Invisible Monsters

Invisible Monsters is the third novel by bestselling novelist Chuck Palahniuk. Published in 1999, the novel was intended to be Palahniuk’s first published novel but was rejected for its disturbing content. Invisible Monsters is a contemporary work in the first person with a non-linear narration. The main characters include a former model and transgender woman focused on the search for identity in a society where beauty defines a person’s self-worth.

Content Warning: Please be advised that this novel depicts violence, drug use, and body dysmorphia. There are also graphic discussions of sexually transmitted diseases, murder, death by suicide, self harm, and family dysfunction. Invisible Monsters is considered controversial, and reflects outdated portrayals of LGBTQ+ and transgender individuals that may perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

This study guide utilizes the e-book based on the W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. paperback published in 2018.

Plot Summary

It is the day of Evie Cottrell’s wedding, and things have gone terribly wrong. The house is burning down around Evie, her estranged friend and former model Shannon McFarland, and Shannon’s friend Brandy Alexander. Evie has just shot Brandy, who asks Shannon to tell her story. Shannon cannot tell Brandy’s story without telling her own, so she begins with the day she was shot in the face while driving her car. In the hospital, Shannon discovers she is essentially alone. Her boyfriend has ended their engagement and Shannon’s best friend, Evie, steals all her clothes while pretending to be concerned. Shannon doesn’t tell her parents about her situation because she feels they love her deceased brother more than her and would not show much concern. Shannon’s brother, Shane, passed away from complications from AIDS, which only seems to endear him further to their parents, despite the fact that they kicked him out of the house as a teenager after he contracted a sexually transmitted infection from a male partner

Shannon knows that she will never again work as a model because the extensive injuries to her jaw and face do not meet traditional beauty standards. She is unsuccessful in her attempts to get jobs as a hand or foot model. She keeps a bright outlook, but she must face the reality of her situation on the day her bandages are removed; she has lost the majority of her lower jaw. She is the object of scorn when she visits a store without trying to hide her facial scars.

Shannon meets Brandy in the speech therapist’s office. Brandy tells Shannon that the past lacks importance, and suggests that Shannon rewrite her identity in order to create a new future. Not knowing Shannon’s real name, Brandy gives Shannon a new name to use. Brandy also shows Shannon how to fashion veils in order to hide the extent of her injuries. Shannon finds Brandy fascinating and they become fast friends.

Shannon moves in with Evie, who immediately goes out of town on a modeling job. While sleeping, Shannon becomes aware of someone entering the house. She investigates and discovers her former boyfriend, Manus Kelley, skulking through the house, looking for her. Manus attempts to murder Shannon, but she locks him in a closet. Shannon calls for help, but her healing wound has left her unable to speak clearly. Instead, she flees the home after setting it ablaze and runs away in Manus’s car with him in the trunk.

Shannon, convinced she will be arrested for arson at any moment, runs to Brandy. While waiting for Brandy to gather her things, Brandy’s friends tell Shannon Brandy’s life story, how she was kicked out of her home, and show her a picture of Brandy’s sister. Shannon is shocked to realize the photograph is one of her from before her injury. Before transitioning, Brandy went by the name Shane McFarland; Shannon’s brother did not die, but now lives as Brandy. Shannon realizes her brother’s death of complications from AIDS was a trick played on their parents for their biased fear of sexually transmitted diseases. Shannon considers leaving because she never had a good relationship with Brandy when they were children, but stays because she needs Brandy’s help. Brandy and Shannon go on a cross-country trip with Manus, stealing drugs and searching for Brandy’s supposedly lost sister.

Shannon slowly feeds Manus artificial female hormones that she and Brandy steal from unsuspecting homeowners and plots to destroy both Evie and Brandy for their perceived slights against her. Shannon puts into motion a plan to force Evie to give her the insurance money for the house Shannon burned down. When Evie sends the money, it comes with a threat to kill Shannon if she ever sees her again. Brandy has achieved a similar look to that which Shannon formerly embodied, so Shannon sets up a confrontation between Brandy and Evie at Evie’s wedding in which Evie believes Brandy is Shannon. When the confrontation takes place, Brandy is shot. Shannon feels guilty for not trying to stop the shooting until she learns that Brandy and Evie know each other and the shooting was fake; Brandy and Evie became friends through their respective transitions. Shannon decides to give Brandy her identity and disappear, allowing Brandy to begin the new future she wanted for so long.