Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

11 reviews

katherineflitsch_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Utterly chilled. If Stephen King isn’t dark or gory enough for you, if The Secret History wasn’t twisted or dramatic enough for you, if The Talented Mr. Ripley wasn’t mysterious or suspenseful enough for you, then Bret Easton Ellis’s THE SHARDS must be.

It’s been a while since a book has shocked me as much as this one did. It’s been a long while since a book has left me feeling so unsettled. I don’t know what much to say without giving away spoilers. But in the end you feel just as Susan feels holding Bret’s hand in that room. In the end you feel scared and horrified and dizzy with realization, with denial, and nausea. In the end you nearly want to be sick.

(In, like, a totally good way!)

Bret does suspense incredibly well. And he has mastered horror here, too. He blends evil with high school in such a glorious (and glittering) way: a student masks his violent identity just as a student masks his homosexuality in 1981; a teen boy is convinced his friend’s new boyfriend is a serial killer just as as teen boy is convinced his friend’s new boyfriend isn’t good enough for her; a boy grieves heartbreak just as a boy grieves the brutal murder of his first love. These layers pass over one another as delicately and fluidly as curtains sliding over one another moved by wind. In high school, you are terrified of things that you one day grow out of fearing, but in the moment of teenage psyche, the terror and horror of these things is crippling. In THE SHARDS, those teenage terrors are indistinguishable from actual tangible death and mutilation and evil. Bret contorts teenage angst into “legitimate” horror.

I read once somewhere that the difference between fear, terror, and horror is this (and I’m paraphrasing from murky memory): fear is walking in the woods at night and knowing that a wolf is prowling; terror is walking in the woods and seeing the wolf before you; horror is walking in the woods and realizing you have stepped right into the wolf’s trap. Bret Easton Ellis’s THE SHARDS encapsulates all three.


(Warning though: it is quite graphic.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Gore, Car accident, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Blood

Minor: Alcoholism and Car accident

frekdal's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

corruptednatz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Throughout this book all I thought was “Stop it, get help” 😂 this book has a crazy ending but the build up to it was slow and sometimes pointless. The slow parts were the main character Bret doing drugs, falling into a drug induced sleep and fantasizing about various men he can’t have. But I do see how it plays into his mental state. The really pointless points were when the author when go into tangents about movies or music from the 80s. He would go into great detail about these things but I didn’t see the point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Torture, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Infidelity, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Suicide

there is an adult and minor relationship and it’s graphic

n1ghthag's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Fucked up thriller with that’s as horny as it is revolting. I couldn’t put it down. A great exploration of the LGBT trope of do I want be you, fuck you or kill you? Also, Brett Easton Ellis hates vaginas!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Body horror, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

charvermont's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Animal death, Drug use, Mental illness, Vomit, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Car accident, Death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

seanamcphie's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Death, Gore, Grief, Violence, Alcohol, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Addiction

lizsurber's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Car accident, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Biphobia, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Dysphoria, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Confinement, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Gore, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

amebarre's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, Alcohol, Death of parent, Suicide, Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, Outing, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Drug use, Murder, Mental illness, Car accident, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Rape, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

emouemi's review against another edition

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Rape, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Mental illness, Homophobia, Death, Classism, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Violence, Sexual content, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

dylan2219's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

In so many ways typical BEE fare - here are the brands, here are the bands, here are the cars, here are the drugs, here are the blood and the cum and the emotional nihilism - but also has a weirdly mournful quality brought by his stab at (parody of?) auto fiction. The book is maddeningly repetitive and overlong - definitely a consequence of his serialisation of it - and for long stretches I was bored out of my mind. Even if this is the desired effect, it remains (like in American Psycho) massively unpleasant to read. Like that book, too, sex and violence are treated with a medical-gothic style that makes it grow increasingly anaesthetic. It would be more effective without Ellis’ needless signposting that he is chasing after that feeling of blunting and numbness that he has cultivated his whole career. By the far the most interesting aspect, improved by his own reading of the audiobook, is the way he seems genuinely traumatised and haunted by his own career and life. He is aware that his childhood and adolescence has infected him with a kind of strange desire for transgression, that ultimately leaves him cold and affectless. His books, too, have brought him no pleasure, and writing feels more like a way for him to try and get it all out of his system. I can respect and admire this, and we are given more insight into Ellis’ protagonist (and hence, self) by the level of first-person psychological detail, in a way that is more compelling than in his other work. And the narrative twists, and slow unravelling of this voice as the book goes on only adds to the appeal. Not sure I think this is a good book, but there are things about it I enjoyed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Murder, Rape, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Suicide, and Gore