The Invisibles by Hugh Sheehy

The Invisibles by Hugh Sheehy

This week I chose the short Story "The Invisibles" by Hugh Sheehy.This short story started off during the end of Cynthia’s summer. Her mother had taken her to the zoo one afternoon and showed her what kinds of people were invisible. Which she defines invisible as unnoticeable, and unmemorable. She went on telling Cynthia that she was invisible just like her mother. Then one August day her mother disappeared without a sign or trace. No one even looked for her except Cynthia. After a while has past Cynthia goes to a skating rink with a couple of friend where she notices a maroon van. At the end of the night of skating with her friends the go there separate ways to go home. Her two friends turn up missing just like her mother. Cynthia tried to convince to police that it was this guy in the maroon van and she even claims she saw him at the skating rink but when the police arrive there is no one fitting her description or even a van around. They treat it like it is all in her head. At the end of the story a year later the police arrested the Lake Erie killer who had a van similar to Cynthia’s description and they were going though several skeleton to find out who they were to match them up with missing persons.

The character development in “Eleven on Top” was more up beat and more realistic and easier to follow along than the “Invisibles.” Then again it has to be in a short story because time does now allow a long character development. In Eleven on Top you were able to get a sense for who Stephanie by her relationships with her family and friends and her jobs. In the Invisibles it was jumping around it seamed like a lot of information was left out and you had to read between the lines. You really never found out why her mother disappeared or if it was all really in her head.

The plots are actually somewhat similar; they both had serial killers killing people at random.
I think the length of “Invisibles” truly fit the meaning of story short. I thought the beginning was great and got the suspense up to keep me reading but it went down hill fast and things started getting less of a mystery and more horrid. Then like I stated earlier at the end it really didn’t wrap up what happened to the girl’s missing mother.

Do you attribute any differences between the short stories based on the gender of the author? If so, explain what differences you observed.I think the author did a great job demonstrating how a young girl’s emotions when she feels invisible. I know many young girls experience it in middle school or high school depending on if they are popular or not. He also did a good job demonstrating how the police tried working with her and walking her through the process of trying to solve what happened to her mother. On the other hand, the author of Eleven on Top did a wonderful job writing a chick lit novel. I was really able to relate and understand this novel. It was totally different reading than the other mystery novels.

Review each short story. What did you like or dislike and why? Did the mystery in the short story work for you, i.e., were you challenged, surprised, satisfied or unsatisfied by what happened in the end.
This mystery did not work for me because I don’t particularly like the whole serial killer theme. I know in other short stories some of them jumped around a lot and you never really got the whole picture all the time. But this one I couldn’t figure it out until after I read it and my husband read it then we had discussion about it and I was able to see someone else views. I just couldn’t get it like I did “Eleven on Top”. I really enjoyed reading this week’s novel and now that I know what Chick Lit is I will probably read another of that type of mystery novel.