Chuck Palahniuk is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher. He has one of the largest centralized followings of any author on the Internet, based around his official website. His writings, similar in style to those of such peers as Bret Easton Ellis, Irvine Welsh, and Douglas Coupland, have made him one of the most popular novelists of Generation X.

Some critics have labeled him as a "shock writer" because of the abnormal and gruesome situations in his writing, which are treated humorously rather than with criticism for the actions of the characters. There is also some questioning of the necessity of the non-fiction factoids that appear in his novels, which is further used to make the "shock writer" argument. Many critics claim that Palahniuk's works are nihilistic, or explorations into nihilism. However, Palahniuk claims he is not a nihilist, but a romantic, and that his works are merely mistaken for being nihilistic because they express ideas that others do not believe in.

Diary centers on Misty Wilmot, a once-promising young artist who's drinking too much and working as a waitress in a hotel. Her husband, a contractor, is in a coma after a suicide attempt, and his clients are threatening Misty with lawsuits over a series of vile messages they've discovered on the walls of houses he remodeled.

Suddenly, Misty's artistic talent returns. (Due to severe self mutilation.) Inspired but confused by this burst of creativity, she soon finds herself, and her talent, pawns in a larger conspiracy that threatens to cost hundreds of lives.