Haunted is a novel made up of stories: twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you'll ever encounter. They are told by the people who have all answered an ad headlined 'Artists Retreat: Abandon your life for three months'. They are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of 'real life' that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But 'here' turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theatre where they are utterly isolated from the outside world - and where heat and power and, most importantly, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more desperate the stories they tell - and the more devious their machinations to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/non-fiction blockbuster that will certainly be made from their plight.
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This was supposed to be a writer's retreat. GUINEA PIGS
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(@vintagebooks, 31 May 2011, ebook, 418 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle, # popsugarreadingchallenge, a book by an author who shares your zodiac sign)
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I bought this book at random a few years ago because it was on sale for 99p and I thought why not? It moved higher up on my radar since I enjoyed Fight Club last month. There's something I really like about the author's style. Haunted is an inter-linking collection of quite dark and bizarre poetry and short stories. They are linked by the fact they were written by a group of writers brought together because they answered an ad about a writer's retreat, unaware they were actually volunteering for a strange experiment. The stories and poems alternate with short chapters set at this 'retreat' where things are becoming increasingly sinister. I really enjoyed this book.
