It's not been long since I read Fight Club. I know - but originally I never knew it was a book - I know! But I really enjoyed (you know what I mean) that book so I was quite excited to get my hands on this, his latest... hoping for something more in the same vein...
What I actually got pretty much blew me away, shocked me, scared me, disgusted me, and intrigued me all the way to the end. OK so for full disclosure, I did spend quite a long time in a state of confusion wondering what in the heck it was all about and where in the heck we were going next but... I have been there before and I know that it'll either all come good or it'll all bomb out and, if I trust the author, them maybe it'll be the former... Which in this case, it was.
We meet a father whose daughter was abducted many years since, her fate to this day still unknown. He's desperate to find out what happened to her and, when we first meet him, he is investigating a new clue. Cut then to a foley artist (google it, it's actually quite an interesting topic) whose specialism is producing screams. Her work is in big demand, but how she manages to get them to be so realistic... well... I'm leaving that for you to discover.
Quite how these two are connected, or not, or maybe, well... I'm also leaving that for you to figure out. But be warned... as with probably most of his other books, and definitely Fight Club, this book is brutal, visceral and all things nasty. This author does not pull his punches. Me, I love all that stuff, especially when the author also has the characters and plot line to back it all up.
I'm going to leave this here - try this book if you think you're brave enough. It's a solid story which hit the ground running, held me captive (albeit a tad confused) throughout, spitting me out at the end exhausted but satisfied. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Thanks NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

We have two main characters in this one: Gates Foster, who had his daughter abducted years ago and since then, he has been chasing people who might be involved in children's abduction and we also have Mitzi Ives, who has a very creepy job (or hobby? I'm not really sure) of creating the sound of real screams(!) used in Hollywood movies. Eventually, they will cross paths and well, you'll see.

This was as intense and dark as the author's previous books so if you liked them, you'll definitely enjoy this one as well.

His writing is simple and yet very gripping. He is not afraid to go to some really dark places to tell this story, so be warned.

Overall, I really liked it, but I wish it was a bit longer and that it would dig deeper in some aspects.

Palahniuk has this incredible knack of landing you right in the middle of something leaving you as disoriented and stressed out as his characters. Then, when the picture gets clearer, you kind of wish, for the sake of your sanity, that you'd just remained confused. The Invention of Sound doesn't disappoint in this regard.

This is a juggernaut of a novel rarely letting up to let you pause for breath. Actually, more than once there's a sentence or passage that will freak you out so much the only thing to do is put the book down and return to it later once you've suitably psyched yourself to continue.

I liked the premise of this one more than I have with any of his works in awhile - the trope of a serial killer going about their activities in plain sight is one I find particularly interesting. Then it grows some arms and legs and gets completely and utterly insane.

This is a dark novel, obviously, I think by now we know what we're getting into with Palahnuik, and not one for the faint hearted. But, if you can stomach it, it's not one to miss.

I fell in love with Chuck Palahniuk’s books as a bookish, goth teen, but fell straight out of love when his creation, Fight Club, became a highly charged symbol of the alt-right. I decided to give this book a fair trial as it’s based around one of my favourite horror tropes: the auteur who murders actors in exchange for success. Mitzy Ives’ blockbuster sound effects aren’t created in a studio- they come straight from the mouths of the wannabe actors she drugs and tortures through a haze of “Pinot grig and Ambien”. One scream catches the attention of Gates, a hapless vigilante who confronts suspected paedophiles with Pizzagate-fuelled fervour. Palahniuk’s books drip with sleaze; his latest features enough supernatural horror for fans of Lullaby and Diary, and plenty of grotesque for fans of Haunted, Damned and Snuff. The faint of heart should know by now that this is an author to avoid; avid fans of Bret Easton Ellis and William S Burroughs have long considered Palahniuk as one of the family. Recommended for adults only.

Chuck Palahniuk's latest offering is unsurprisingly for those who love their horror or are fans of his trademark original forays into the dark, sick, seedy and twisted worlds and the flawed and desperate characters he creates. It's difficult to stop reading, even when it often becomes too much, his visceral writing, kaleidoscopic and episodic, makes a memorable impact, and it can be hard to wipe from your imagination what you have just read. Gates Foster is a broken father whose auburn haired young daughter, Lucinda, was abducted, and he has never been able to move on, his world fractured, grief stricken, obsessed and addicted to his memories of her, willing to pay for and indulge in fantasies that keep her alive in his mind, how she might look now and be in the present. He sinks into the murky and depraved world of the dark web, chasing paedophiles, the likes of the notorious child sex trafficker, Paolo Lassiter, sighted in Denver, Colorado. To try and help him come to terms with the loss of Lucinda, he joins a group who have lost children.

In Hollywood, the dangerous Mitzi Ives, is a gifted foley artist when it comes to producing screams that have given her power, an art that commands her almost unheard of rewards, a profession that she ventures to think of as a political act, one that makes people both afraid of her and venerate her. The screams she creates are ones she wants remembered in Hollywood's history of famous screams, used widely in numerous disparate areas outside of film. Mitzi has a family history to uphold when it comes to the invention of her screams, the horrifying terror of screams captured from victims in the last throes of their lives. Mitzi and Gates Foster's paths are destined to cross in this chilling and compulsive narrative. This is not a read for the faint of heart, and to be honest, it probably really wasn't for me, possibly because of my current frame of mind. However, I cannot deny that it is well written and compulsive, and it will appeal to the horror fiction fans out there. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

** spoiler alert ** Palahniuk writes about the darkest of subjects,yet with a humour and charm that makes you enjoy the book.
This one introduces us to two very different characters,that you know are on a collision course to meet,and when they do,it will be good.
It's been years since I've read Palahniuk,but I'm glad I grabbed this one.

Not for the squeamish.