Reviews with content warning for Drug use - The Shards

det va en väldigt bra, intressant & spännande bok!! den va kanske lite segstartad, fast typ ändå inte ??? spänningen trappades verkligen upp successivt under hela boken vilket jag gillade !!
det va dock väldigt mycket ”male gaze” men jag antar att det är pga den utspelar sig på 80talet & att då va allt så jävla kvinnligt & manligt & hemligt, så det passar la!

varning dock, väldigt grova beskrivningar av ganska så sjuka mord & sex om det stör er! kram

Content Warnings

pezinho's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. Usually, when a book has a cast of characters that I don't find particularly likable it tends to make the book less enjoyable for me, however, this was not the case with The Shards. Despite Bret and his friends being unbearably annoying, the events of the book and pacing really worked to hook me in.

The book would be a lot shorter if it weren't for the extensive descriptions of the Los Angeles traffic system that no one who doesn't live in California cares about or the multiple sex scenes that add nothing to the story. At times, considering Bret is the author, it felt like I was subjected to reading him live his sexual fantasies through the fictional Bret.

The cult storyline also didn't go anywhere and made me wonder why it was even a part of it. It doesn't seem like the Trawler was connected to them in any way, at least from what I took away from the book.

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alineh's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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readwithharry's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

OH MY GOOD GOD. This book is PHENOMENAL, but needs to come with some serious trigger warnings - if you want a spoiler free description, think of a cross between ‘American Psycho’, ‘The Secret History’, ‘These Violent Delights’, and then add some teenage nihilism, drugs, sex, and private-high-school rich-kid drama.

Admittedly, there were a few points where I actually had to stop reading, but that comes with reading Bret Easton Ellis.

Ellis is gifted at describing moments in time, and at capturing a ::feeling::

This is a complete and utter mindfuck, yes, but if you’re prepared for the dark stuff, i could not recommend this more. I read this pretty much non-stop for 6 days, and my copy of the book is now heavily annotated and highlighted (and drenched with my tears - and my tea when I spilled it in shock).

Nostalgic, lustful, and extremely powerful - literally couldn’t recommend this more.

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tgyll's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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cindylchap's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

If you love reading pornography, namely detailed homosexual pornography (which was about 99.99% of it. The rest of the less detailed sexual acts were heterosexual with a sprinkle of pedophelia), then this book is for you. The actual story line probably amounted to about 1/8 of the entire book and that is most likely being generous. This really was not a “coming of age” story. Not only that, the dialogue was not even congruent with the age of the characters. These were teenagers but conversing like experienced adults. I also found it unbelievable that these teenagers know how to make specific cocktails, know exactly what is in one just by the taste, and serve home made margaritas at their secret teen parties while their parents are away. The only reason I kept reading was because I always try to finish a book and I wanted to know what happened in that tiny little plot that was interspersed here and there

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