The collision of cultures, age, death and the terror of staying alive make this a most accomplished debut.

This is a wild ride of a novel

A clever, comical pell-mell through gender politics and stereotyped expectations, to explore the extremes of will-power, and of living as one wishes

Readers can either disregard the author and read it in the conventional way or follow his instructions and jump to the chapter you are told. The thrill of defiance in the former almost matches the same show-like excitement of the latter – both are exhilarating and rewarding options

Twelve years on, Palahniuk revisits this work – mashing up its linear narrative to recreate the pre-Internet thrill of flicking through Vogue or the Sears catalogue

With its nonlinear format and instructions to jump from one chapter to another, this book might appear to be style over substance, but that’s the point: if you don’t want to look beyond the style, whether its ugly or beautiful, you’ll never find out what’s beneath