Young Writers Society

Dear Mr. Chuck Palahniuk,

Miss Rona says the only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open. Miss Rona couldn’t have been more right. And though this quote is placed on the top of my list for the most obscure quotes in a book, it is also on the top of my list for the most meaningful quotes ever written. Sorry, Mom. Sorry, God.

In all honesty, I would have never picked up Invisible Monsters if it wasn’t for a very close friend. I had heard a lot about it, some good and some bad, but the subject matter didn’t seem all that appealing to me. Daisy St. Patience’s existence seemed flat, and a part of me almost hoped that you’d write about how she feared her hair would end up that way. The life changing epiphany on the back cover made me hate the character even more. The beautiful girl who was suddenly turned into an ugly by some invisible monster on the highway? This was so cliché it hurt.

But you have to understand where I was coming from. You see, for the past 16 years of my dull existence, everything you wrote in Invisible Monsters was either locked in a cupboard or shushed at the dinner table. And that’s exactly why my last 16 years of existence have been dull. It’s also why, for the past 16 years of my existence, I’ve hid behind a veil.

I owe my friend my life. Once I discovered characters like Brandy Alexander and Daisy St. Patience, complete with their own blunt honesty, shunned lifestyle, and extreme ways of mutating to be who they wanted to be, the way I saw my self, and others around me, changed. I grew to really like Brandy and Daisy, almost loving them and their attempts at being an individual in a world where you’re a always a collaborative effort. While reading, I was also forced to cut myself open and take a look at who I was, and who I might be in the future.

I quickly learned that your characters were a reflection of who I was going to become, with their notes to the future and the Brandy Alexander Witness Reincarnation Project. I feared being myself, saw the future more as a threat than a promise, and mutated into who I thought everyone would like. And the one who really should’ve liked me, didn’t. I knew, unless I wanted to spend the rest of my life pretending, I was going to have to change. I didn’t want to be 23 and have a massive light bulb moment. I wanted to avoid that altogether. I guess you could say your characters and their external and internal conflicts helped me catch myself before I became just another product.

I related to the feelings, good and bad, that Daisy had towards the people in her life and the society she lived. The society we live in. A place where beauty is power the same way money is power the same way a gun is power. And I hated that fact, just like she did. Because power shouldn’t come from the things people can necessarily see. They should come from the things that can’t be caught with the human eye, but more with the human heart. I got tired of playing a role with my friends, who I knew I wasn’t really being myself around. And hiding my true feelings about things from my family, the people who care about me the most, became a too comfortable reality. I got sick of wearing the veil that said: Thank you for not sharing.

Your characters taught me that every now and then, it’s good to share yourself, your true self, with the people around you, instead of hiding behind a veil. There are things that we cannot hide, as Brandy Alexander knows, and some things that we shouldn’t, as Daisy well knows. So why do either?

Now, I carry your book around with me wherever I go, kind of like Brandy carried Miss Rona’s book around. I even tell some people that it’s my bible because in a way, it is. It taught me a lot about life and the importance of enjoying it for all that it is, and all that I am. It keeps me grounded, focused on the important things, and I think everyone needs to have something like that. Of course, when I say this, some people look at me like I’m crazy. Others laugh and shrug it off as just another “teenager fad.” But that’s okay because I know I’m not going to live the rest of my life hiding from my invisible monsters.

Sincerely,

Me