A Book You Have to Read

I just finished Haunted — as vile, nauseating, and evil a book as has ever been printed. It's also brilliantly written and thoroughly hilarious. Structured around the stories told by a group of aspiring writers who've been kidnapped and held in an increasingly horrific ''writers' retreat,'' Haunted reads like the Campfire Stories of the Damned. In an afterword/''warning,'' the author boasts that the story ''Guts,'' when read to audiences, has caused incidents of fainting and injury. I have no reason to doubt him. I saw Pasolini's [1975 film] Salo immediately after and it felt like family viewing by comparison. If you like brutally funny satire, cannibalism, self-mutilation, and murder (and who doesn't?) or are a former member of the Manson family looking for something to read aloud to your friends and loved ones, then Haunted will be an indispensable collection and holiday-season classic.

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• Book Review Haunted | Whitney Pastorek