Invisible Monsters vs. Invisible Monsters Remix

In this corner, written by Chuck Palahniuk, two hundred ninety-seven pages and published in 1999: INVISIBLE MONSTERS

And in this corner, also written by Chuck Palahniuk, three hundred one pages, but published in 2012: INVISIBLE MONSTERS REMIX

INVISIBLE MONSTERS

"She's a fashion model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exits. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better. And that salvation hides on the last place you'll ever want to look." 

Invisible Monsters was funny, but totally cringe worthy. Palahniuk did anything, but hold back. I'm the type of person that if I see someone hurt themselves, I start to feel pain in the spot where they hurt themselves, I get lightheaded and my stomach churns. So while reading Invisible Monsters I was twisting my face up all kinds of ways to next Wednesday. But I loved it. I've never read a book that went into such detail that made me both laugh and cringe.

I love the way the story was told. The way it was written wasn't linear, but it wasn't confusing either. The narrator would jump to different stories from her life then back to her current story with Brandy Alexander. The memories she jumped to were relevant and connected with her current story. The storyline wasn't all over the place and the jumps really flowed. The twist was the best part of the story. I never saw it coming, but it was great!

The whole novel is a giant metaphor about how we see ourselves, how the world sees us, and how we can recreate ourselves and start over. It was a perfect commentary on society. Invisible Monsters is comparable to Survivor because both novels deal with pop culture, society and how we view ourselves verus how the world views us. It's just that Invisible Monsters is a bit more depressing (for lack of a better word) and although it is satirical, it seems more realistic and accurate to real life. Invisible Monsters has a really good message without trying hard to portray it. Hypocrisy was another major theme in Invisible Monsters. I don't want to give anything way, but the hypocrisy worked really well in the plot, character development and went well with the giant metaphor about society. And oh my was it ironic! For all the best reasons. 

Brandy Alexander was an expertly written character. She was wise with life lessons and everything she said had a deeper meaning. She was the voice of reason and the hero the narrator needed, but maybe not the hero the narrator deserved. The relationship between the narrator and Brandy Alexander was very codependent. It was like watching the blind leading the blind or two alcoholics being each others' sponsor while still trying to get over their alcoholism. The examples I'm using have negative connotations, but in Invisible Monsters the narrator and Brandy Alexander have quite a intriguing relationship.

If Invisible Monsters gets turned into a film, I can't wait to see how they interpet the narrator's face after her accident. I imagine something totally gruesome; something like one of the characters from The Oblongs, but more graphic. Which might not be marketable for a mainstream Hollywood film. At first, I didn't want to see this novel as a film, but I think it has a lot of potential and could be a really good (independent) film.

My favorite quote from Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk was,

"Most times, it's just a lot easier not to let the world know what's wrong."  

This was the most relevant to my life, but there were so many more relevant, amazing quotable quotes.

My jaw literally DROPPED when I read the ending of Invisible Monsters. (After you read Invisible Monsters this may be puny to you.)

Highly, highly recommend.

INVISIBLE MONSTERS REMIX

"Originally inspired as a work that would echo the Vogues he read while going to the laundromat, Chuck Palahniuk had wanted the chapters in Invisible Monsters to break the normally straight line of fiction and bounce around, as did the articles in fashion magazines. He wanted the novel "to be a little unknowable". As a new author, he ultimately gave the book a linear structure. Published as his third novel, it was written first. 

In this revived edition, with a new introduction, the reader is invited to jump throughout the book to read the chapters in different arrangements. Intertwined are new chapters: some featuring the characters in the book, others recounting events in the author's life. As Palahniuk knows, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. 

The story remains daringly unpredictable. A fashion model has just about everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. One day she's driving along the freeway when a sudden "accident" leaves her disfigured and without the ability to speak. From being the beautiful center of attention she becomes an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exits. 

Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman. Brandy will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing the past and making up something better, that loving and being loved are not mutually exclusive, and that nothing is ever quite what it seems."

First I'd like to say, although I think it's amazing that the story description says that Palahniuk added some personal stories, I think this description is crazy long and reveals so much! The editors needed to omit that last "and..." part of the last sentence because it literally gives SO much away. 

Also from the description, I disagree that Palahniuk gave Invisible Monsters a linear structure. I think the story does jump around because it goes in flashbacks. It doesn't physically jump around like he originally wanted it, but the story is not in an "and then, and then, and then" structure.

For some reason, I really liked Invisible Monsters Remix better than Invisible Monsters. I think it was because I got to read an incredible story again and I got to read that incredible story again in a new exciting way. I much prefer the way you jump around in Invisible Monsters Remix to the page turning normalcy of Invisible Monsters. I wish Palahniuk had gone with his first instinct and tried to get the book published like this in 1999. I mean look at Bret Easton Ellis, he was daring with his first novel, Less Than Zero, and it worked out for him. I think you should always go with your gut, then you can ask people what you should do. But even if you ask people what to do, don't listen to them and go with your gut. No matter what happens, at least you stayed true to yourself. U feel mE? I'm not saying that Invisible Monsters was boring to read, it was brilliant, but it was much better in the remix. I also think that because I jumped from chapter to chapter, I read a lot quicker. Invisible Monsters Remix was also funnier. Again I think I only thought it was funnier because I got to read it again, but also because of all the new added material. Everything made so much sense in Invisible Monsters Remix! I had so many revelations about the story. I keep sighing to myself: Oh, that makes sense now. Or, What a great hint. And Oh, I get it.  

The story physically jumps around in Invisible Monsters Remix; you go from chapter to chapter and you end up reading the chapters out of order, but not the story. You could definitely start reading Invisible Monsters Remix from any chapter you want. I decided to start from the introduction and then I jumped to the chapter mentioned at the end. I just have this thing where I need to do stuff in order or else I feel weird. But I think if you read at any starting point, you'll not only get the whole story, but you'll get a different perspective of the story. The only thing is, and sorry if this is a spoiler, there are a couple of chapters that are personal stories of Chuck Palahniuk and they have nothing to do with the plot of Invisible Monsters Remix. I would say if you happen to start with a chapter like that save it for the end. It'll be worth it. And sorry if that's confusing. 

I would love to know Palahniuk's thought process on the structure of Invisible Monsters Remix. What was his vision? How did he come to putting certain chapters after and before each other. How did he imagine the story this way? Was it hard? Because I can't fathom how he did it. My mind is blown. I would LOVE to write a book like this, where the reader has to turn to a different chapter than the one that comes next numerically. It's such an amazing concept.

Even more than Invisible Monsters, I highly, highly recommend Invisible Monsters Remix.

In the battle between Invisible Monsters and Invisible Monsters Remix, Invisible Monsters Remix takes the cake!