Synopses & Reviews
The fashion-model protagonist of InvisibleMonsters has just about everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But one day she's driving along the freeway when a suddenaccident leaves her with half herface, no ability to speak, and next to noself-esteem. From being the beautiful center ofattention she becomes an invisible monster, sohideous that no one will acknowledge she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, oneoperation away from becoming a real woman;Brandy will teach her that reinventing yourselfmeans erasing the past and making up somethingbetter. And that salvation hides in the lastplaces you'll ever want to look.In thishilarious and daringly unpredictable novel, thenarrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her bestfriend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, hertwo-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road withBrandy in search of a brand-new past, present,and future. Changing names and stories in everycity, they catapult toward a final confrontation with a rifle-toting Evie-by which time thenarrator will have learned that loving and being loved are not mutually exclusive, and thatnothing, on the surface, is ever quite what itseems.By turns witty, poignant, andexhilarating, Invisible Monsters will take youon a ride you'll never forget.
Review
"This is a wild ride of a novel....No one is who he or she seems to be, and the challenge is to figure out who is morphing into whom. By the end, most readers will be both exhausted and exhilarated." George Needham, Booklist
Review
"Palahniuk's grotesque romp aims to skewer the ruthless superficiality of the fashion world and winds up with a tale as savagely glib as what it derides....Though the absurd surprise ending may incite groans of disbelief, this book does have fun moments when campy banter tops the heroine's flat, whiny bathos." Publishers Weekly
Review
"There is a certain point in all bedroom farces and comedies of errors when you give up trying to figure out who's who and just go along for the ride. That might be the wisest strategy here....Too clever by half: a Chinese box of a novel fascinating in its intricacies but pretty hard to get a grip on whole." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Palahniuk is one of the freshest, most intriguing voices to appear in a long time. He rearranges Vonnegut's sly humor, DeLillo's mordant social analysis, and Pynchon's antic surrealism (or is it R. Crumb's?) into a gleaming puzzle palace all his own." New York Newsday
Review
"Chuck Palahniuk's stories don't unfold. They hurtle headlong, changing lanes in threes and banging off the guard rails of modern fiction....Incredibly, Invisible Monsters makes...Fight Club seem like a leisurely buggy ride....It's Palahniuk's least successful effort to date, yet there are more than enough moments of insight to recommend Invisible Monsters. Just not in polite company." James Sullivan, The San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Invisible Monsters is a guilty pleasure for those with an open mind and a strong stomach everyone else should go read a nice romance....There's no point in trying to make sense of it all. The bizarre characters, the drugs, the scams, the mutilation it's a very strange, funny and hallucinogenic trip, best enjoyed if you don't overthink it. Just let its giddy waves sweep over you. You'll come out of it feeling exhilarated." Anouk Hoedeman, Toronto Sun
Review
"Palahniuk displays a Swiftian gift for satire, as well as a knack for crafting mesmerizing sentences that loom with stark, prickly prose and repetitive rhythms." San Francisco Examiner
Synopsis
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 she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better. And that salvation hides in the last places you'll ever want to look.
In this hilarious and daringly unpredictable novel the narrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her best friend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, her two-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road with Brandy in search of a brand-new past, present, and future. Changing names and stories in every city, they catapult toward a final confrontation with a rifle-toting Evie by which time we will have learned that loving and being loved are not mutually exclusive, and that nothing, on the surface, is ever quite what it seems.
Synopsis
Love, betrayal, petty larceny, and high fashion fuel this deliciously comic novel from the author of .
About the Author
Chuck Palahniuk, the author of many novels including Fight Club, which was made into a movie directed by David Fincher, as well as Invisible Monsters, Diary, Lullaby, Choke, Pygmy, and Survivor. He lives in Washington State.