Invisible Monsters

For years, Shannon believed Shane was dead based on a phone call telling the family he died of complications from AIDS. The knowledge that Brandy and Shane are the same person causes Shannon deep anger and she considers killing Brandy even though she most recently thought of Brandy as the only person she could trust. Rather than confront Brandy, however, Shannon silently plots to kill her, revealing that Shannon struggles with trust and jumps to the most violent solution when other solutions might be more appropriate. Brandy’s desire to emulate Shannon further complicates the relationship between the two siblings, suggesting that Brandy felt envious of Shannon’s beauty just as Shannon envied the attention Brandy got from their parents. Shannon’s violent response to feeling betrayed and deceived also prepares the reader to learn more about Brandy’s complex motivations for transitioning, which resemble Shannon’s own desire to recreate herself and alter her body to gain more control over her identity.

Shannon also meets the Rhea Sisters: three drag queens who made their money inventing and selling a speaking doll. They adopted Brandy after Shannon’s parents kicked her out and mentored Brandy during her transition. The Rhea Sisters inject more dark humor into the plot with their eccentric, beauty-obsessed behaviors and their pun-based stage names: Gon Rhea, Die Rhea, and Pie Rhea. Their good intentions are complicated, however, by the fact that they called Shannon’s parents, without Brandy’s knowledge, to tell them their son died of complications from AIDS. This dynamic suggests that Brandy learned her dismissive attitude toward the past from the Rhea sisters, who effectively destroyed her past life to facilitate her total transition to her future as Brandy.

Brandy encourages Shannon to have plastic surgery, but Shannon does not share Brandy’s enthusiasm for surgical procedures. Shannon spoke to doctors about plastic surgery but chose to not have it. The surgeries would be numerous and painful, and she doesn’t want them. Shannon’s decision suggests she’s more comfortable with her new identity than she appears and does not need to live up to a certain beauty standard to be happy. It also foreshadows the reveal at the end of the novel that although Shannon derived a sense of self-worth from her beauty, she was dissatisfied with her life as a model, her internalized standards of beauty, and her previous values. Shannon does not desire to return to her old life, but like Brandy, wants to build a new life on her own terms, and is willing to enact violence in order to make that possible.