Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Invisible Monsters

Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

32 reviews

seethinglloron's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I love Chuck Palahniuk. I love his prose, his obsession with the filthy and the gory and the absolutely batshit insane. This is all of that wrapped up in a tale about femininity, beauty, desire, gender, sexuality; and unfortunately, it did not land for me. I was with Chuck for much of the novel. Chuck lost me at the end.
I am willing to acquiesce a lot to the theming, the unreliable and unlikeable narrator, the terrible characters and their terrible ideas and their terrible lives. I do it all the time! This just crosses that fine line of absurdity into nonsense. If this novel was a work of art like some of Palahniuk's other work, perhaps I could look past the absolute gall of Palahniuk to write about trans women the way he does. Yes, it's transgressive. Yes, it's not really about trans women, but about something else. No, it doesn't save this train wreck.
Some of it is very fun in the fucked-up way Palahniuk's bullshit is fun, but not enough of it, and not for long enough.

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himebittersweet's review against another edition

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funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The ending was heartfelt

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jeremie's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This and “Fight Club” should be talked about in the same breath.

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kelsie_brynh's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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abbruzzese's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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

When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?

i think i'm done with chuck palahniuk for a long, long time. wish i had read fight club before anything else of his because i'm so sick of reading his writing. it's so repetitive, it's exhausting. and it's all so miserable. satire or not, edgy or not, there's only so much fucking depressive shit a girl can handle and i am maxed out. if you really want to read one of his books, just go with choke and call it a day.

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updownwrong's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Invisible Monsters is the best Chuck Palahniuk novel I've read yet. It's full of twists and turns, awful yet loveable yet loathsome characters, and outlandish yet almost plausible situations that make your jaw drop. While I don't think the book is as shocking as it would have been 20 years ago, I think it's an essential read for anyone who enjoys modern satire. Bonus points if you're a former emo kid who underlined all of the lines AFYCSO references.

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eyesofcrows's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Confusing to start with because of the nonlinear timeline but God does it reward you when you start connecting the timeline. Though there’s stuff about homophobia and transphobia, it doesn’t pedal it as the center. There’s so much more and you honestly have to detach from it all to get to what this story is: people connected like vines and weeds around each other. What a fun book.

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