Shock induction A novel

Review by Booklist Review

A novel by Palahniuk (Not Forever, but For Now, 2023) almost defies attempts to describe it, which may be exactly what he intends. In his newest dark satire, high-school students, the cream of the crop, are dying, apparently from suicide. What is driving them to this extreme act? A rash of suicides among young people is not a new plot; John Saul tackled it in Punish the Sinners, back in 1978. But nobody takes an idea and runs with it the way Palahniuk does. His teen-suicide story is set in a brilliantly realized near-future in which the super-wealthy keep students under surveillance from the day they're born, deciding which will be offered a job--and a lifetime spent under the control of their employer (even this is just a tiny sampling of the wonderful, scary, funny ideas in this book). The author's writing style isn't for everyone: he bounces from idea to idea, shifts gears stylistically, and rambles on from time to time, but it's all completely intentional and an integral part of his unique storytelling mode. Palahniuk's fans will be delighted.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In the latest bracing satire from Palahniuk (Fight Club), a wave of high school suicides roils the country. The narrative centers on Samantha Deel, a brilliant and resourceful teenager who's hit hard by the suicide of her boyfriend, Garson. When her excellent academic record attracts the notice of an organization called Greener Pastures, she agrees to enter its mysterious program. Passages from the group's "Guide," which blends calls for Stepford Wives--esque conformity with a vision for a new order ("The family is over"), are interspersed throughout the novel. The excerpts provide an eerie contrast to Sam's dangerous odyssey as a complex series of events brings the teen, who is secretly pregnant with Garson's baby, to the Orphanage, an affiliate of Greener Pastures, where her process of "induction" begins. The patchwork structure accommodates periodic sidebars and ironic observations on references high and low, from Hitler to Captains Courageous, as the narrator muses on totalitarianism and mind control. Many of the one-liners target low-hanging fruit, but there's a cleverness to the depiction of Sam as a survivor ("Unlike Jay Gatsby," Palahniuk writes, "Samantha Deel would live beyond her early infatuation"). Die-hard Palahniuk fans will lap this up. Agents: Sloan Harris and Dan Kirschen, ICM Partners. (Oct.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

