Chuck Palahniuk

"A harrowing, perverse, laugh-aloud funny rocket ride of catastrophes...Gutsy, terse and cunning, Invisible Monsters may emerge as Palahniuk's strongest book." --Greg Berkman, Seattle Times

Invisible Monsters

High Fidelity

When you go out with a drunk, you’ll notice how a drunk fills your glass so he can empty his own. As long as you’re drinking, drinking is okay. Two’s company. Drinking is fun. If there’s a bottle, even if your glass isn’t empty, a drunk, he’ll pour a little in your glass before he fills his own.

“Then puberty makes you Satan,” he says, “just because you want something better.”

Why is it you feel like a dope if you laugh alone, but that’s usually how you end up crying? How is it you can keep mutating and still be the same deadly virus?

And I want Seth dead. Worse than dead, I want him fat and bloated with water and insecure and emotional. If Seth doesn’t want me, I want to not want him.

“The most boring thing in the entire world,” Brandy says, “is nudity.”

“The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.”

It’s all mirror, mirror on the wall because beauty is power the same way money is power the same way a gun is power.

Another thing is no matter how much you think you love somebody, you’ll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.

Published in hardcover for the first time, this updated and refreshed “director's cut” of the author's 1999 novel depicts what happens to a fashion model who had it all after a debilitating accident destroys her face and her ability to speak. 50,000 first printing.

Invisible Monsters Remix

Amanda Autumn Berrey

I take Brandy’s hand in mine. This is a nice gesture, but then I’m freaked by the whole threat of blood-borne pathogens,

“Think of this as a tease. It’s lingerie for your face,” she says. “A peekaboo nightgown you wear over your whole identity.”

“Oh, and don’t worry,” Brandy says. “You’ll still get attention. You have a dynamite tits-and-ass combo. You just can’t talk to anybody.”

Caged behind my silk, settled inside my cloud of organza and georgette,

Give me pity. Flash. Give me empathy. Flash.

“Your father and mother, Rainier and Honoraria St. Patience, were assassinated by fashion terrorists,”

Behind a good veil, you could be anyone. A movie star. A saint. A good veil says: We Have Not Been Properly Introduced. You’re the prize behind door number three. You’re the lady or the tiger.

“You don’t have to wear makeup. You don’t even have to wash. A good veil is the equivalent of mirrored sunglasses, but for your whole head.”

“Your name is Daisy St. Patience,” she tells me. “You’re the lost heiress to the House of St. Patience, the very haute couture fashion showroom, and this season we’re doing hats,” she says. “Hats with veils.

She invents another future for me with no connections, except to her, a cult all by herself.

When nobody will look at you, you can stare a hole in them. Picking out all the little details you’d never stare long enough to get if she’d ever just return your gaze, this, this is your revenge.

Beaded with rings to make them look even bigger, Brandy’s hands are enormous. Beaded with rings, as if they could be more obvious, hands are the one part about Brandy Alexander the surgeons couldn’t change.

If you have to start with any one detail, it has to be Brandy’s hands.

Continued on page whatever. No matter how careful you are, there’s going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn’t experience it all. There’s that fallen-heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should’ve been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. That’s how your whole life will feel someday.

When a freeway "accident" leaves a beautiful fashion model disfigured and incapable of speech, she seeks to reinvent herself and her world, along with her new friend, Brandy Alexander, a transvestite who is one operation away from becoming a real woman

Invisible Monsters: A Novel

Lindy B

Over the course of reading Invisible Monsters, my appreciation for the artistry that went into The Women Men Don't See increased tenfold.

Geoffrey Froggatt

“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.”

