Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

Imagine being able to kill someone just by uttering a few simple verses. Hell, Carl Streater didn't even have to speak it. All he had to do was think it.
At the beginning of this book you might think Carl is the hero. Perhaps he is. Perhaps not. Whether or not this book really even has a hero is a discussion in itself.
Helen Hoover Boyle and her impeccable sense of color-coordination is cold and calculating. Indifferent to the pleas of others as her pessimism leaves no room for shades of gray.
Mona Sabbat, Mulberry, or whichever name she chooses to go by, is a practicing Wiccan that works for Helen. Mona's kind of a sad character. She frustrates sometimes, but when you think about why she talks about the things she does, she becomes the type of character you pity. She's roaming about all these concepts (Wicca, I Ching, Shamanism) trying to find one that has the most knowledge and serenity. And you find yourself wishing her militant vegan boyfriend Oyster would take a flying leap.

The book begins with a mission to get rid of this 'culling song', but once Carl learns how easy it is to use, it makes it that much more difficult NOT to use. The basic question of the whole book is: What would you do if you had such an ultimate power? And Palahniuk's answer is a very realistic one for our culture: Any damned thing I want.

This is written in Classic Palahniuk style, which means I have to be careful how much I divulge lest I spoil it for those you have yet to read it. (If you haven't, what are you waiting for?)
It's a fast read, but an engrossing read. It's got almost a cinematic pace to it. It's not straight-out genre fiction, but then his stuff never was. It's a thriller- It's definately got a sense of suspense to it. It's reminiscant of Fight Club in the way that things just seem to fall out of control on our main character and he has a hedonistic 'partner' saying: "Join me." But it's also a cultural commentary in certain ways. ANYway, to make a long story short: If you don't have this book, go get it. If I wrote the college reading lists, Chuck would definately be on there.