Fight Club 2 [graphic novel]

This is where Goodreads needs negative numbers to score with. Chuck fucking Palahniuk OWES me stars simply for spending hard-earned cash on this steaming pile of dogshit.

Chuck has written three of my favourite novels. One is [book:Lullaby|22206], one is [book:Rant|22285], and one is [book:Fight Club|5759]. And yes, I read the novel before I saw the movie. He had some other books in between that I also enjoyed a fair amount, but then, things started to get a touch weird. [book:Haunted|22288], while having some great stuff in it, overall was a miss for me. But when he then proceeded to lube himself up with Crisco then swan-dived into the festering, hemorrhoid-laden anal cavity that was [book:Pygmy|4601396], a book that was virtually show more unreadable and incredibly stupid. After that, ol' Chuck just seemed to try and out-Chuck himself. And, having at one time thought of him as one of my top five favourite writers, he fell completely off my radar, and I swore I was done reading him.

Then he decides to follow up his finest work with a sequel. Well hell, I have to break my rule for that, right? I mean...this is Fight Club we're talking here.

Of course, I did not embark upon this journey without some trepidation.

Still, the cover art by the amazing Mack helped to allay my fears, as did the excellent interior art by Cameron Stewart. And, for the first couple of chapters or issues of this ten-issue run, things were going okay. Yes, the world of Fight Club is a messed up one, so I was ready for a little confusion, a little messiness. I can say I actually enjoyed the first two chapters.

But then, by chapter four? Yeah, the shit was beginning to pile up.

Around chapter seven, I actually stopped reading and said to myself, "It's like this fucking story was written by someone with ADD." Palahniuk wasn't just bouncing from scene to scene, the scenes were bouncing panel by panel, and the story was spiraling so far out of the realistic, it blew right past probable, then improbable, said fuck you to plot holes as it jetted by, and ended up in the nether regions of brain-damaged meets bad fan fiction.

Then it got worse.

It got meta.

Oh yeah, Palahniuk, having long ago run out of not just good ideas, but even bad ideas, decided to mine the truly horrible idea of not just throwing himself into the story as the author writing it as we read it, but having him interact both with the characters and his Write Club.

And then he drew the half-assed ending out for pages and fucking pages. This is where that shit that had been piling up reached its tipping point and began its landsliding onslaught on everything that made the original Fight Club such a mind-blowing reading experience.

Words cannot express how deeply I despise this shockingly, stunningly bad pile of shit. The rating is 35 stars for all the art and colour and lettering and effort by everyone other than Palahniuk to make this a story worth reading, and -34 stars for his effort in spreading his ass cheeks and dropping a Cleveland steamer all over that effort.

I will never read anything by this author again. Ever. Because, as far as I'm concerned, he's forgotten how to be one, and should be stripped of rights to author anything, be it a novel, a script, or a blog post.

Palahniuk, you were once gifted. Now, you just suck. show less

I don't think that I could have asked for a better sequel to the original Fight Club (both the novel and the film). This graphic novel adaptation contains a careful balance between Palahniuk's ascorbic writing style and the stunning if disturbing imagery of the movie to create a being that almost surpasses the original. I say "almost" because it's not really possible to top Palahniuk's original work, but this collection gives fans everything that a sequel could - hints of the first story, wrapped inside an equally mind-bending plot, with an almostpre-ludic quality that screams "Tyler Durden lives - long live Tyler Durden."

I am Jack's Bitter Disappointment. I am Jack's Loathing For Everything New Palahniuk.

I was able to read this in just one day, with only 3 breaks at work (30 minutes at best each) and about a half-hour to an hour of reading before work.

It's New-Palahniuk, not like Survivor/(Original) Fight Club/Invisible Monsters Palahniuk. This is following in line with Beautiful You, Pygmy, Tell-All, Doomed, etc, where the plots are so over-the-top-contrived, the "philosophy" BS is at all-time max-level settings, and the dialogue always is below par.

Do you like the Fight Club the movie/and-or book? Then don't read this. It will just ruin every last bit of love you had for it. Oh, and did you see FC the movie before reading FC the book? Then show more Palahniuk hates you and wants to let you know it here in this book. Because the entire end to this omnibus is Palahniuk being a character and going meta-meta on the story, which does absolutely nothing for anything, other than to try and get his philosophy of 'ideas outlive characters - even fictional ones' to take hold in your head. Minus the fact that it's a dumb token BS philosophical idea, and that it doesn't really hold any weight. And its more or less just a poor-lame version of anything Vonnegut has done when introducing himself into his plots.

