Invisible (Hautman novel)

Invisible is a novel by Pete Hautman detailing a 17-year-old boy's battle with his inner demons and his descent into insanity. It won the 2006 Wisconsin Library Association Children's Book Award.[1] The American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) named it as one of the best books for young adults of 2006.[2]

Plot summary

Dougie talks with his best (and only) friend, Andy Morrow. Athletic, popular Andy is very different from socially inept Dougie, yet the two find things to talk about. They discuss everything - except for what happened at the Tuttle Place three years ago. It is evident that Andy and Dougie's friendship (which adults are afraid of) is not what it seems to be at first: not only is Andy absent when Dougie needs him most, he pressures Dougie into stalking a classmate, Melissa Haverman, and making a bomb threat via the telephone. When Dougie's psychologist finds out that he's been skipping sessions and hiding his medications, the teenager is forced to remember that fateful night at the Tuttle Place. The truth is that Andy is dead, a victim of the fire they accidentally set to the house.

In the end, he sets fire to his beloved bridge while in the basement, becoming a burn victim at the hospital. Andy then visits him, promising to return.

However, it is debatable as to whether Dougie died or not, since he was hospitalized at the "Madham Burn Unit," the name of his self-built town with his railroad of matchsticks. He also mentions that the hospital smells of burning plastic, referring to the plastic people in Madham, present when he set the town on fire, and that he wants to find his grandfather, to see if he is mad about the train. Whether it is his imagination that leads him to smelling burnt plastic and seeing "Madham Burn Unit" or he has died and Madham Hospital is his place of rest is not revealed.

References

  1. ↑ "Wisconsin Library Association Children's Book Awards: Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award". NoveList. EBSCOhost. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  2. ↑ "YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2006". NoveList. EBSCOhost. Retrieved 11 June 2011.

External links