Doug Hanson is a loner who likes to spend time in his basement
working on his model railroad. He has
two very important things that he cares about his railroad, the Madham Line and
his best friend, Andy Morrow. Doug and
Andy have been best friends and have lived next to each other their entire
lives. Doug and Andy talk about
everything except for a buried, deep secret that Doug keeps about the old Tuttle
Place. After what occurred at the old
Tuttle Place, Andy starts to build the very elaborate Madham Railroad. Readers
begin to see that Doug is suffering from mental illness. Apparently, Andy died in a fire that occurred
at the old Tuttle Place three years prior.
Doug continues to talk to Andy on a daily basis. Soon Doug’s behavior starts to change and
become very destructive when he is to be sent to St. Stephen’s Academy, a
private school for mentally ill boys. He
then sets a fire that burns him and destroys his Madham Line. At the end of the novel, Doug has retreated
deeper into his own world and begins to lose reality. Readers at the end of the book are left
wondering about Doug, if he is alive at the mental hospital or dead?
Hautman uses a lot of suspense to build up the state of Doug’s
mental illness in his psychological thriller, Invisible. He allows teens
to see inside Doug’s mind and develop an understanding about mental illness and
how it can affect you. Readers begin to
gain sympathy for Doug and others like him who are suffering from mental illness.
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