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A review by excalibolg
The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
challenging
dark
emotional
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
4.0
Reading this as my second BEE novel after American Psycho, the 30 year gap in writing says nothing about a deprecation in sophistication. Only compared to American Psycho's superhuman pace, from the outset of The Shards I felt like I was being lured. The choice of Ellis as his own protagonist in ebbing adolescence was one that threw me off balance but as I embraced the meta-fiction along with it came a sense of dread.
I found myself infatuated with Bret’s obsession, and at the same time felt compelled to question him. Ellis opens with admissions that it's taken decades to write about these particular events. The residual trauma threatens to unravel him entirely; by this point in his life it has uprooted him, at some points. You feel ingratiated, he hopes, that hes dug up this morsel- for us- and freed himself of being the only one who knows, truly knows what transpired. What results is a viscid 600 page recollection, with Ellis saying was aided by journals from the time that included even what songs were playing as he drove some place. Reading with the proper playlist does complement the experience. 80's LA as a historical setting was also like a character. A keeper for the inhabitants of the story, that holds and feeds their desires, fattening them like pigs that are quickly added to the trough after being vanquished. Ellis crafts the era with a firsthand experience that also sounds like a bronzed version of a teenage fantasy. The waxing about numbness as it's own emotion, the imprecise yet confident analysis of everyone around him, reminded me of a common teenage headspace: heedless yet stricken with confusion with how the world worked.
Since I got this book through Libby I tried to finish this before it got held again. I dedicated hours daily to it for a few weeks. One thing Ellis accomplishes with this novel is crafting a semester that feels like a lifetime. A portrait of obsession so detailed that once you acquaint yourself with it won't leave you alone.
I found myself infatuated with Bret’s obsession, and at the same time felt compelled to question him. Ellis opens with admissions that it's taken decades to write about these particular events. The residual trauma threatens to unravel him entirely; by this point in his life it has uprooted him, at some points. You feel ingratiated, he hopes, that hes dug up this morsel- for us- and freed himself of being the only one who knows, truly knows what transpired. What results is a viscid 600 page recollection, with Ellis saying was aided by journals from the time that included even what songs were playing as he drove some place. Reading with the proper playlist does complement the experience. 80's LA as a historical setting was also like a character. A keeper for the inhabitants of the story, that holds and feeds their desires, fattening them like pigs that are quickly added to the trough after being vanquished. Ellis crafts the era with a firsthand experience that also sounds like a bronzed version of a teenage fantasy. The waxing about numbness as it's own emotion, the imprecise yet confident analysis of everyone around him, reminded me of a common teenage headspace: heedless yet stricken with confusion with how the world worked.
Since I got this book through Libby I tried to finish this before it got held again. I dedicated hours daily to it for a few weeks. One thing Ellis accomplishes with this novel is crafting a semester that feels like a lifetime. A portrait of obsession so detailed that once you acquaint yourself with it won't leave you alone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, and Murder
Minor: Rape