Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - American Psycho

I hated this book so much. This book was so gross. Fucking sick. My two most written annotations were ew and no. My other two most written annotations were Jesus Christ and stop. I had to skim the s3xual parts because it was so gross, and the only pages I had the skip completely were from the

RAT SCENE.

I had to go home from school after reading even just the first parts of the

rat scene.

I felt quite ill from it. I just kept finding out more and more horrible things about him. Worst book I've ever read, while still being the best book I've ever read (because it completely accomplished it's goal). 5 stars. Loved it.
Tldr: he is really an american psycho.

Content Warnings

solspringsreads'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

1.75

I get why this book is like this, I just don’t care. (I even get how my “not caring” relates to the themes of desensitization to violence!) I can see why people have been so inspired creatively by this narrative and why people find value amidst the repeated violence and listing of brands; but I feel like it topples over the line between social commentary and reveling in the societal aspects on which it’s supposedly commenting, perhaps moreso than other interpretations/adaptations of this work, like the 2000 film. Even so, I can understand the value in reading this book and why its impact has lasted for so long.

Content Warnings

zoemaeboonz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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 a hard one to get through; by page 80 I was already considering whether this would be too gory for me to finish reading. I am glad I got through this book though and whilst I would not recommend it to anyone or read it again I do think that it is a good work of fiction. The way in which Ellis portrays a character with such realistic psychopathic qualities and depersonalisation - a very manic sense of mind is really well written. I don’t think I will ever read a novel where such mental illness is portrayed with such unapologetic truth. It is clear that Ellis got his inspiration for most of the very graphic murders from psychopaths such as Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. I found myself actually skimming through some parts or even having to put the book down at points because of how intense these scenes were (most notably the rat one because wtaf). Bateman is not being romanticised in this novel nor is he being portrayed as a likeable character by the author. The way it is written is through this very manic first point of view and in times when Bateman depersonalised from himself we saw the passages being written in third point of view. This book will probably sit with me for a bit and I find myself having to write about it because of this - most notably the amount of Xenophobia and slurs that were in this book was definitely hard to read and the fact that the term ‘yuppie’ was the least derogatory term put in the book says it all. The quote that probably sums up this book for the reader in a way that can make you understand the bigger picture in this novel is probably this: “…and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I am simply not there.”. This is not an easy read because it is not meant to be an easy read; Bateman is a psychopath and a horrible person and all the things written affirm this about the character and who he is. Though I disagree with the back of my book saying it’s ‘one of the greatest novels of our time’ I can agree that it is a good work of literature that I will gracefully never lay eyes on again.

Content Warnings