A review by tomhill
Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis

3.0

We join the vapid, amoral characters of Less Than Zero twenty-five years later, this time in a reflection on the nightmare of life in the movie business as opposed to the nightmare of existence as teenagers of privilege in the 1980s. In many ways, these characters haven't really grown up or matured. They are all still pretty vile and shallow. It's interesting-- in the beginning of the book, Clay tells the reader that Less Than Zero was mostly accurate, especially when it came to the more stomach churning events, but that the book was written by someone else from Clay's point of view, and got many characterizations wrong. He claims he is not the vacant character depicted there...and then throughout Imperial Bedrooms, and especially at the end, he proves that he is perhaps even worse than we previously believed. Like any Ellis novel, this can be a tough read, but I also think he's making some good points about humans who lack humanity, and who no longer have the rather pathetic excuse of being spoiled teenagers. These characters have continued to make terrible, reprehensible choices and one wonders what exactly they're living for.