Readers > Adult & teen lists If You Like Chuck Palahniuk

If You Like Chuck Palahniuk, You Might Enjoy …

All titles shelved in Fiction collection, except as noted: M=mystery, SF=science fiction.

Bachelder, Chris: Bear v. Shark

(2001)

After losing the first bout, Bear is back for the fight of his life against Shark. A family travels across country to the witness the battle, and is bombarded by the media covering it.
Bazell, Josh: Beat the Reaper

(2009)

On Order

In this wild and hilarious debut thriller, Peter Brown is a young Manhattan emergency room doctor with a past, a secret, and a gun — and has 24 hours to save himself and beat the reaper.
Bock, Charles: Beautiful Children

(2008)

Capturing Las Vegas with unprecedented scope and nuance, this debut novel not only rushes toward a climax of heartache and redemption, but provides a deviously funny and unyielding portrait of a tragedy readers are sure to recognize as their own.
Bogosian, Eric: Wasted Beauty

(2005)

From the author of Mall comes a sprawling novel of urban desperation and desire that etches an unforgettable portrait of New York's drug and fashion worlds, and of the desperation running just beneath the surface glamour.
Bolaño, Roberto: The Savage Detectives

(2007)

In this dazzling novel, the book that established Robert Bolano's international reputation, he tells the story of two modern-day Quixotes — the last survivors of an underground literary movement, perhaps of literature itself — on a tragicomic quest through their darkening, entropic world.
Bonfiglioli, Kyril: Don't Point That Thing at Me

(2004)

M

A cult classic in the UK since its first publication in the 1970s, this hilarious and dark-humored crime thriller features the Honorable Charlie Mortdecai, degenerate aristocrat, amoral art dealer, seasoned epicurean, unwilling assassin and general knave-about-Piccadilly.
Bruen, Ken: Magdalen Martyrs

(2005)

M

The third explosive novel by Edgar-finalist Bruen, set in the streets of Galway, The Magdalen Martyrs is a gripping story that takes the Jack Taylor series to new heights.
Chase, Clifford: Winkie

(2006)

In Chase's scathingly funny and surprisingly humane debut novel, the zeitgeist assumes the form of a one-foot-tall ursine Everyman — a mild-mannered teddy bear named Winkie who comes to life and finds himself on the wrong side of America's war on terror.
Clevenger, Craig: Dermaphoria

(2005)

Amnesiac Eric Norton wakes up in a police interrogation room burned from a meth lab explosion. As he tries to remember his past, his criminal employers and the police track his every move, and he learns that finding your past can be just as painful as losing it.
Codrescu, Andrei: Wakefield

(2004)

In this rollicking deal-with-the devil novel, the popular NPR commentator and incisive observer of American life sums up the late 20th century.
Coupland, Douglas: Hey Nostradamus!

(2003)

In 1988, a catastrophic episode of teen violence changes a suburban community forever. Hey Nostradamus! is Coupland's keenly observant exploration of this tragic landscape.
Davidson, Andrew: The Gargoyle

(2008)

An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time, The Gargoyle is a hypnotic, horrifying, astonishing novel that manages, against all odds, to be redemptive.
Doctorow, Cory: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

(2005)

SF

One of the leading voices of next-generation SF and author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom returns with a miraculous novel of secrets, lies, magic and Internet connectivity, set on the streets of modern-day Toronto.
Drake, Monica: Clown Girl

(2007)

Drake has created a novel that blends the high comedy of early film stars — most notably Chaplin and W.C. Fields — to raise questions of class, gender, economics, and prejudice. Resisting easy classification, this debut novel blends the bizarre, the humorous, and the gritty with great skill.
Ellis, Bret Easton: Lunar Park

(2005)

From the author of Less Than Zero comes a work that confounds one expectation after another, passing through comedy and mounting psychological and supernatural horror toward an astonishing resolution. Lunar Park is a novel about love and loss, fathers and sons, in what is surely the most original and moving novel of an extraordinary career.
Ellis, Warren: Crooked Little Vein

(2007)

Packed with mind-bending style and a wild cast of characters, this surprisingly surreal treat from a best-selling comic book writer infuses Robert B. Parker with Kurt Vonnegut, and the madness of the graphic novel world.
Gattis, Ryan: Kung Fu High School

(2005)

MLK High School has collapsed into Kung Fu High School where two gangs stand against the puppet principal and the drug kingpin who pulls his strings. Cousin Jimmy — a world champion martial arts master of mythic stature — arrives in town after swearing to his mother that he'll never fight again. Teachers flee, students break out full weaponry, and Jimmy must make a decision that will brand him a coward — or a hero.
Kadrey, Richard: Butcher Bird

(2007)

SF

Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful — the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. Dropped into the middle of a conflict he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself.
Pierre, D. B. C.: Vernon God Little

(2003)

Vital, riotously funny and energetic, Pierre puts lust for vengeance, materialism and trial by media squarely in the dock. The main character emerges as the lovable upholder of love, truth and homespun wisdom in a world gone mad.
Pollock, Donald Ray: Knockemstiff

(2008)

The stories in this collection feature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled, and depraved — but irresistibly, undeniably real. With artistic sensibilities reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor, Pollock offers a powerful work of fiction in the classic American vein.
Ruff, Matt: Bad Monkeys

(2007)

Jane Charlotte claims to be a member of a secret organization — the Bad Monkeys — devoted to ridding the world of especially evil people. As Jane's tale grows increasingly bizarre, a psychiatrist tries to sort truth from lies. Is she lying or crazy, or is her tale unbelievably true?
Scott, D. Travers: One of These Things is Not Like The Other

(2005)

Set in a dream-soaked reality one step removed from our own, One of These Things Is Not Like the Other is a darkly comic tale of masculine identity and relationships by celebrated and internationally acclaimed author D. Travers Scott.
Segura, Jonathan: Occupational Hazards

(2008)

Newcomer Segura presents this fast-paced newsroom thriller about a burnt-out reporter who uncovers a shocking, deadly conspiracy — and who finds his own sharply funny, endearingly dysfunctional self along the way.