Invisible (Hautman novel)

Plot summary

Douglas Hanson, or Dougie as he is referred to by his best friend, begins the story by talking about his best (and only) friend, Andrew (Andy) Morrow. Athletic and popular, Andy is very different from socially inept Dougie, yet the two find things to talk about. However, as the story progresses it becomes evident that Andy and Dougie's friendship is not what it seems to be at first. Dougie also has an obsession with a train set he inherited from his grandfather. He creates, a town involving the trains, called Madham and obsessively builds a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge using match sticks in the basement of his parents home. Dougie appears to be unaware he has some form of mental illness (potentially PTSD, autism, schizophrenia, pyromania), although what type of mental illness he struggles with is never discussed. He often views others as being different or abnormal. Dougie claims he is not a troubled youth, but others seem to see him as such, and he engages in troublesome activities: stalking a classmate, Melissa Haverman, and making a bomb threat via a payphone near his school. As the book progresses, Dougie mentions attending (and skipping) therapy sessions and not taking the medications he had been prescribed for anxiety. After the bomb threat (for which he had been caught and expelled for) Dougie eventually admits to his psychologist that he hasn't been taking his medications and is also forced to remember a fateful night at the Tuttle Place. After remembering the Tuttle Place, it comes to light that Andy died in a fire they both had started in the Tuttle home. The fire was initially for warmth, however, as the boys slept, the house caught on fire and caught the boys by surprise. Both boys made it past the line of fire into safety, but Andy went back inside to fetch the present (knife) that he'd given Dougie earlier. He was unable to make it out. Dougie initially seems to come to terms with this reality during the therapy session that Andy is no longer alive, but afterwards convinces himself Andy is still alive, or at least is a ghost, who still visits Dougie.

In the end, he sets fire to his beloved bridge and Madham town while in the basement, becoming a burn victim at the hospital. This may have been a suicidal attempt as seen from the negative thoughts running through Dougie's head before the explosions.

However, it is debatable as to whether Dougie died or not, since he was hospitalized at the "Madham Burn Unit". He also mentions the hospital smells of burning plastic, referring to the plastic people in Madham, present when he set the town on fire, and 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.