Phoenix

I am a lousy, horrible human being. I fully admit, when I realized what happened to the cat, I laughed way too hard. And I love cats. This story will NOT be for everyone. I'm just a twisted sort of guy.

This story is short. I'm a slow reader and it only took me twenty minutes to finish it but it was worth every penny of its $.99 price tag. The writing is spot on. The humor isn't dark, it's pitch black.

This is the best thing Palahniuk has written since Diary.

If you ask me, this is a very good and short introduction to Palahniuk for those who merely want to dip their toe in the water.

It's a very short read about the relationship in a small family, in this case two parents and one child.

There are some really scary, suspenseful, dark, sad and funny scenes in this short story, true to Palahniuk form.

A couple of quotes:

Rachel hadn’t invented the dangers of toxoplasmosis; she’d gone online and built an airtight case. This wasn’t crazy talk. Neurobiologists had linked T. gondii to suicide and the onset of schizophrenia. All caused by exposure to cat poop. Some studies even suggested that the toxo brain parasites chemically coerced people to adopt more cats. Those crazy cat ladies were

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actually being controlled by an infection of single-cell invaders.

“You’re pregnant?” Ted asked. He put his black napkin to his lips. To wipe them or hide them, Rachel couldn’t tell.

All in all: completely worth it. I enjoyed the ending. show less

Dysfunction, delusion and deprecation are three words that could be used to describe this short story by Palahniuk.

Short stories have always been hard for me to swallow due to the lack of depth and attachment you get from a full length story. However, if you know anything about Palahniuk, he has the ability to use few words but give you something worthwhile out of it.

This particular story revolves around a dysfunctional couple who have a child. Palahniuk writes this from the third person and flashes back and forth between two events. Strange enough this works very well and is something we don't really see from Palahniuk (3rd person).

Think this sounds too "normal", you haven't read enough Palahniuk. Trust me, you'll encounter all the show more messy, eye twitchy goodness found in his other works. You'll also find some really good quotes within, so read on... the 99 cents is worth it! show less

Love it. Refreshing to see him writing something good again, I've been disappointed with my last few of his stories but this was a great little short!

This was my first by this author, I will for sure be checking out more of his work though. It was a pretty dark short story that reminded me a lot of [b:The Unremarkable Heart and Other Stories|13242600|The Unremarkable Heart and Other Stories|Karin Slaughter|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328012688s/13242600.jpg|14369561]

It was OK. If you are a fan of his, read it. If not, just pass.

2017 Reading Challenge: 20/53 Read a short story, one with less than 5,000 words

Lol.