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A review by emitchellwrites
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
4.0
I'm not sure what I expected when I started Invisible Monsters. I mean, certainly not what I got.
Cut to: me in the car, driving to Seattle.
Flash. Give me laughter.
I laughed twice. Both of those times were things so random I can't remember what they were.
Cut to: me pulling into a gas station where gas was almost $6 because I forgot to look at GasBuddy. I turned the volume up because I didn't want to pause.
Flash. Give me horror. Give me shock. Give me messed up.
Am I numb? I mean, no, I'm not. But compared to some readers, I must be. I didn't see this as one of the darkest or most messed up things I've read. It felt more like a character study of some really broken people.
Cut to: now, and me writing this review.
I thought I would hate this, the cuts and flashes and repetition at the beginning were off-putting, but he's a great storyteller (or so the movies had me believe, this is my first book by him). Well, the movies were right this time.
Chuck did weird things with the formatting, which I didn't care for. He wrote compelling shitty characters, though. They were all awful in various ways, which was great. Oftentimes if there isn't really anyone good in the book, it's hard to enjoy. I didn't feel that way here. I wanted to know who, what, why, when, how. I wanted to read about their spiraling, see how we ended up at the beginning again.
I figured some of it out, because I'm a human and a reader and can put pieces together. Other things, well, I just didn't see coming.
Cut to: me in the car, driving to Seattle.
Flash. Give me laughter.
I laughed twice. Both of those times were things so random I can't remember what they were.
Cut to: me pulling into a gas station where gas was almost $6 because I forgot to look at GasBuddy. I turned the volume up because I didn't want to pause.
Flash. Give me horror. Give me shock. Give me messed up.
Am I numb? I mean, no, I'm not. But compared to some readers, I must be. I didn't see this as one of the darkest or most messed up things I've read. It felt more like a character study of some really broken people.
Cut to: now, and me writing this review.
I thought I would hate this, the cuts and flashes and repetition at the beginning were off-putting, but he's a great storyteller (or so the movies had me believe, this is my first book by him). Well, the movies were right this time.
Chuck did weird things with the formatting, which I didn't care for. He wrote compelling shitty characters, though. They were all awful in various ways, which was great. Oftentimes if there isn't really anyone good in the book, it's hard to enjoy. I didn't feel that way here. I wanted to know who, what, why, when, how. I wanted to read about their spiraling, see how we ended up at the beginning again.
I figured some of it out, because I'm a human and a reader and can put pieces together. Other things, well, I just didn't see coming.