Survivor

A Novel

by Chuck Palahniuk

paperback, 304 pages

Published May 1, 2018 by W. W. Norton & Company.

ISBN:: 978-0-393-35593-2

(7 reviews)

Tender Branson, the last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult, is dictating his memoirs into the record of Flight 2039. The plane is on autopilot at 39,000 feet somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Branson is alone on the flight; the plane is programmed to crash into the Australian Outback. Before the plane crashes, however, Branson will have recorded his transformation from an obedient Creedish child to an ultra-buffed, steroid- and collagen-packed media messiah.

2 editions

dgw reviewed Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Review of 'Survivor' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Picking up this book when I did was a mistake; it made me stay up way too late the night before a big rehearsal. But reading it was the anti-mistake. I read it in two sittings, and that only because I had to break off the first to get some sleep before that rehearsal.

Like others have mentioned, the characters feel somewhat flat, but the book isn't really about character development but our society. The theme spoke to me. Somehow, this theme should be distributed through the world consciousness; a lot of issues Palahniuk brought up a decade ago are still unresolved, or worse than they were.