Reviews tagging Sexual content

American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis

94 reviews

theoreads's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Violence, Racial slurs, Injury/injury detail, Gore, Death, Cursing, Classism, Body horror, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, and Child death

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Animal death, Self harm, Stalking, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, Racism, and Homophobia

Minor: Excrement, Abortion, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

driftingthroughlife's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

3.5

i don't know what to feel, i don't know, i don't know. at a loss rn. XD

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Transphobia, Xenophobia, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Rape, Sexual assault, Addiction, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Violence, Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Infidelity

kay222's review

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Hate crime, Murder, Rape, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

chiara_dose's review

challenging dark tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Injury/injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Abortion, and Drug use

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

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

mirandawood's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

I don’t WANT to rate this 5 stars because I hated it, but giving it any less would just be unfair. THIS is horror. That queasy unsettling feeling that keeps you up at night, that’s what this book gave me. I had a hard time sleeping because of the graphic scenes in this. I’ve dipped my toes into “extreme horror” and was still able to sleep like a baby. But this book? No no no no no. This book is just terrible, but in the best way. This was actually scary. I could never imagine anything like this. 

It’s completely disgusting and it’s haunting that on the outside, Bateman is just an average businessman. He’s educated, great at his job, very fit body, and oh so rich. But when you look closer there’s just something off. Something you can’t quite put your finger on, but you know it’s there. Is it the obsession with working out and having his body in the best possible shape at all times? The obsession designer clothes and how to properly put together an outfit? Or how about the constant looking down on others less fortunate, or of different races, or animals. Because you can do whatever you want as long as your Patrick Bateman. 

Never again will I pick this up, but it will always have a place on my shelf. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Injury/injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Sexual assault, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Car accident, Child death, Death, Racial slurs, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Gun violence, and Murder

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

whatsjessreading's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Body horror, Child death, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Violence, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault