Much of the novel seems to be a challenge to see how much you can stand. The most important pivotal scenes in the novel are punctuated by disturbing, and even obscene, scenes which seem to have no other purpose than to disturb the reader. The various characters seemingly appear and disappear in the narrative as they please without any specific reason, leaving it up to the reader to guess who is important and who isn’t to the novel. One pair of scenes, which take place only minutes apart, are separated by more than seventy pages. The result is a novel which is not told in chronological order and difficult to follow. The narrative of the novel jumps from person to person and detailing how each person contributes, copes, or fights against the events of Adjustment Day and its aftermath. In only a few minutes, nearly all of the targets on The List have been killed, and their left ears taken as evidence. Fueled by Adjustment Day, an aphorism filled book which convinces ordinary citizens that Adjustment Day is coming, and that they have the opportunity to be a part of it. For weeks people have been voting on what is called The List, an opportunity for ordinary citizens to select who they think are “America’s Least Wanted”. Just as the declaration of war is about to be passed, the citizens of the United States begin Adjustment Day, the ultimate power reversal. It is the eve of America’s newest war, one in which two million young men will be removed from their ordinary lives and be drafted to fight.

The novel is not about the usual downfall of a dystopia, or an individual’s escape from a dystopia, but rather the creation of a dystopian society. Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, has added a unique but rather distasteful novel to the dystopian canon.

Chuck palahniuk book list