Injected with new material and special design elements, Invisible Monsters Remix fulfills Chuck Palahniuk's original vision for his 1999 novel. The chapters jump around literally; there are footnotes telling you to turn to this chapter or that, almost in a Choose Your Own Adventure style minus its alternate-endings effect. The first release of Invisible Monsters years ago wasn’t as topsy-turvy as this; however, Remix contains Palahniuk’s original vision of the novel so I was content to have read it first. The book revolves around the story of a fashion model whose career and charmed life came to a halt when an “accident” leaves her disfigured and unable to speak. She becomes friends with pill-popping Brandy Alexander, and together they travel, conning people, rummaging big houses for drugs, and in the end finding out who they really are and what significant roles they play in each other’s lives. The constant jumping between vignettes and notes from the author didn’t disorient me as much as I thought it would. While the novel did advise us to jump ahead to certain chapters, I did read the book in the way it was organized. I do feel like reading it this way still gives the desired effect the author was looking for. I loved the little author’s notes littered throughout the story, it added to the “magazine” effect the author was intending for this book, and I loved hearing the inspiration for different aspects of this book, especially the author’s experience in Vancouver, the city in Canada where I’m from. I loved the colourful and fleshed out characters on display in this novel. They all felt fresh and interesting, and even the characters with the more eccentric backstories felt real and lived in, each fitting into this world perfectly. I loved the visuals and interesting descriptors used throughout this book, especially the contrast between the gorgeous and the grotesque. The twist was huge and worked for me, even if it felt crazy and outlandish. The way it all came together was surprising, but what was even more hard to believe was how this disjointed narrative managed to be enticing and effective in telling this story in a satisfying way. I was surprised to read the ending of the story halfway through the story, but knowing how this story ends and how everything connects didn’t ruin reading the rest of the story for me. I think following the footnotes to jump around from chapter to chapter would make a conventional narrative with a magazine feel, but I do think there was something special in reading it in the disjointed way that I did. I think it’s interesting that Fight Club is the author’s claim to fame in the mainstream, because I think that a film adaptation of this novel would do far better in our modern contemporary age. The final author’s note felt like it encapsulated the themes of the book and everything this story was trying to be, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this story and this author, and I’m now looking forward to reading the rest of his work.

“No matter how much you think you love somebody, you’ll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.”

Victoria

This book is just too fucked up and too good! You have to read it to appreciate it but I swear to you, it's totally worth it!

After an sudden "accident" leaves her with half a face, no ability to speak, and no self-esteem, a fashion model is approached by Brandy Alexander--who's one operation away from becoming a "real woman"--who teaches her that reinventing oneself means erasing the past and making up something better.

Miguel 

Este es sin duda, uno de mis favoritos. Es crudo, real, emocionante. Para mí fue como ver una película. Mientras más leía más sorpresas me llevaba. Excelente.

Patrick Cartelli

Well that was a wild ride. I wouldn't recommend finishing this book right before you fall asleep. I had some weird dreams last night.

Arturo Hernández

This is a weird story. It’s hard to follow the train of thought of the protagonist when you start reading however once you get it, you see lots of layers on the writing style. I liked it overall (although I would appreciated a grandiose finale).

Raven Walker

This book leaves you in a constant state of "What the hell is going on?" but entirely in a good way. For the entire first half of the book, the plot seems as though it is going nowhere and will never make since. Several times I was even tempted to put the book down entirely. However, when things finally did start coming together, it was mind blowing. The entire book wraps up into a nice, neat little bundle that leaves you extremely satisfied.

Hans Gerwitz

Palahniuk certainly has a knack for always throwing in yet another plot twist without becoming tiring.

Ley Stanton

The first 75% of this book was absolutely amazing. I loved all the little plot twists and the way the story starts to come together in the reader's mind. We get little pieces of the story and find out how the characters are all connected. However, it really falls apart at the end with a very rushed conclusion and some of the characters revealing things that just don't make any sense. I enjoyed the majority of the book, I was just a little disappointed by the ending.

Omar AlHashmi

5/5

Give me wisdom.
Flash.
Give me insight.
Flash. 

