Reviews with content warning for Schizophrenia/Psychosis - American Psycho

The best book I have ever read. I can say this with confidence. I could go on for hours about this book. The best i can describe it is: A brilliant, enigmatic satire of 80s yuppie culture, filled to the brim with horrific displays of violence and grotesqueness. (while deeply disturbing, absolutely necessary to the book’s theme of stretching the limits of societal boundaries, and seeing just how much money and status can get you out of.) Before reading this book of course I had seen the movie, and I had heard that the book was extremely graphic. I didn’t grasp just how graphic it truly was. The book had me in full fledged tears at multiple parts. I had to set it down for hours and take breaks. Don’t let this dismay you because the book is nothing short of a masterpiece. It’s fairly fast paced, but unlike the movie, Paul Owen’s (Paul Allen in the movie) murder is not necessarily the main plot or the reason Bateman really spirals into insanity. In fact, Owen’s death scene is only 3 or so paragraphs long, and is not discussed very many times (However it is one of the only murders he is suspected or even asked about). If you enjoyed the movie, the book will turn your world upside down. I highly highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the movie as much as I do. While the movie is great, it just doesn’t do the book justice. There’s only so much you can fit into a 2 hour movie, especially without confusing the audience too much. I’d say only about 45% of whats in the book made it into the movie. And trust me, if you liked Patrick Bateman’s character, or even related to him in the movie, you will not be able to defend this man once you read the book. I believe Christian Bale’s portrayal of Patrick Bateman was made humorous and much more charismatic in order to connect to the audience. I don’t think as many people would be making “sigma” edits of him if they knew the Patrick Bateman Bret Easton Ellis wrote. Don’t get me wrong, Bale’s performance as Bateman was outstanding, but it definitely humanizes him more, and I think that was done on purpose. A fair warning though, if you have a weak stomach or cannot handle extreme, again, EXTREME over the top gore and violence, definitely don’t read the book. I can handle seeing gore on TV, but for some reason, the way Bateman describes it, and seeing it through his eyes, had some effects on me. I had a visceral reaction to this book every 20 pages. However, if you’ve been a fan of the movie for years, and you just want to know more and feel like you didn’t get the full story (you didn’t), read the book! A solid 11/10 for me *personally*. Bateman is even pretty funny at times for casually dropping the most insane information mid sentence. Anyways, if you’re concerned, i’ll add warnings for things that you might not wanna read about:
Many scenes of racism and homophobia, racist and homophobic slurs often used, extremely detailed depictions of death and murder, cannibalism, animal torture, drug use, a LOT of verbal violence, descriptions and mentions of R*pe, extremely disturbing (lets just say “creative”) deaths and torture. I cannot emphasize this enough, but the murder scenes of women just get more and more intense as the book goes on. Im sure i can say more, but that is my basic review of American Psycho. 10/10, ruined my life and desensitized me forever! <3

Content Warnings

maybbrenna's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.5

fascinating way of writing, really captures the essence of a psychopath, but i have never been so disgusted by a book in my life. i now understand why this book is considered one of the most disturbing. never read something more bleak and hopeless in my life. i would go back to do a “slur/hate crime” count but i would rather shoot myself in the foot than ever read this again. i’d give it two stars, but there were some parts where I was still interested near the end and in the beginning, but over all, jesus fucking Christ. i need to start reading romance or something.

Content Warnings

mollandra's review against another edition

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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

3.5

literally the most gruesome book i’ve ever read. i was peeking through my hands to read some of it. the critique is good and it’s always fun to read source material (movie and stage musical both take a lot of verbatim passages) and find notable exclusions.

Content Warnings

beyondthevalley's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny medium-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

4.5

Really loving going through Ellis' work although this made me nauseous and viscerally upset multiple times. Was a bit surreal reading this as someone with harm OCD because strangely Ellis portrays intrusive thoughts pitch-perfectly here — just with a man for whom they are not ego-dystonic for.

Probably taking a mini-Ellis break though it is not good for the psyche to take all this in at once! However it's worth noting that he has great humor and commentary on the excess and sociopathy of rich young white men who all strive for a paradoxical individuality through rigid conformity to the point of constantly being confused for each other, and seeing him touch ever so slightly on the early 90s and the descent from that peak was an interesting touch not seen in Less Than Zero.

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flibusted's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

mariowlie's review against another edition

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This one was a rough read. It started out almost funny in how ridiculous some characters acted and interacted with one another, I think I understand the main themes of the novel well.

The only thing that kept me reading past a certain point was morbid curiosity. "What is this guy going to do next? Do I want to know?" I would ask that question with every new chapter and around the Christmas party chapter I decided I was not interested anymore.

I believe that some recent real-life political news made it so the book left an extra bad taste in my mouth and I really could not finish it.

Content Warnings

atomicbritt's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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

2.5

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