The kids are most definitely not all right in a near future that can't decide whether to drug them, kill them, or promote them. "WAKE UP, YOU BASTARDS!" That barbaric yelp might not be the most traditional finale, but here we are back in the land of Chuck. This is not Palahniuk's first foray into teen angst--seeDamned (2011) andDoomed (2013) for lighter fare. This time he's way more interested in pulling apart the building blocks of story and self than subverting conventional dystopian tropes. In this bizarro version of America, the powers that be launch an ill-fated attempt to rescue society---covertly encouraging the country's largely illiterate youth to read books laced with everything from Ritalin to powerful hallucinogenics. Simultaneously, our best and brightest are targeted with a standardized test that neutralizes societal disruptors: "You cherry-pick. You hunt for kids likely to create seismic shifts in culture and technology, and you weed them out." Once ripe, they're sold by their parents to a postmodern slave market and repurposed from saviors into heads of state and corporate overlords: "Okay, it was a severly fucked-up system, buut a systm." Here comes steely-eyed Samantha Deel, destined to become the actual Queen of England, but so unhappy to be losing her dreams of singing that she maims herself. Yes, she's the hero, along with her formerly dead boyfriend, Garson, and a gender-bent, self-described "interventionist" named War Dog, but don't get too excited. Although there are a few familiar wisps of YA dystopia here,The Hunger Games it's not. Peppering his book with passages and phrases fromThe Great Gatsby,Anna Karenina, andThe Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Palahniuk is clearly enjoying himself, but he's also drilling down into the titular idea--a psychic or spiritual kick that gets you out of your own head for once. Readers' choice whether this is a coded message, a spiked cocktail, or just a secret love letter to art. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Chapter 1 1 Want to control other people? One method of induction depends on exhausting the subject's mind. Ply the subject with so many details they lose the ability to focus on any single one. Tire them until their eyes glaze over. If you must, picture a person. A person not so young they bank on every haircut being a fresh start. A person old enough to recall when the top of all windshields was colored blue. Can you picture that? Every day, a blue sky. Such optimism. Let's start with that much. Now give yourself a big hug. You're doing great! Adjusting for variables in household income in recent recorded history circa 2032, the United States Senate Subcommittee on Education sat down with industry leaders from strategy-based commercial publishing for the stated purpose of identifying and ameliorating the environmental factors perpetuating the persistent and substantial gap of no less than two standard deviations in educational outcomes evident between grouped gender and ethnic cohorts specific to urban-sensitive populations. Factoring in raw data, not limited to corollary subsets, sourced from sixteen distinct cohorts and adjusted, plus or minus two percent, for overall physical and emotional well-being as well as socioeconomic-status inequities and the implementable strictures of realistic policy response, given how the variable figure is an artifact of both performative and empirical significance at least as measurable quantifiable skills attainment might diverge, those present engaged with the quandary as to reasons academic learners had so recently failed to engage with long-form prose. Allowing for the first and last quintile, the resultant cognitive mean skills gap, provable by intersectional juxtaposition and by forgoing traits non-applicable to increased resource investment in pre-K through post-secondary settings. In abstract they asked: Why the heck isn't anyone reading Moby-Dick ? Are you tired yet? Another method to induce a hypnotic trance is fractionation. You call the subject's attention in different directions. Listen to the sounds around you. Listen. Focus on the smooth feel of the paper under your fingertips, focus on the brush and peel as you turn the next page. Picture a girl. Picture Samantha Deel. If you must, picture Samantha's uncle. Samantha Deel has an uncle who served the better part of a seven-year sentence in prison. This uncle registers as a sex offender. Although he's wheelchair bound, Sam's uncle still reports to his parole officer every week, all because he one time "forgot" a safe word during sex. Most of his adult life, Sam's uncle spends every waking moment grumbling to himself, "Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado." Picture Samantha's mother, a woman who once complained about the court-ordered Intoxalock device on her car. "I don't have to drink," Sam's mom said. "Even if I've just been eating a Cinnabon or huffing gasoline, it can still blow a false positive." Picture Samantha's father, who once carried his Weatherby SA-08 twenty-gauge into the woods. Between racoon season and upland quail, he walked out to shoot mistletoe from the crown of a white oak. A big dark mass of mistletoe, if you can picture it, a month's rent hiding high up among the oak branches. Samantha's father shouldered the rifle and squinted down the barrel at the dark shape in the leaves. He braced with one foot back and pulled the trigger, Sam's father did, and that great clump of mistletoe came crashing down. Except it wasn't mistletoe. A body fell at his feet, Mr. Deel had killed a man. Except the man was already dead, with a noose of rope knotted around his neck, the skin as thin as a coat of paint on the dead man's bones. A suicide, her father had shot down. Except the dead man spoke. He lay at the feet of Samantha's dad, busted from the falling impact, from battering so many sturdy oak branches, this man, the noose still cinched around his neck and the rope blasted in half. Listen, and you can hear the half-dead man peppered with buckshot, bleeding from the holes in his clothes but still muttering to himself, "Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado ..." Feel the heft of the book in your hands. That's fractionation induction. The anecdote also demonstrates cognitive reframing. Spin = Cognitive Reframing. Please think of this first part as the opposite of a wake-up call. Wonderful. You're doing just great. You're doing great. Big hug. If you've read this far you've already read too far. Go wash your hands. The Senate findings committee had fingered gaming and online pornography as the primary driving factors for the outcome of functional illiteracy. "Gaming and movies are nothing but light and sound," the Senate stated. They asked, "What do we have to throw at them?" An editor from big publishing hovered over the microphone. "Senator, in 2032 alone, more than twelve hundred people died from handling dollar bills laced with fentanyl." For effect, here the editor hesitated. "I submit for your approval a glorious new future for books and the readers who love them. May I present the ERE Program." Excerpted with full permission from Regular Ward Care for Comatose ERE Patients In cases of acute ERE poisoning, withhold tracheal intubation. At all times, pay close attention to respiration. Always note when bronchial encumbrance in the comatose patient requires the use of airway clearance techniques (ACTs). Be aware of end-stage wet respirations, also known as the "death rattle"... In that closed-door secret subcommittee meeting in the Department of Education, the editor finally asked, "Can you see where this is headed?" Excerpted from Shock Induction: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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