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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
This was FUCKED UP and had more twists than a labyrinth. Had me feeling like Charlie Day in one episode of Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
Gross and beautiful, a must for anyone like me, a forever Panic! At The Disco and A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out Fan
Me regalaron este libro en diciembre y no conseguía tiempo para leerlo con todas las lecturas asignadas de la universidad pero cuando regresé al semestre decidí leerlo en el tren y en la espera de mis amigos al llegar a clases y creo que fue la mejor idea que tuve para esta lectura porque así pude ir digiriendo poco a poco esta historia tan cruda.
Tenía altas expectativas porque cuando leí Fight Club fue una lectura increíble y además, antes de eso lo quería leer porque siempre adoré Time to Dance de P!TD (¡Lo dije!) y quería entender las referencias. Me hizo bien tener altas expectativas porque las superó por mil, realmente fue increíble.
Nada en esta historia es lo que parece, absolutamente nada, no puedes confiar en nada, nadie y menos en la narradora durante eso de la primera mitad del libro.Cuando Manus entra a la casa de Evie y se empieza a descubrir su identidad, ese es el momento en el que todo se viene a caer a pedazos en el libro, las relaciones, las amistades, las identidades y las vidas de todos. Lo que sabía de este libro, además de la lesión de la protagonsta, es que hay una mujer trans y cuando se revela que era Brandy y además, ella es su hermana quedé muy impresionada pero me impresioné todavía más cuando revelan que Evie también lo era. Eso hizo que lo único resaltaste que conocía del libro tuviera sentido pero fuera todavía más increíble. Todo aquí escala demasiado rápido, no tienen idea.
No les voy a contar más porque creo que es mejor ir a leerlo con pocos detalles para asombrarse más. Si creen que Fight Club es crudo y tal vez les haya revuelto el estómago pues tienen que prepararse para este libro porque tiene como diez veces su intensidad. Me encantó demasiado y espero seguir el trabajo de Palahniuk porque me ha encantado su forma de abordar los temas y de cómo hacer sentir que todo es algo y al final nada es igual, además de la clara crítica social que es bien planteada y no es un señor gritándole a una nube. Si pudiera darle más de cinco estrellas lo haría y creo que va a quedar en mis favoritos de este año.
Tenía altas expectativas porque cuando leí Fight Club fue una lectura increíble y además, antes de eso lo quería leer porque siempre adoré Time to Dance de P!TD (¡Lo dije!) y quería entender las referencias. Me hizo bien tener altas expectativas porque las superó por mil, realmente fue increíble.
Nada en esta historia es lo que parece, absolutamente nada, no puedes confiar en nada, nadie y menos en la narradora durante eso de la primera mitad del libro.
No les voy a contar más porque creo que es mejor ir a leerlo con pocos detalles para asombrarse más. Si creen que Fight Club es crudo y tal vez les haya revuelto el estómago pues tienen que prepararse para este libro porque tiene como diez veces su intensidad. Me encantó demasiado y espero seguir el trabajo de Palahniuk porque me ha encantado su forma de abordar los temas y de cómo hacer sentir que todo es algo y al final nada es igual, además de la clara crítica social que es bien planteada y no es un señor gritándole a una nube. Si pudiera darle más de cinco estrellas lo haría y creo que va a quedar en mis favoritos de este año.
Jump to no time special when I started reading. It was fantastic, I tore through the first half in a day. However, the rapid pace and jumping from scene to scene, time to time was hard to keep track of.
Give me confusion.
Flash.
Give me no idea on whether or no I like the book.
Flash.
Jump to the day I finish the book. After every crazy turn and all the crazy characters, the book turned out to be an excellent read. Palahniuk's style was very confusing and hard to grasp at time. I found myself thinking something completely different was happening, especially towards the middle and end. However, after sitting down and re-thinking the novel as a whole, I loved it. Yes, every character was ignorantly stupid, however it was a fantastic story that really must be read.
Give me confusion.
Flash.
Give me no idea on whether or no I like the book.
Flash.
Jump to the day I finish the book. After every crazy turn and all the crazy characters, the book turned out to be an excellent read. Palahniuk's style was very confusing and hard to grasp at time. I found myself thinking something completely different was happening, especially towards the middle and end. However, after sitting down and re-thinking the novel as a whole, I loved it. Yes, every character was ignorantly stupid, however it was a fantastic story that really must be read.
Holy crap that book really went all out for the second half.
This book is hilariously obscene and at the same time strangely heart-warming. It's "The Jerry Springer Show" meets "The Young and the Restless" meets "Oprah"!
As the story progresses -right until past the middle of the book-, you feel comfortable in assuming it serves as a satire on the overly cultivated narcissistic need/desire for attention and the inflated value of physical appearance as a means of self evaluation. But it's much more than that.
By the end of it, reading the book, caused (for me) a sensation not unlike the shame felt when hovering over the aftermath of a car crash or when watching a reality show. (no offence to potential Jerry Springer fans)
The exploitation and shameless display of human tragedy and pain for entertainment, is in theory abhorrent to many who nevertheless participate in it as spectators. Not unlike a television reality-show, the author employs unlikely and borderline disturbing stories, plot-twists and character revelations, whereby no matter what happens and regardless of whether anything has been resolved, you somehow resign in the belief that the characters are deeply damaged in many ways beyond repair.
Here, Panahniuk masters the art of literary misdirection. In failing to find a logical explanation for the characters' respective conditions, constantly receiving one disturbing explanation after the next for their choices and behavior, and yet being unable to "look away" you unknowingly become a silently unresisting reality show spectator and part of the object of the satire.
If I were to find any meaning in all the chaos of Invisible Monsters would be to offer that a devaluation of the self occurs when the sole measure of worth used is external/physical appearance and that perhaps in solving the problem one should not focus on the ones employing such a measure, but to those who encourage it by engaging. There will always be those who seek to gain attention from those who are ready to give it, so basically we should try and be more eclectic or more careful in making others the object of ours.
The characters, armed with their own wisdom their experiences have brought them, are (some of the time) preaching that one needs to challenge oneself and "what you are trained to want", and to demolish all false sense of identity and to chose the path that scares you the most if you are going to have any semblance of freedom, while at the same time admitting or suggesting that this will not make any difference to acquiring real freedom...not to mention their own lives reading like cautionary tales! This not only makes you feel for them but makes also for an unusual tragic hilarity!
What I haven't decided is whether this apparent "failure" on the characters' part to acquire freedom, is nevertheless considered (by the author) as somehow being an improvement in the quality of life. All I know is that if the author does think so he has a funny way of marketing his beliefs!
The writing was thoroughly entertaining. Energetic, lean, devoid of any unnecessary descriptions or adjectives and most importantly incredibly smart and funny. The use of extremes and of hyperbole is dominant but not in a way that it becomes provocatory for the sake of provocation.
All in all an enjoyable experience!
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Chuck Palahniuk's books are strange, to say the least. Invisible Monsters is told by an unrealiable narrator. The story does not follow chronological order. It mocks chronological order. The characters involve a woman whose jaw was blown off by a bullet, a drag queen, a man being secretly fed hormones to ruin him, and a model/infomercial saleswoman who was once best friends with the woman who is now missing her jaw. There are lies and betrayal, drug overdoses, strange coincidences, theft and a lot of other strange things. I honestly do not know how to describe this book, except that maybe if I read it again and pay more attention to every word and detail, it might make a little bit more sense. However, it kept my interest, it surprised me, and in the end, I was left feeling satisfied. So, yeah, I rather enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to people with an open mind and a good imagination.