this unusual story which is not exactly about the porn industry by the way, there's a little of that but not as much as one would think. And also, to make the reader take a shower after reading the book. Don't know if that'll help much though.

      Onward!





    • 3/5
      Just finished reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Gang Bang (Snuff) in which Cassie Wright wants to establish the world record for the biggest gang bang ever, with 600 men, but she also wants to die while doing it due to a vaginal embolus or because of a cyanide pill. The narrating voices are 4: Mr. 600 (an adult film star that introduced Cassie to the porn industry in an awful way), Mr. 72 (a young man that thinks he’s the son that Cassie gave up for adoption), Mr. 137 (an infamously notorious actor that made a gang bang themed film for the gay porn industry) and Sheila (Cassie Wright’s assistant); they all narrate in 1st person and they tell you their and Cassie’s stories as Sheila calls three people at a time that have sex with Cassie for like a minute and then leave. The language is kinda vulgar, but not that much considering the theme; the book has to be strong and prudishness is not allowed. The pages go easily and is not a difficult reading, but reality hits hard because you understand that adult film stars are much more than concealed butts, exaggerated orgasms and supersized penises. They have stories, often really sad stories and a past from which they try to run away. Cassie is strong enough to take the situation for a long time, but now she’s getting old and this film is the climax (pun intended) of her carrier, she wants to solve her problems then to quit. Forever.This book is totally readable, but like a soft candy with an hard center because it has a moral, so if you have 4-5 hours and you don’t know what to read you should really consider this book.
    • 2/5
      Perhaps I've just lost my taste for the grotesque, but I did not enjoy this book very much, nor did I think it said anything terribly insightful.

      There is one moment of shining brilliance that made me give this book one more star than it probably deserves. On page 35, when Kid 72 describes his suburban dad and his friends constructing model train sets of prostitutes and drug dealers, Palahniuk absolutely nails the middle class fetishization of urban decay. I could read an entire book about a group of messed-up suburbanites who get off on treating the drama of the extremely disadvantaged as their own personal soap opera, driving around the hood like it's some sort of depressing zoo. I wish he had written that book instead.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book despite the subject matter. The back-stories of the characters were interesting and Palahniuk's prose often went into great detail about the minutiae of the porn industry. Having read Fight Club and Haunted, this did not surprise me.
    • 2/5
      The book starts out a little sillily. The prose in written form is forced and at times annoying. And sometimes you wonder why you're even reading a book about a porno film.

      The book is classically Palahniuk, and is chock-full of interesting anecdotes and facts which start out as completely irrelevant.

      Everything quickly comes together at the end, however, and the reader is left smiling and satisfied.
    • 4/5
      Bizarre, prurient, twisted, stomach-turning, and a perversion of literature; in other words, an absolute blast of a novel that delivers a money shot you'll never forget.
    • 2/5
      I can't say I didn't know ahead of time what this book was about and really, the porn aspect didn't bother me so much. I think it is to the author's credit that I felt dirty and slimy just reading this book. That being said the story itself wasn't that engaging. The setting was fine, the odd shifting of focus worked OK but the actual story wasn't good enough.
    • 5/5
      I loved this gritty book. Every page. I feel I must read it again, like all of Palaniuk's work.
    • 1/5
      Easily the worst Palahniuk I've read. Some have been hit-and-miss (though Rant was excellent), but this is almost all miss.
    • 3/5
      This is a novel about a record-breaking gang-bang featuring one legendary porn queen and six hundred obliging men. Except... it's not. Because Palahniuk's never as simple as that. Told from alternating and often conflicting viewpoints - Numbers 72 (a young man), 137 (a shamed TV star) and 600 (a porn veteran), and the 'talent wrangler', Sheila - this is actually a novel about the seediness of the adult entertainment industry, the vacuity of Hollywood and the deceptive nature of screen beauty. At the opening of the book, everyone looks good and has a reputation to uphold; by the end their secrets have been revealed and the layers of makeup and ego and personal history have been peeled away to reveal something uglier, smaller and deeply sad. It didn't rock my world like Rant, which I still occasionally find myself mulling over nearly a year on - but if you're not easily offended it was a relatively quick read and still pulled me on at breakneck pace towards the inevitable bizarre finale...Favourite part: Palahniuk's trademark devotion to throwing in loads of pithy little facts about his subject, the more offbeat the better - I stopped every few pages to Google something, only to find it was actually true and not just part of his fiction. If nothing else, this novel has been an excellent source of genuinely interesting trivia to throw at people over the last few days!
    • 4/5
      Snuff is a novel I shouldn't admit to having read. I remorsefully read it in less time than I'm comfortable admitting. My third Palahniuk novel and certainly not my last. One has to admire the level of research required for such a topic.
    • 2/5
      Meh. They wanted to break a record. 600 men, 1 woman..the comeback to end comebacks. Told from the perspective of 3 of the men and the "talent wrangler", intriguing, but I figured it out very early on. I am not sure if I was supposed to or if it was supposed to be some big surprise. Kind of surreal...Best part of the book was the descriptions and names of the previous porn that the aging star had been in. I kind of hope that Palahniuk made them up, I can't imagine porn having that kind of budget, but that was totally amusing to me.
    • 3/5
      It's a Palahniuk book. What were you expecting?