Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Shards: Roman by Bret Easton Ellis

26 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

ohennui's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Blood, Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Violence

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

izzold's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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 assault, Alcohol, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

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

aceofknaves88's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Forced institutionalization

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

I stumbled across this title because it was Book of the Month selection. 
"The Shards" follows seventeen-year-old Bret, a senior at a prestigious prep school in Los Angeles during the 1980's. When a new boy, Robert Mallory joins Bret's friend group, it feels like everyone but Bret is in love with Mallory, but Bret is convinced Mallory is hiding something. After a series of murders, Bret begins to suspect that Mallory is the serial killer targeting teenagers throughout Los Angeles. Can Bret uncover who is behind these brutal murders, or will he end up the next victim? 
This mystery is very dense and takes awhile to get into. I also often felt disconnected from the characters. The story felt like something that I was watching from a distance, not something that I was pulled into, and that factor is something I look for in mystery novels. I want to feel like I am right there with the characters and uncovering clues with them. 
Bret was a fun character to read from. Bret is struggling with his own identity and trying to figure out who he is, who he wants to be, and who he wants to surround himself with. He is also incredibly smart and quick-witted. He is definitely flawed and makes poor decisions, but that is why he is so relatable. I also really appreciated that although he is seventeen, his voice does not read like a seventeen-year-old, but he remains believable as a teenager. 
This story is very well-written, and clearly, Bret Easton Ellis is an exceptional wordsmith and very talented with his craft. I would be curious to pick up more from him in the future, but for right now I want something a little more fast-paced. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Homophobia, Bullying, Stalking, Torture, Alcohol, Murder, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

daredeviling's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.25

I ended up giving this book a 3.25 star rating. 

I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I loved all the drama and focus on characters, but it was also just...so long? I see what a lot of reviews said about the book needing a lot of cuts. Like there were just scenes where the main character was naming names of streets that he was driving down, and I was like "Well what's the point of this?" I just skipped forward all of those paragraphs and missed nothing. Same with all the sex scenes - I don't mind one or two to establish the character and the place that sex has in this character's life, but I'm not trying to read a whole porno here, y'know? I don't need fifty scenes that sound essentially exactly the same to me. 

Although I liked the establishment of these characters as using sex, drugs, and partying to numb themselves, it did get tiring after a while. Most of the characters ended up pretty much having one personality trait like they were filling the roles in a teen high school movie. They were always high and having sex. To the author's credit, I did feel very disconnected as I read, which is what I imagine he wanted to get across that the character's felt, so that translated very well. But the issue with feeling disconnected is that you don't get <i>invested</i>. The only reason I kept reading was because I wanted to know more about the murder stuff - which was ultimately disappointing. I felt like it really sort of withered away after everything and that really did annoy me. 

Speaking of annoyances, the main character is SUCH AN ASSHOLE. He thinks that he's just solving this great mystery and he's the smartest, but really, he's an asshole and it's obvious. Ugh I wish <i>he</i> had died at the end of the novel because he 100% deserved it. He can go fuck himself. c: 

Basically, this boils down to feeling like the author wanted to write an updated version of <i>The Secret History</i>, but with way less interesting characters, plot, and a meandering storyline that no one wanted to follow all the way through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Violence, Drug abuse, Murder, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Animal death, and Blood