Reviews tagging Homophobia

American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis

137 reviews

mpedroncelli6's review

challenging dark funny tense medium-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

1.0

Okay before I say anything, I would like to say that I understood the point that Ellison was putting across, and the first half WAS indeed funny and well written. Themes of Materialism, consumerism, yuppie culture, etc. showed through very well, but god was this book boring. I feel like I could have read 200 pages of this book and got the same message. It felt like there was no real point to half of the writing, 90% of of what was said was pure shock value. Riddled with racism, sexism, homophobia, this is not a book that I enjoyed. It felt like a pointless and BORING venture into the mind of a psychopath. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, Animal cruelty, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Injury/injury detail, Racism, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Rape, and Sexual assault

tayterchip's review

challenging tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Homophobia, Torture, and Sexual violence

victor200122's review

challenging dark reflective sad 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

4.0

American Psycho was a really interesting reading for me, its unsettling, quite disturbing and not just from the terror point of view, which was hard to read at times, but because of all the social criticism and the dehumanisation of society. This book is super reflexive and metaphorical, although it might seem that Mr. Bateman is the most inhuman person on earth, he's not, he's actually more of a human being than anybody else in his story (in a non conventional way, naturally).

All in all, this book is a raw reflection of a reality, full of consumerism, selfishness, isolation and cruelty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexism, Murder, Gore, and Homophobia

Moderate: Cannibalism and Sexual content

Minor: Xenophobia

readyourbookshelf's review

dark reflective slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cannibalism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Abortion and Domestic abuse

trentl14's review

challenging dark tense fast-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

4.0

Serious trigger warnings for just about everything. Sexual assault, murder, violence, gore, mental manipulation. This is not a book for the feint of heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Drug use, Cannibalism, Child death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual violence, and Violence

trash_reader_'s review

challenging dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

If I read one more slur I'm going to scream.

I understand the characters are supposed to be hated. I understand this book was written this way to show the characters' shallowness and how horrible they are, but I could not handle reading anymore of the unnecessary, nasty comments that were made so casually. And what the hell even is a "hardbody" and why was that the only word used when referring to women?

A lot of what I disliked about this book was the language used and the characters' attitudes, which I know was the point, but it doesn't change the fact that it made the book nearly-impossible to read, let alone finish. It was also super boring until he started killing people. It swung wildly between super boring, in-depth descriptions of everyone's outfits and intense sex/murder scenes and it's apt to give you whiplash. I also don't understand how so many people got each other confused with someone else? How? Y'all work together and have for a while. I guess it worked as a plot device for Patrick Bateman to get away with certain things, but it seemed as if that was the only reason for including that in the novel.

The structure of this was interesting. It gave you an insight into how disconnected Patrick Bateman's thoughts were and how often he lost consciousness, whether that was because of his bloodlust or because of the drugs, who knows? Maybe it was a combination of both. The sentence structure was simple and matter-of-fact, regardless of what was going on. The boring conversation he's tuning in and out of? The description of the videos and shows he watches? The description of the sex he engages in? The description of the killings? All written with the same simple, matter-of-fact that sentence structure that shows you how inhuman and detached Patrick Bateman feels.

I had to switch between reading and listening to the audiobook in order to finish this, and I can't honestly say which one was more uncomfortable. Maybe it was hearing the words "cunt" and "cock" repeated so many times through the speakers that turned me off from the audiobook so much, but it definitely made it easier to get through the pointless conversations and random music reviews we were forced to read throughout the duration of the novel. I don't care what your opinions on Whitney Houston were. Or Genesis. And all of the "fashion advice" just went in one ear and out the other, but now I'm just nit-picking so I think I'm going to end my review here, with only one more thing to say.

I understand why this book caused so much outrage when it was published. I get it. And now that I have finally read this book after watching the movie several times, I don't think it's ever something I'm going to willingly bring up in conversation and I'm definitely not going to be "bragging" about having read this book like I have so many other controversial titles before. If I were to compile a list of books that I feel should never have been written, it wouldn't be a very large list, but this book would definitely make it on there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Classism, Death, Animal death, Blood, Antisemitism, Drug abuse, Murder, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Torture, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Violence

jakeaboi's review

challenging dark funny tense 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

3.75

This book was painful to read, for both good and bad, both intentional and unintentional. The book's depictions of murder are extremely graphic and horrifically realistic. This level of detail is great to represent Bateman's violent outbursts. However, this same level of detail can also get pretty annoying when it comes to descriptions of clothing and music. Bateman's ramblings about these things are supposed to show his comedic, intense obsessions, and to juxtapose these against the graphic killings. But, they end up getting stale and rather annoying to read as the book goes on. For the most part, the book was an entertaining, gruesome, and fascinating look into the mind of a serial killer. But, don't expect the book to cut out the unnecessary, minute details about Patrick's life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Ableism, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Abortion and Car accident

Minor: Incest

andrew_t's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

It's a solid read but it can be incredibly violent at moments to the point of inducing a gag response.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Homophobia

Moderate: Racism, Gaslighting, and Racial slurs

noelle1121005's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Body shaming, Classism, Blood, Body horror, Racial slurs, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Gore, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

loggskywalker's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Totally gruesome & disgusting at times. He liked rambled a lot which is annoying at times. I had to radact a few times because i didnt want to read those parts. But overall good 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Torture