Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Drafting Invisible Monsters in 1991 (well before the 1996 publication of his ferocious debut, Fight Club), Palahniuk structured it like the issues of Vogue he loved reading at the laundromat, with disorienting jumps that forced the reader to turn lots of pages in order to follow the story to its conclusion. It was a perfect format for a time-shifting road-trip narrative that drags conventional notions of fashion, beauty, self-image, and sexual identity behind the car and, perhaps, an inevitable outcome of writing while watching MTV under the influence of recreational drugs. When a friend told Palahniuk that readers wouldn't have the patience to hunt for chapters, though, he put them in a more straightforward order. The book was eventually published as a paperback original in 1999; for this first hardcover edition, Palahniuk saw a chance to share his original vision for the story of grotesquely disfigured former model Daisy St. Patience. At the end of a typically no-bullshit introduction, he asks readers to Jump to Chapter Forty-one and then it's full speed ahead. Just as a fashion magazine is designed, as the author says, to entice and seduce you . . . to trap you, the hunt for chapters creates a sense of disorientation but, more important, a feeling that, even though you're following directions, you might be missing something. (You are: a half-dozen tasty Easter eggs have been hidden throughout.) Does the novel hold up? Yes, and it's even better this way. New readers and rereaders alike are in for a wild ride. Best of all, for the hardcover edition, Palahniuk has created an experience that only makes sense on pages made of paper: doing it with hyperlinks in an e-book would be just plain ugly.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
In his "reintroduction," Palahniuk notes that he wanted his 1999 original paperback to have the feel of a choose-your-own-adventure rather than being read linearly. In this remix, which includes new material, listeners are directed to skip from CD to CD to follow the madcap adventures of Shannon McFarland, a fashion model disfigured by a gunshot to the face, and Brandy Alexander, an exotic transsexual who takes Shannon under her wing and out on the road. Narrators Paul Michael Garcia and the late Anna Field (she narrated the original edition) offer great performances of this fun, chaotic tale. VERDICT Jumping between discs is not something most listeners will enjoy, so either ignore the advice or stick with print. ["A must read for fans of the author or the original version of the book. Fans of speculative fiction or the grotesque will also enjoy the ride," read the review of the Norton hc, LJ 5/15/12.-Ed.]-Beth Farrell, Cleveland-Marshall Coll. of Law Lib., Cleveland State Univ. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Palahniuk (Damned, 2011, etc.) plays literary DJ, revisiting and updating his 1999 novel Invisible Monsters. In a new "Reintroduction," Palahniuk explains that Invisible Monsters was never meant to be a conventional narrative, resembling in its original incarnation the Sears catalogue or an old copy of Vogue magazine, jumping forward and backward in time with the quick-cut style changes of a classic MTV playlist. The elder statesman of transgressive fiction even sounds a bit cynical--"You young people, you who think you invented fun and drugs and good times, fuck you."--though with his skewed sense of humor, it's generally hard to be sure. In matter of substance, there's not much of a "remix" to be had here, just a, "Now, please jump to Chapter Forty," Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style that doesn't so much reorder the book as augment the disjointed, whiplash atmosphere its author intended. The book that Kirkus drubbed "Too clever by half" in 1999 is still here in its ghoulish entirety. The narrator is Shannon McFarland, a fashion model whose beauty has been obliterated in an enigmatic accident. While recovering in the hospital, Shannon meets Brandy Alexander, a voluptuous pre-surgical transsexual who adopts Shannon and takes her on the road, granting them new monikers, identities and trades in the process. Throw in some more drag queens, a knife-wielding ex-cop, plenty of drugs, sexual abuse and even a wedding, not to mention some eerie family values. The book is really a superfluous artifact, but that doesn't change the fact that Palahniuk remains one of the most gifted writers in American fiction. Not worth replacing your old paperback, but a nice collector's item for Palahniuk's cult.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
