Survivor (1999) by Chuck Palahniuk is a darkly satirical novel about Tender Branson, a member of the Creedish Church, a religious death cult. The story unfolds in reverse, with chapters and pages numbered backward. Tender, the sole narrator, recounts his life while sitting in the cockpit of a hijacked 747, speaking into the plane's black box. The Creedish Church trains its followers to become servants, fearing worldly pleasures and awaiting divine instruction to commit suicide. Years after the mass suicide of the cult's members, Tender is one of the few survivors, now living in servitude for a wealthy couple. He inadvertently becomes a suicide hotline operator, offering advice to strangers, and meets Fertility Hollis, the sister of a man he encouraged to kill himself. Their complex relationship and Fertility’s psychic visions intertwine with Tender's story of survival, cult conspiracy, and murder, culminating in a hijacking plot that loops back to the novel’s opening. The ending remains ambiguous, leaving readers uncertain of Tender's fate.
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