Invisible Monsters

by Chuck Palahniuk

Book Overview

She's a fashion model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge that she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393319296
• ISBN13: 9780393319293
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Fashion magazines on the wall

This book made it to the top of favorites. So many twist and turns that kept me glued in. Parts made me cringe. Parts made me laugh. I kept thinking I was gonna figure out the ending, but nope a twist! This book has been on my mind for days. Since closing I've been recommending it.

Nobody really gets noticed...not anymore

Despite the tragedy of the storyline and the callousness of the lead characters, I promise you are going to get several belly laughs from this twisted piece of literature. In a zany prose reminiscent of Candace Bushnell's 'Sex In The City' and the surrealism of Bret Easton Ellis's works, Palahniuk has written a twisted and sick tale of disfigurement, love, hate, and fashion here in Invisible Monsters. Shannon McFarland's career as a picture perfect model was ruined the day her lower jaw was shot off while she was driving down the freeway. Her best friend Evie Cottrell steals all her clothing while she is in the hospital, and her fiancé Manus Kelley leaves her; but during her speech therapy classes she meets the enigma that is Brandy Alexander. Brandy befriends Shannon, and together with friend Seth Thomas they set off on a wild cross country tour, viewing high end estates up for sale and stealing all of the prescription drugs from them. But believe me when I say, nothing is as it seems in this crazy story. You are in for several very big surprises. Invisible Monsters is a book that is not about the plot, it is about the characters, and yet there are twists upon twists upon twists every turn of the page. Who is Brandy Alexander? Who is Shannon McFarland? Who is Seth Thomas? And who is Evie Cottrell? You'll just have to keep reading. Like me, you will probably wind out not caring about any of them, but they are going to make you laugh out loud with their outrageous plans and antics. You'll have tears running down your face when Shannon's parents (in a flashback scene before her disfigurement) give her nothing but condoms for Christmas because her brother died of AIDS. And the conversation around the Thanksgiving table turns to graphic depictions of hinder romping while they cower in unnecessary fear because they support AIDS families. Be thankful these are not your parents. Told oddly in a profusion of scene jumping, using the written word like flash photography, Palahniuk has written a psychotically offbeat tale that nonetheless will have you turning pages as rapidly as Brandy pops vicodin and estrogen. I found it strangely enjoyable and morbidly compelling, and if you like screwy and disgusting stories, you will most likely love Invisible Monsters. Enjoy!

Bizarre Hilarity..The Jackass Crew has nothing on these guys

If I had to recommend a single Palahniuk book, other than the justifiably overhyped Fight Club, it would be this one. Not as meandering as Choke, self-righteous as Survivor, and as brief as Lullaby. Invisible Monsters is another one of his books that plays itself as a film within your head...you try not to gasp in horror and laugh at the same time. It has a solid story and a concrete ending! Palahniuk needs to follow this model using his style as a assault on your imagination. I'm suprised that this is not as popular as Fight Club...seeing as how this is every bit as stylistic as it was. For those of you that can't get Brad Pitt out of your head when you read about Tyler Durden, this is a good one to pick up before a film version steals that purity from you. It's cheaply priced and a fun read...the pages blaze by.

Excellent

First I saw the movie Fight Club. Loved it. The I read the novel. Loved it even more. Just had to buy the rest of his books, definitely one of the smartest moves I've ever done. Invisible Monsters is the third novel by Chuck Palahniuk and, I'm sorry to say, his weakest. Or so I thought till I came closer and closer to the end. It takes these mindbending twists and turns which leave you begging for more.Palahniuk writes with this indescribable, stream of consciousness-like flow which is just a joy to experience. I started reading it out loud to myself and I was filled with awe and jealousy. Why can't I write like this?! I've actually typed down a few of the many wonderful quotes onto the back of one of my business cards, to keep in my wallet when I need a good laugh.This novel is a hilarious, excrutiatingly tragic, sick and twisted soap opera rollercoaster ride!

violence + transgender confusion -> great read

For those who have read Fight Club and thought Chuck Palahniuk couldn't possibly come up with anything as good or original, think again. Invisible Monsters is a funny yet gruesome story of a young fashion model who suffers severe disfigurement when half her face is blown off (by a gunshot). Rather than being depressing or morose, Palahniuk turns the story into a bizarre "Thelma & Louise"-type of road movie where this fashion model hooks up with folks who are seriously confused about their gender identificaiton and gender preference. Chuck Palahniuk's caustic wit and free-flowing narrative makes Invisible Monsters to be an odd, enjoyable and unforgettable novel.Invisible Monsters contains rather graphic and crude language; it is certainly not for the squeamish. However my only complaint with it concerns the leading character. She seems too much like Tyler Durden, the main character from Fight Club. Her thoughts and actions seemed were anything but feminine. Women readers might find this very off-putting.

JUST PLAIN GREAT

I am a big fan of Chuck Paluhniak, and all of his novels always blow me away, but none so much as "Invisible Monsters." I guessed the surprise ending of "Fight Club" about half-way through the book. Actually, I thought to myself, "no way, that's too wierd." That was when I was a Paluhniak novice and had no idea just how wierd it could get. Not to say that I was disappointed with "Fight Club" - because the book stays with you even after the movie has come and gone before your eyes. I dug "Survivor" for it's blatant disregard for social awareness but, man, "Invisible Monsters" knocked me over. I was so enthralled with Chuck's writing style - it was almost irratic. The words, the sentence structure, the page layout - it was all anarchy. This novel was anything but unconventional. I can see a lot of "Fight Club" still kicking around Chuck's head, and that's because this was the first book he wrote and it was turned down by the publisher. The Brandy Alexander drag-queen character is Tyler Durden on estrogen, and in this one our narrator has a name but she doesn't speak. I liked that, our protagonist who is mute, so really, she was just an observer. Chuck layed it all on really thick and, while I called one of the twists thinking, "oh, here we go, another lame shock", he throws a few more out of left field that just knock you upside the head. Chuck Paluhniak is the new Hemingway, the new Kerouac, the new Bret Easton Ellis - and while "Invisible Monsters" is inferior to "Fight Club" and "Survivor" - it's one of those books you wish you wrote and you have to live with that for the rest of your life.