This book was, a huge fucking roller-coaster of a book. I went into this with only two impressions:
The first was that it was the same author of Fight Club.
The second was that this book was apparently disgusting and disturbing.
Now unfortunately I did not find this book as disgusting as other people have written in their reviews. That is unfortunate to be honest, since I really enjoy when a piece of media goes to the extreme and explores certain aspects that I thought were unattainable. Nevertheless the book was really weird at times, and I really liked it. I loved the way it was written since it mimics the disarrayed life of the narrator. So the reader gets to have the same feeling the narrator is feeling as she is going on this grand adventure. 
What I also enjoyed obviously was the plot. There were like 3-4 twists nestled and woven in between the book that seriously caught me off guard and made me step back. One issue I had were that sometimes the book would get a bit repetitive, if you read the book you would know when. There is a recurring thing that the characters keep on doing. However thanks to the nature in which the book was written it didn't dull me as much as it did other books. This constant jumping around in this huge timeline of the narrator felt like you were solving a jigsaw puzzle. You were given the edge pieces to begin with, the main structure, and you are slowly given pieces as you try and solve this puzzle of a plot. 
All in all, I really enjoyed it. I am also so glad that it had a satisfying ending which is what usually lets me down, if something has a bad ending. I would recommend this book for anyone who would be prepared for some really weird stuff. It's not a typical book, which is exactly why I liked it. Who wants a typical book anyway?

Give me relief. 
Flash.
Give me Closure.
Flash

Tameka Young

This book is definitely not my normal genre or style, in fact it's the first I've read by the author. Despite my initial hesitance to read it, I ended up enjoying it way more than I thought I would. It was funny, provocative, crazy, and full of plot twists and turns, some of which I guessed and some I didn't. I think it's a perfect book if you're looking for something insane to read that will completely blow your mind. I am now looking forward to reading another Palahniuk book which is a sentence I never thought I'd say!

Josh Clement

This book is disgusting, visceral. I wish I read it in High School.

MEGHAN ABBOTT

This is one of those books that I was so strange that I hated it, but hated it so much that I kind of liked it even though I never want to read it again. Definitely stuck with me.

Lindsay Hollmann

Easily one of my favourite books of all time. He writes how I write, but better, how I want to. 

This will change everything.

Probably my favorite book of Chuck's. Dark story that I was obsessed with. Every other page seemed to be dripping with genius. I loved it!

Jennifer S

This is probably one of the most disturbing and at the same time intriguing books I've read.

,,Wait, What?" Is all I can say xD.

No, but in all seriousness. This Book made me question a lot of things in our society. Mainly beauty standarts and how much people are willing to give to be perceived as attractive...
OR to which extents jealousy can drive you.

Not that we didn't all know those things to begin with. And of course this books portrays that in an overly dramatic way (errr... hopefully). But I suppose you get what I mean :).

Chuck Palahniuk portrayed "beautifully" how society can really mess you up.

megan

not for me, but i can see why people like this book

She's a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful centre 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 being 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 place you'll ever want to look. 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.

Pat G.

Really enjoyed this one. Wasn’t so sure at the beginning but it scooped me up and had me along for the ride once I had a grasp on the constant jumping. Awesome twists and turns and surprises in this gonzo thriller. 

k`library.

Caitlin Berger

I quite enjoyed this book! The writing is amazing, love the style. I liked that the storyline wasn't linear; all the surprises came at once and it made the story propel itself towards the end. My one negative comment would be that I'm not sure I liked the overall portrayal of transgender people that Palahniuk painted. When you first realize that there is a transgender character, that was all fine, but as the story got closer to the end, the messages were a bit ...weird. Perhaps I wasn't interpreting his tone properly? But it felt like he was implying that being transgender is just a lie, similar to getting cosmetic surgery done on yourself. Again, maybe I was too dumb to understand that that's not what was meant? I don't even know. But it felt like it was a bit of a joke, which rubbed me the wrong way. Feel free to provide counter-feedback in case I'm actually way off base! But overall, great book and worth the read.

Invisible Monsters

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