Palahniuk.

Chuck Palahniuk is famously known for writing Fight Club (the book) amongst other essays and novels that I am obsessed with. His technique is blunt. He'll describe the innermost undesirable thought crouching at the bottom of our throat, launch it, and permanently shape it in print.

Some of his work is satircal. Some is kinda creepy. "Invisible Monsters" is an account of a supermodel whose face becomes distorted. She becomes the loyal follower of troublemakers looking to profit off stolen drugs and also has an innate desire to strangle those who mock her. The catch is that she barely speaks.

"Lullaby" is a story of a man who writes about sudden infant death syndrome, perhaps because his child died. He later learns this African chant that he sung to his wife and child was the legit cause of death. It wasn't Stephen-King scary, but it did leave me wary about the things I say.

"Stranger than fiction" is a compilation of essays, not the Will Ferrell movie, but an account of events Palahniuk experienced when traveling. There was a cowgirl who openly had sex on stage in a bar with random guys, which Palahniuk described with uncomfortable detail, and an interview with Marilyn Manson, where I learned he kept the skeleton of a Chinese boy in his attic.

Palahniuk's material is far from the lovey-dovey atmosphere of vampires or the heroism of wizards. It's more realistic in a wishful-thinking way and portrays an alternative world where mannerism doesn't exist.