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The Invisible Monster

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The Invisible Monster
INVISIBLE MONSTERS
(Chuck Palahniuk)

1. INTRODUCTION

When someone told you there's an earthquake going on somewhere in the country, you smile but you don't quite know why. You giggled to yourself when a famous celebrity died with unknown reasons and you laugh hysterically when one of your close friend mysteriously commited suicide.

It's that kind sick fascination that had me read this book cover to cover in all its twisted glory.

This is a story about a disfigured beauty and her cross country journey with a beauty-queen and her boy toy. Her past, and all their weird secrets that will definitely have you looking at the drama of our lives in a new different way.

2. BODY

2a. Theme

Invisible Monsters is about the disfigured, transsexual, gay, ugly, or otherwise unpresentable "monsters" in this society, the outcasts and mutants who have made mistakes and are glad of it. It's also about the artificial life, the pristine correctness of beauty and the nuclear family, fashion, real estate, prescription drugs, and television commercials. It shares with Palahniuk's other novels the theme of self-destruction, of hitting bottom, and of rebuilding on top of whatever's left.

2b. Setting

Fancy Mansions in North America (Mostly Pacific and North West) and some parts of Canada

2c. Plot Summary

The story concerns a disfigured woman who lost her lower jaw after being shot. Her name is Shannon, but she is frequently referred to by other names given to her by Brandy Alexander, a transsexual, with whom she spends the majority of the book. The novel opens on the wedding day of Ms. Evie Cottrell, whose house is burning to the ground.

Brandy has been shot, and asks Shannon to tell her life story. Shannon remembers how she first met Brandy, and the story is told in a non-linear sequence of memories.

Shannon was the daughter of a farmer. She felt ignored because her older brother Shane got all of their parents' attention. While burning trash, a full can

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