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A review by septimusmith
The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
5.0
Bret Easton Ellis slowly draws you into the apparently harmless world of Buckley's high school seniors living in Los Angeles in 1981. Reading "The Shards" gives the feeling of an upward spiral; with each page and chapter the things, events, and relationships between the characters are becoming more strange, absurd and dangerous.
The whole feeling of this book is giving the reader the very vivid sense of paranoia and extreme anxiety, making it at some point hard to read especially when considering the topics like sexuality, violence and substance abuse. These topics may be triggers for some readers, in which I also found myself to some extent.
When it comes to the characters themselves, I'd say that none of them, including Bret, are likeable or give anything positive to the book. This was, in my opinion, the writer's intention, since everything we read are Bret's subjective feelings and thoughts about what is happening around him. For me this worked very well, because it makes you think about what is actually true, real or the opposite of reality in here.
Conclusion: "The Shards" is an exciting psychological thriller definitely worth reading, and it shows the great writing talent and effort by Bret Easton Ellis. To me it had a lot of Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" vibes which I really liked.
The whole feeling of this book is giving the reader the very vivid sense of paranoia and extreme anxiety, making it at some point hard to read especially when considering the topics like sexuality, violence and substance abuse. These topics may be triggers for some readers, in which I also found myself to some extent.
When it comes to the characters themselves, I'd say that none of them, including Bret, are likeable or give anything positive to the book. This was, in my opinion, the writer's intention, since everything we read are Bret's subjective feelings and thoughts about what is happening around him. For me this worked very well, because it makes you think about what is actually true, real or the opposite of reality in here.
Conclusion: "The Shards" is an exciting psychological thriller definitely worth reading, and it shows the great writing talent and effort by Bret Easton Ellis. To me it had a lot of Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" vibes which I really liked.