Reviews

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

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jackiehulse's review against another edition

3.0

Really well written, but incredibly dark and grotesque - would never read again as a result. Very similar to the movie plotline.

felicity98's review against another edition

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dark 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

1.75

Content Warnings

grdsbrg's review against another edition

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3.0

If you’ve heard this is very gruesome - it’s more gruesome than that. If you’ve heard it’s very shocking - it’s more shocking than that.

Nothing could have fully prepared me for how awfully graphic, disturbing and gory this book really is. I was expecting a lot of extremely explicit content but it went above and beyond what I had imagined. I don’t think I’ve ever consumed a piece of media that’s more grotesque than American Psycho. And if this book was put into video format in it’s full entirety, it would be only for the consumption for those fucked up individuals that lurk miles deep down in the dark web.

Having said that, I somehow (in a very fucked up and scarring way) ended up enjoying this enough to give it 3 stars. Would I ever recommend this to other people? Absolutely not. I would actually advise people to stay away from it. Would I ever read this again? Absolutely not. Nope. Never.

I actually have so much to say about this book but I won’t because I don’t want to be here all night. But I guess I just somehow enjoyed watching Patrick Bateman’s gradual further decent into madness. Can’t wait to watch the movie tomorrow.

extraextrareadallaboutit's review against another edition

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4.0

Wow. Ok, so let's get the typical points out of the way first. Yes, there are some super graphic, out of this world, messed up passages in this book. Chapters that make you feel physically ill (like put the book down, I feel lightheaded - I might be sick). No book has ever made me feel that way before. That said, it's not the main event of the book and if you get caught up thinking that, well frankly, you're missing the point.

The "successful" lives these people lead are so vacuous, surface and hollow and the writing techniques employed to make you feel it from the outside are sharp and clever. Like how they always mix up each others names, everyone is interchangeable, no one matters. Everyone is just using each other to get whatever it is that they think will move them up the ladder. Ellis then takes this idea to the nth degree with Patrick, who treats people like play things who he can mutilate and kill for his own pleasure.

This idea of confusing people and not caring about or even noticing about the faux pas, goes another step further in always bringing Patrick down a peg (when other characters call him the wrong name) which you can't help but get some kind of joy out of. But more importantly, it is vital when assessing whether these savage acts (all or some of them) actually happened. The only hint we get that these might have all occurred in Patrick's head is when someone mentions they know Paul Owens isn't dead because they saw him a fortnight ago. Did they though? Or was it just some other yuppie that looked like him? The irony of course is that while this conversation is happening, the guy talking to Patrick actually thinks he's talking to someone else. It doesn't get much more layered than that.

It's a confronting look at a hedonistic society who takes itself too seriously and can't deviate from the script. Even when Patrick answers "murders and executions" to what he does for a living, they hear "mergers and acquisitions". Smart writing.

The other thing that blew me away was how well Ellis juxtaposed these horror scenes, with Patrick spending like 8 pages talking about the entire discography of Huey Lewis and the News or Whitney Houston. I'm not sure how one would better illustrate the degree to which Patrick is completely unhinged. I half expected the book to end with him being then subject of the next Patty Winters episode but no dice.

While the long descriptions of everyone's clothing were laborious and actually the thing that lead me to put the book down when I first started reading it. I found on picking it back up months later, I was able to read the book much more easily and found myself laughing at some of the social scenes that are just cringeworthy. I think the trick is not to take it all so seriously. If you come in shocked and appalled, it's going to a slog at times. Part of me wanted to give this book 5 stars but the memory of my originally struggle with it stopped me.

the_mothman's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

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

finished it

cannot say it was good or recommend it in good faith to anyone but I'm glad I read it and I will never pick it up again

ilovetofu03's review against another edition

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5.0

Dark, terrifying, intriguing, this book is a real page turner. I couldn't stop reading until I reached the last page. As reader, we are right inside the head and the thoughts of the murderer, who is getting crazier with every page. I really enjoyed seeing this evolution, how he resists his impulses less and less.
A great read to start this spooky season.