Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Shards

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The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

22 reviews

archiedh's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

bret easton ellis’ take on ‘the secret history’ - as graphic, sexual, and frank as you’d expect but incredibly enthralling

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not_to_day's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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mosswood's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

This book held me in tension for so long that I’ve never experienced before. I was desperate to understand and learn from these characters that I completely hated. I cared deeply about them, despite not caring for them, immersing you in the same kind of dissociation that the characters are in! Amazing.

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patrickreads89's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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rose_ann_leest's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Het boek begint een beetje chaotisch. Er wordt uitgelegd dat er een seriemoordenaar is, maar dat het op dat moment nog niet bekend was en dat hij de Trawler werd genoemd. Dit werd steeds benadrukt en dat zorge eigenlijk dat het niet prettig las. Ja, nu weet ik het wel. Laat het dan weg...

Het boek bouwt zich erg langzaam op. Het gaat over een groep tieners die naar hun laatste jaar op de middelbare school gaan. Er komt een nieuwe jongen in de klas, Robert. En sinds Robert er is, gebeuren er vreemde dingen. Het boek volgt het leven van de schrijver Bret. Delen zijn fictie en delen zijn non-fictie. Hij legt in het begin uit (of had ik dat in een interview gelezen?) dat de angsten die hij in het boek uitlegt echt waren. De seriemoordenaar mag dan niet echt waar zijn, de angsten die heb ik wel echt zo gevoeld.

Dit klinkt allemaal heel spannend, maar er gebeurt niet veel. Pas na een derde van het boek gebeuren er meer dingen, waardoor je nieuwsgierig wordt, is Robert wel de Trawler of is Bret gewoon doorgeslagen?

Ik vind de combinatie van een autobiografische thriller wel origineel. Het zal vast vaker voorkomen, maar ik had dit nog niet eerder gelezen.

Doordat het literatuur is, is het gedeelte over de seriemoordenaar wel aanwezig, maar wie het is, blijft meer op de achtergrond. Het belangrijkste is de angsten van Bret. Een jongen van 17 die volwassen wordt en welke onzekerheden en angsten hij heeft. Maar echt waarom laten zijn ouders hem zo lang alleen? Terwijl er een seriemoordenaar rondloopt?

De moorden werden gruwelijk en gedetailleerd beschreven. Dit past goed bij de langzame opbouw van het boek. Maar je moet hier wel tegen kunnen.

Ik kan me voorstellen dat er mensen zijn dit dit een leuk boek vinden. Langzaam en dat alles gedetailleerd wordt omschreven en herhaald.

Voor mij duurde het echt te lang. Vergeet niet dat als je over 576 pagina's een tijdje doet, je dan elke keer als je leest te maken hebt met angsten, iemand die paranoïde begint te worden en daar had ik op een gegeven moment geen zin meer in, dan wil je uit die narigheid. Dus als je het zo bekijkt, weet de schrijver de sfeer heel goed over te brengen.

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poubelleboi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Ho letto "Le schegge" di Bret Easton Ellis. 😳 In realtà ho ascoltato l'audiolibro e non scherzo quando dico che in un giorno ne ho ascoltato un terzo, anche se dura 26 ore (ha più di 700 pagine). Avevo già sentito tante opinioni positive quindi mi aspettavo che fosse bello ma veramente non riuscivo a smettere.

In questa autofiction, Bret è alle superiori e durante il suo ultimo anno cose strane cominciano ad accadere e si scopre che un serial killer è attivo nella zona. Bret ne diviene ossessionato e sospetta del suo nuovo compagno di classe. È una storia con tanta tensione e tanta violenza ma una delle cose intriganti è il fatto che il narratore non è affidabile per cui ogni lettore può interpretare la storia a modo proprio. Ha tanti trigger warning ma io l'ho divorato e lo consiglio.

È stato interessante come l'autore ha intessuto l'omofobia nel racconto.

L'omofobia interiorizzata è un motore per Bret per fare o non fare determinate cose; la paura di essere scoperto lo porta a non denunciare ciò che sa, a non condividere la registrazione delle torture su Matt. Questo finisce per esacerbare tutte le sue paranoie. Chissà se sarebbe potuta finire diversamente se solo Bret avesse pensato di poter essere attratto dagli uomini senza giudizi esterni. Perché alla fine, i pensieri omofobi che ha non sono che echi di ciò che qualcun altro gli ha detto nel corso della storia. Per cui l'omofobia è stata come un personaggio che teneva sotto ricatto costante il nostro protagonista.

