Invisible Monsters

Written in the very late 90s, Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk is one of the most thought-provoking and controversial books affecting society today. Comparing its impact with a book such as George Orwell's 1984 would be overstepping it, but only in the sense that Invisible Monsters focuses on smaller portions of America's messed up culture. It's the story and stomach-turning life of an ex-model with a hideous face. There are pills, a certain transvestite culture, disease, denial-- and competition to add to the mix. No two people will get the same reaction out of this book. It holds little pieces of the way America thinks, and the way America neglects, and it's told in sentences and phrases pieced together so eloquently that it's shocking. I have found myself quoting Palahniuk in my own head as I look more deeply and meaningfully into the things I once took for granted, or things I once merely didn't care about reading into: media, drugs, the way things can just simply- and not so simply- be the twist or the controversy of a lifetime. Invisible Monsters doesn't neglect some of the little overlooked problems that make the world so sick and odd. Although it's one story about a few people, it can go to make one think about the petty and weird robot ways of people in this country, told in a way that it's hard- very hard- to just write off, put down, or forget.

-Kassandra

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