(4.75 Stars)

I'll be honest, Some of the "bad reviews" really confuse me. I understand this is a strange subject to write about, and that porn/sex/erotica make a lot of people "uncomfortable", especially when it involves toys, non-straight sex, drugs, "deviance", etc. But... This is Chuck Palahniuk, he writes about uncomfortable things, and uses characters that come alive on the pages. Yes, this is probably one of his shortest fiction books, but he wrote an interesting story, and honestly, this is classic Palahniuk story telling.

What I am trying to say is... Don't let the bad reviews scare you away. Don't listen to the people claiming this is the beginning of Palahniuk's downfall. Don't believe the people claiming you can look at their previous Palahniuk reviews. No... instead, consider this Palahniuk's mission accomplished. He invoked people's Fight or Flight response, separated the wheat from the chaff, and is doing what he does best; making the intangible tangible, the unfamiliar familiar, the misunderstood understood.

Readers of Chuck Palahniuk, and his brand of bizarre absurdist fiction will love this short work. An insightful look into the people who gravitate in and around the adult industry. Their choices, their decisions, their delusions, all delivered in typical Palahniuk style. The regurgitation of strange facts, the characters that stay with you, the anxiety of everything. ( )

Not Palahniuk's best, but it was still decent. It's definitely not something I'd want to read twice, however. ( )

At first I couldn't get into it. Never read Palahniuk before, but he is often recommended. So I skipped to the end and read the last few chapters to see what I was missing out on. Intrigued, I went back to the front and read through. Pretty effed up story, but it turned out to be an interesting read.

Note to self: Read the end before deciding to abandon a book. ( )

I like the way he described his characters. They came to life for me, but the story itself was pretty boring. ( )

Sometimes Chuck gets a little silly. ( )