Quello che mi ha tenuto incollato, comunque, è stata la scrittura di Bret Easton Ellis e ammetto che non avevo letto niente di lui prima, ma di certo adesso sono intrigato e voglio leggere altro, quindi consigliatemi altro di suo.

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ablomso96's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

If you like Bret you’ll like this book. Dark, grotesque, absurd- The Shards has it all.

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emiliaborsikova's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Almost a dnf. The first half of this book is pretty much just buildup and an insight into the lives of the characters. Anything of specific significance happens in the last 70 pages. Which is terrible considering this book is 600 pages. Ultimately nothing happens except a bunch of privileged teenagers doing drugs, drinking and being rich. Except one day Bret, the narrator, randomly decides he thinks the new kid at school is a deranged psychopath murderer with very limited evidence (evidence being basically just delusion). For some reason Bret doesn’t actually believe his friendships are real and usually prefers to spend his time alone high on drugs. Half the book is basically him complaining about his supposedly perfect girlfriend who actually loves him but he’s gay and he is just using her, him doing drugs and drinking (everyone is so high all the time they apparently don’t care about girls being kidnapped and then them and animals/pets being brutally mutilated), graphic gay content, tireless music references and Susan being called numb every 3 lines. Not to mention that the dialogue is bland and vague. The Trawler is randomly introduced and a bunch of information is dumped on you before it’s back to random scenes of the characters. The Trawler and the home attacks and the cult didn’t have a clear connection and the narrative felt blocky. Most of the time the plot of Robert and The Trawler seemed like a side plot. It’s about 80% filler and buildup (towards pretty much nothing actually) and 20% shocking graphic descriptions of gore (of both humans and animals). This book could have been 200 pages shorter and as my first Bret Easton Ellis book i’m a bit disappointed. Spoiler- Not to mention that there’s some vague reference that Bret, the narrator, may actually be the psychopath here (the arm bite mark scene) which had no effect other than to confuse me- The end tries to explain everything at once and I just think that the plot had so much potential but it was executed very badly - overwritten and vain.

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katherineflitsch_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Utterly chilled. If Stephen King isn’t dark or gory enough for you, if The Secret History wasn’t twisted or dramatic enough for you, if The Talented Mr. Ripley wasn’t mysterious or suspenseful enough for you, then Bret Easton Ellis’s THE SHARDS must be.

It’s been a while since a book has shocked me as much as this one did. It’s been a long while since a book has left me feeling so unsettled. I don’t know what much to say without giving away spoilers. But in the end you feel just as Susan feels holding Bret’s hand in that room. In the end you feel scared and horrified and dizzy with realization, with denial, and nausea. In the end you nearly want to be sick.

(In, like, a totally good way!)

Bret does suspense incredibly well. And he has mastered horror here, too. He blends evil with high school in such a glorious (and glittering) way: a student masks his violent identity just as a student masks his homosexuality in 1981; a teen boy is convinced his friend’s new boyfriend is a serial killer just as as teen boy is convinced his friend’s new boyfriend isn’t good enough for her; a boy grieves heartbreak just as a boy grieves the brutal murder of his first love. These layers pass over one another as delicately and fluidly as curtains sliding over one another moved by wind. In high school, you are terrified of things that you one day grow out of fearing, but in the moment of teenage psyche, the terror and horror of these things is crippling. In THE SHARDS, those teenage terrors are indistinguishable from actual tangible death and mutilation and evil. Bret contorts teenage angst into “legitimate” horror.

I read once somewhere that the difference between fear, terror, and horror is this (and I’m paraphrasing from murky memory): fear is walking in the woods at night and knowing that a wolf is prowling; terror is walking in the woods and seeing the wolf before you; horror is walking in the woods and realizing you have stepped right into the wolf’s trap. Bret Easton Ellis’s THE SHARDS encapsulates all three.

(Warning though: it is quite graphic.)

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frekdal's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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