The drawings are good. The stenciling, artwork, etc, everything on that level as far as this graphic novel goes - is good. The plot, the writing, the story, the characters, etc, are what is bad. Marla doesn't feel or act like Marla. Tyler doesn't even act like Tyler really. Sebastion (the narrator from the original FC) doesn't act quite right either. And apparently Paulson (Meatloaf, aka bitchtits, in the movie) is now a zombie that can be called upon at will by saying his name. Also, Tyler is Satan just reincarnated each generation through his ideas spreading, and somehow only certain people can see it/him or understand him (and of course Palahniuk in story and out of story though-in-story can.....).

The comic tries to be 'cute' and cover up certain words/word-bubbles and pictures with random blood blots or drugs or sperm to try and give it some depth with a "what might be underneath.... who knows!" ominous vibes, but it really doesn't do much more than just be annoying and make you try to read around it and continue. The book paces so quickly and jumps from scene to scene without resolution from the prior anyway, that missing a word or two doesn't detract a thing, nor does the idea of it really add anything either.

The plot is just horrible, and I don't even feel like rehashing it in summary form here. Though Palahniuk gets to use his progeria 'kids' again (though he makes one an elderly midget woman who pretends to have progeria). The plot is so disjointed (Wand Foundation =/= Make a Wish, and apparently they have no qualms with sending kids on their death beds to the Middle East if that's their wish, and to give them AK-47s and let them try and take out ISIS or whatever, as part of their wish). The plot is beyond contrived and confusing for the sake of it, and we get asides and interjects from Palahniuk himself early on where he's at a writing retreat.... and yea.... its just bad.

I wasn't going to rate this quite so low, until the final 'chapter' and its abysmal ending. Oh but don't worry folks, we've already been told a Fight Club 3 (in graphic novel form) will be out eventually! I'm sure the Palahniuk-olics will love it.

*Sigh* *Gags* show less

What was I thinking when I felt trepidation upon seeing this title creep into my life? That it would be nothing more than a cheap cash-in on Palahniuk's crop? That I'd be wasting my time?

Oh, silly me.

Sure, it picks up a decade later with our MC and Marla with a kid and a picket fence, but don't let that fool you. Tyler never died. Ideas always pick up followers. It's never the other way around.

Remember, the original Fight Club started under a veneer of normalcy, too, and it got really fucked-up. Well, just so you know, this does too. You might say it's taking the franchise to whole new places.

I was sooo thrilled to learn that Cloe never died. What a trip.

So if I were to rank this little gem with other great titles out there, I think I show more can easily place it proudly in the Saga field, with a bit more blood and queasy notions than that esteemed title. Yup. Fight Club 2 is good. Very good.

I may be biased. I loved the original, too. The only way to prevent a sequel from feeling cheap is to go much farther and break new ground. And this definitely does. Hooray! :)

Want a match? How about a free couch? show less

I understand Palahniuk's frustration with Fight Club. The movie overshadowed the book, changed its ending, and more people are in love with the ideas presented in the film, more than the book.

All that I understand, but I still don't get what happened in this disaster of a sequel.

I don't understand the characterization of Marla and Sebastian (really? I thought it was Jack), the way they went from the first book to the second. Tyler was the reason she fell in love with him in the first place, and now she's helping get rid of him and then brings him back to be fucked once in a while.

I don't understand the reason why Palahniuk felt necessary to insert himself into the story in such an incoherent, intrusive way. It almost feels like he had show more written himself into a corner, so he had to carry out this deus ex machina to pull himself out. Lazy, crazy writing.

Finally, what the hell is even going on in the story? The logical acrobatics were too much for me to follow. Where is the razor-sharp commentary of the first book? This one feels like a hammer that's seen better days.

I can't say I enjoyed this too much. If you're looking for a witty, sharp satire of men in modern society, read the first book (or watch the movie). This graphic novel has zero wit, and the commentary is just blegh at best. show less

Very disappointing. I didn't expect it to fully live up to Fight Club but it's not even close. The dense stream of consciousness of that novel is lost in the transition to a comics form where text is so sparse on the page. The meta narrative doesn't really land and this has none of the shock, flair or originality.

Not that good. If you are looking for the deep, transgressive weirdness of Fight Club, keep looking. The book does feature most of the important characters from the novel, but there isn't much soul or plot in this sequel.