Tender Branson, this story's protagonist, comes from a amish-cult coven where hard labor is prized above technological facilities. Raised on the virtues of honesty and labor, the group harbors a dark underside. When they come under investigation from the Feds, the entire community carries out a suicide pact.

Brason was one of a hundred or so members that worked off-site, doing handiwork in the cities, and so was unable to carry out his part of the suicide pact.  As the years pass, the remaining members work up their courage and finish themselves off, and the dwindles down from a hundred until Brason soon finds himself the only remaining survivor.

Branson seems resigned, if not a bit reluctant to fulfill the prophecy, he works at a suicide hotline for fun, visits the morgue, and knows hundreds of different ways to off himself-- but things just seem to keep getting in the way. 

Written in the style Palahniuk began with Fight Club, interesting facts are interspersed with darkly written humor and insightful quips.  The best way to clean blood out of tile flooring is with lemon juice and baking soda, did you know?  Mixing Chlorine cleaners with Ammonia can create a poisonous gas cloud? And so on

As Branson struggles, torn between the desire to break out of his destiny and his feelings of duty to carry it out, the story is dictated as a life story on an airplane's black box. The ending of the story is open to interpretation, which I quite liked.

If you liked Fight Club, you'll like Palahnuik's second novel. It's similar, centering on themes of self destruction, but the philosophical focus has moved off external factors towards self reflection, taboos, and the institutionalized brainwashing of virtues as a means of control.

Rating 7/10

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