Book Review: Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk’s books defy any descriptions, making it hard to review them without giving too much away, but still giving something to chew (pun intended.)  Instead of saying something about the plot or the characters (which is better left for you to get to know and for you to piece together as everything unravels), I will review the book what thoughts it evoked in me, what I felt, and what I now think after time has passed. But before we get to that, I have to say I always love reading Palahniuk’s books as he knows how to hook the reader, keep them in tension, and then deliver what he wants and what is not expected.

The book left me with the question of how shallow our happiness is, how fragile it is, and how we rush wanting things we are expected to want without thinking what we want or need. Beauty and what it brings it is such an easy came to play in our societies where the surface is how we judge others and the only thing we value in each other, but as the book shows it’s not enough to even for the most beautiful creatures. We need more. We need a genuine connection. We need to feel loved and valued. And we have this underlying need to be the sole meaningful thing in the universe, but that is a lie living inside us if we have been deprived of love and appreciation. To come back to the point of beauty, to the easy way to get validation of worth and esteem, it’s empty and fading, and a poor way to value oneself. One accident and it’s gone. It should be anyone’s sole source of self-esteem and happiness.

This is why I love reading Palahniuk’s books. There is always a moral or a lesson in them to learn. There is always fucked up people trying to make their best with the rules they have been given in birth, by others, by society, by workplace, and so on. And that holds true to us too. It’s no wonder we are all messed up. We just have to admit that. Reading Invisible Monsters was a bizarre reminder of how easy it’s to fall into those expectations and compose life out of them. What you expect isn’t what you get.

Invisible Monsters is a good book, however there were times when I couldn’t be bothered to open the book and read on this twisted tale with the feeling of macabre, nausea, frustration, hate, love, sadness, desperation, cluelessness, need, want, expectations, but every time I opened the book the story pulled me in. And I needed to know how things would end.