One of Palahniuk's best.

My review could be just two words long. The two words that came out of my mouth as soon as I closed the book -- f-cking amazing. But really, I had expected no less from the author of Fight Club.

The book jacket bills the core characters as the 'new nuclear family' and that's a pretty good description. Everything starts with Carl Streator, the newspaper reporter who is probably too good at his job. Then there is Helen Hoover Boyle, the real estate broker with a high turnover rate - because she markets 'haunted' houses. Her assistant, Mona Sabbat, is a eager and smart young Wiccan with a sarcastic ecoterrorist boyfriend, Oyster.

Carl and Helen have both dealt with the tragedy dealt by a simple lullaby. Though it's not really a lullaby, but rather an African poem referred to as a 'culling song'. It only has to be said or thought in the direction of someone to be fatal. The foursome engage in a cross-country trip to remove all copies of the poem from existence for it was once printed in an anthology of poems, which has led to a high number of deaths purported to be SIDS.

When Mona was referred to as Wiccan, I groaned audibly. There is so much misinformation and misportrayal of Wiccans in the media today that I was expecting the worst ... but Palahniuk is too good of a writer to fall into stereotypes. I should never have doubted his ability.

9/10