The Invention of Sound Not Worth the Read

Chuck Palahnuik’s book, The Invention of Sound, was portrayed as a thrilling adventure, but was revealed to be a disappointing experience as the book’s plot made it unenjoyable.

Palahnuik is well known for his novel turned film Fight Club. Opening the front cover with high expectations, this book was put under pressure.

It was disappointing to say the least. The quotes on the book cover of course praised Chuck Palahniuk and set up the story as a trainwreck or car crash, horrible and disgusting, but transfixing.

It would be better described as a dumpster fire. The structure of the plot, as well as the structure of individual sentences, was a wreck. Palahniuk pretty much set up the sentences backwards. Almost like Yoda, his sentences definitely took a little getting used to. That would not have taken too much away from the story, except for the fact that it was paired with a confusing plot line as well.

The plot was jumpy. Switching every couple of paragraphs between characters, the reader is thrown about.

Sometimes the scenes follow one another. A retelling of the same scene from a different perspective. Sometimes there are weeks in between the scenes. Sometimes they are flashbacks. The reader themselves has to figure that out. It’s time consuming, confusing, and definitely takes away from the quality of this novel.

This book is character driven, so having the background plot being a little confusing could be overlooked in other instances. Not in The Invention of Sound.

Palahnuik could have done this on purpose. By confusing the plot and background, the reader could focus more on the characters. If this wasn’t an accident, this was not the way to go about it.

Instead of focusing solely on the characters, the reader puts so much time into figuring out what is actually going on in the story itself.

The only saving grace was that the characters and their development were actually interesting. The reader is first introduced to Mitzi Ives, a prominent figure in the sound production industry of Hollywood. Specializing in screams and other horror, gore sounds, Mitzi carves a name for herself and her production company.

The other main character, Gates Foster, lost his daughter Lucinda when she was seven, seventeen years ago. He spends his life on the hunt, looking for his daughter’s kidnappers, or his daughter in specific videos or on websites.

Both of them could probably be considered clinically insane. Mitzi is a literal murderer and torturer while Foster on the other hand has gone crazy in his need to find his child.

Without spoiling too much, these characters are revealed to be pretty deeply connected. Their relationship, unknown to them, is pretty interesting to watch unfold.

Towards the end of the book, the reader gets to see both of these characters fall deeper into the holes they’ve created for themselves. That could almost explain away the plot problems. As these narrators are unreliable and jumbled in the head, so is the telling of the story.

The Invention of Sound is worth a 2.5 out of 5. Two stars are dedicated to the characters, while the half is just for the sheer absurdity of the story. This is not one to put on that long list of books to read, as disappointment awaits.