Title: Invisible Monsters Remix
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Year: 2012
"Nothing of me is original. I'm the combined effort of everybody I've known."
A brief summary about the book
Invisible Monsters is a story about a fashion model named Shannon McFarland who got into an “accident” that left her disfigured and unable to speak. This accident successfully turns her life upside-down. She was everything. But now she lost her job, her apartment, and her fiance. Because of her damaged face, no one dared to talk and look at her in the eyes, making her invisible. Later, she met Brandy Alexander in the hospital and was completely awestruck by the beauty. Brandy is a queen supreme who is one operation away from becoming a woman. Shannon and Brandy had adventures together throughout the book until she realized how she loves Brandy because his features reminded her of hers before the ugly accident.
“Do the thing that scares you the most.”
My thought when I read the book
When I first read the first few chapters, I was like, “How come the plot has already fucked up?” Truthfully, this is the kind of book that you want to finish as soon as you read the first sentence of the book. I could not stop reading until I hit the end of the plot. Even after I finish the book, the fragments of the story still lingers on my mind for a couple of days.
This book always gives me surprises in every chapter. What I love the most from this book is that it was not written chronologically. The story begins at the present time, where Shannon and Brandy were at Evie’s wedding, a friend of Shannon who slept with her fiance. The wedding was ruined. Everything is on fire. Someone is dying, someone is holding a rifle wanting revenge, and someone is crying. Then the reader is taken back before Evie's marriage chaos occurs.
What I like from this book
It has the same title just like the original book, but Chuck Palahniuk also added the word "remix". So what's the difference? What is the meaning behind "remix"? Well, according to Chuck Palahniuk, he had wanted the chapters on this book to break the normally straight line of fiction and bounce around, as did the articles in Vogue magazines he read on the laundromat. He was originally structured Invisible Monsters to be a little unknowable. He also wrote on the preface that, "Trying to read a story was like trying to navigate through a Las Vegas casino. It was designed to entice and seduce you." He added, "At the end of the first chapter, the reader would be directed to jump to, for example, Chapter Thirty. You would never know where the story might end. Better yet, as you hunted for the next chapter, you would glimpse marvelous, ridiculous sense, and you would wonder, "How will the story ever get there?""
Sometimes when you read a book, you get so intimidated by the number of the pages. In this book, you are made to jump from one chapter to another chapter you actually got lost in it without having a thought, “There are so many pages left.” When I was reading Invisible monster, I jumped back and forth the book and without realizing it, suddenly I was at the end of the story. It was a fun experience.
Another thing that was included from the remix version is that Chuck Palahniuk added a new narrator beside Shannon.
As I read the book, I marked a little 'x' on every chapter I have jumped to only to find out there are some chapters that were left out. There are also some chapters that writing is reserved. Thinking it was some printing errors, I did some research and everyone said it was not a printing error. All I need is reading the chapters through a mirror.
Overall, this is a great book! The story and the plot are well written. If you like a psychological and fucked up story, this is a must book to have.
Review: 5/5
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