Invisible Monsters

Chuck Palahniuk’s “Invisible Monsters” revolves around a disfigured woman who goes by many aliases throughout the story which include: Shannon McFarland, Daisy St. Patience and Bubba Joan- all given by the woman our narrator (whose name still unknown) looks up to the most, the “goddess known as Brandy Alexander. Our story begins on the day of Evie Cottrell’s wedding, with her mansion caught on fire and burning to the ground. Evie shoots Brandy in the face with a shotgun, and our narrator is convinced to tell her life story.  All being told in a series of flashback, we begin with how the narrator is the daughter of the farmer, growing up with an older brother named Shane, who supposedly died of AIDS after sleeping with another man. Shane, being the center of their attention even after he died, angered our narrator to no extent. Even eating dinner with her parents during holidays was a living hell to her, since all they talked about was Shane, her dead brother who she despised more than anyone in the world. Seeking attention for herself, our narrator decided to take up a career in modeling. When there, she became friends with Evelyn (Evie) Cottrell, who does infomercials with her and “preforms” for many customers alike. It turns out that our narrator’s lover, Manus Kelley, was cheating on her with Evie. While driving down the highway, our narrator is shot in the face. The shot rips off her jaw. She immediately drives to the hospital without panicking or going into shock, where stays to recover. When there, she meets the gorgeous, seemingly godlike, Brandy Alexander. They quickly become friends, the narrator lavishing herself in pure bliss of the fact that such a beautiful woman would even come near her. Brandy is learning to speak like a woman, and the narrator is learning to speak without a lower jaw. During the times Brandy comes to visit the narrator, she attempts to teach the narrator how to give herself a new life, a new identity, and new personality. Anything the narrator wishes of herself. She gives her a new name, Daisy St. Patience, the first among many new identities given to our narrator. Brandy doesn’t care for our narrator’s real name (which is why we’re never told), her past, her parents, or anything of that sort. All she enjoys is creating a new fictional life for our narrator. As the story progresses, we meet a man named Manus, who, while Evie was away on a trip to Cancun, broke into our narrator’s and Evie’s shared home with a kitchen knife, trying to kill our narrator. We flash forward to when our narrator, Brandy, and “Seth”, a transgender woman, slowly going from man to woman as the story goes on, always crying for no reason (later found to be Manus) trying to smuggle pills into Seattle, Washington from Canada, where they found the pills at an open house in the attic. Going along like this, they continue their journey from place to place in search for new drugs to take. This story is amazingly written, given wonderful details but also a bit raunchy. An amazing read, filled with gore, murder, drugs, comedy, and some sprinkles of romance here and there. A very enjoyable read by Palahniuk, also the creator of “Fight Club”.

 

 

Book Review by Laura D.