Both Patrick Bateman and the narrator of “Invisible Monsters” often speak in a detached voice about the horror they are experiencing or inflicting, with zero regrets or shits given about the aftermaths of the character’s actions.ĭespite all the similarities however, I loved “American Psycho” as a book (and as a movie) and I’m lukewarm at best on “Invisible Monsters.” I think the main areas this book comes up short in comparison (and as a stand alone novel) are that the structure of the book is written to maximize shocks in plot twists, and the narrator is a less interesting and relatable character than the (possibly) mass murdering Patrick Bateman. “American Psycho” also features highly sexualized violence and fetishism in some of its scenes involving torture and dismemberment, while “Invisible Monsters” doubles down on the Cronenbergian body horror with possible incest and deliberate involuntary hormonal cocktails. **OK, really spoiling the book here** Here, the narrator is disfigured to the point where she is unaware if her own brother recognizes who she is, and her brother is likewise unrecognizable to her following a near complete gender reassignment program. In “American Psycho,” all the people dress alike and get their hair and tans done at the same places, so other characters can’t tell one apart from another. In particular, both books feature unreliable narrators (though this book’s is deliberately lying, whereas Patrick Bateman is incapable of realizing the truth from fantasy) and the idea that characters are unrecognizable to each other. I can see where somebody would read “American Psycho” and think this book (which was published eight years later) is a similar read. I mentioned that this book was recommended to me because I enjoy Bret Easton Ellis’s writing.
Of that group, there are more secrets and past connections to each other than you will find on any soap opera or telenovela. There are not a lot of characters in this book, **spoilers ramping up here** with the main group consisting of the narrator (a former model whose face has been shot off), Brandy (a woman the narrator meets at the hospital who is also recovering from plastic surgery), Manus (the narrator’s ex- boyfriend who is a former vice police officer who specializes in propositioning men), Evey (the narrator’s roommate who is also a model) and Shane (the narrator’s brother, who disappeared shortly after an exploding can of hair spray burned his face and he caught gonorrhea).
#Invisible monsters a novel series
The rest of the book is a series of flashbacks, alternating between events happening to her family when she was in high, events that happened immediately after her mouth was shot off of her face (unrelated, chronologically at least to the shooting in chapter one), and events leading up to the shooting more fully explained at the end of the book.
The first chapter begins with three female characters in a burning house, one having shot another with the third a witness to the event. “Invisible Monsters” is a book I really need to spoil to explain why it didn’t work for me, so read at your own peril if you have interest in trying this book out. (Seriously, very graphic consequences when I read “Guts” it was on the recommendation of a friend who told me “this is the grossest story ever written” and the fact that years later I remember the short story pretty vividly means I’m not likely to dispute that claim.) Chuck Palahniuk is the writer of such works as “Fight Club” (which I haven’t read, but everybody my age has seen the movie), and the infamous short story “Guts” about the graphic consequences of creative masturbation gone awry. In this case, the author I enjoy is Bret Easton Ellis, and for the first time I’d also read some of the recommended author’s previous work. “Invisible Monsters” was the fifth book I read in a set of recommended books based on its similarity to an author I already liked.
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