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giuliamrll's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Death, Kidnapping, Torture, Body horror, Violence, Animal death, and Gore
raeisreading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Self harm, Animal death, Drug use, Death, Gore, Murder, Drug abuse, Blood, Sexual content, Outing, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Torture
disguisedposer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Homophobia, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Outing, Self harm, Stalking, Biphobia, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Animal death, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
gatsbyonabudget's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Animal death, Violence, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
annietaber's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Physical abuse, Body horror, Drug use, Excrement, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Drug abuse
katherineflitsch_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
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.)
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
- 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
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
3catsinatrenchcoat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault and Addiction
Minor: Vomit
frekdal's review against another edition
- 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
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
chromiumboron's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
"When you talk to me you're really talking to yourself, dude."
This book is fucking brilliant. I was content to never pick up another Bret Easton Ellis novel, having read American Psycho and Knowing BEE has a penchant for causing visceral reactions. Even though there is still descriptive language that instigates a slow burning anxiety with sprinkles of the very shocking, we have fictional Bret to be on the same page with us about how disgusting the events are. It's brilliant to have yourself be the good guy who is reacting to the horrible things the real Bret is writing! "When you're talking to me, you're talking to yourself."
Overall, the descriptive language and level of detail in this book is what makes it. It honestly reminds me a lot of David Chase's work on The Sopranos. Did we need the level of detail that we got? Did I need to know about Tommy Tutone playing at the Pirates of the Caribbean Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland for Grad Nite? Did I need to know that Bret's aunt's house's foyer light was a Sputnik chandelier? Did that add anything to the plot? No. But BEE is genius at painting such a vivid picture, and it makes the slow anxiety burn more real.
Here are some other notes I made throughout my time reading, most of them just appreciation for the descriptive imagery and level of detail:
All the boys in our class were wearing Ralph Lauren Polo shirts in bold Easter-egg colors - pink and blue and green and purple . . .
- Really enjoyed this because it was something I used to say when I worked in Baker Systems at Ohio State to my coworkers. "You look like an Easter egg today." Polos abound.
- The mention of Dominique Dunne's murder was a nice little add.
Matt had never felt about me the way I'd felt about him, which would be a recurring theme for the rest of my life though, of course, I didn't know this yet on that September afternoon in 1981, when I was seventeen and still navigated on hope. - This got me good. It's so relatable. BEE does a great job at reminding us that these characters are in high school but, perhaps because it's narrated by older Bret, making sure we're still invested in them/aren't going to just brush them off because they're teenagers like maybe we normally would.
"What do they do?" Terry asked, glancing up at me as he kept eating. I didn't know how to answer this because it didn't matter to me what the characters did. They existed, and I just wanted to convey a mood, immerse a reader into a particular atmosphere that was built from carefully selected details. - Man oh man, this is so meta! It's exactly what BEE is doing to us with this book. He's conveying a mood through a curated set of selected details.
- When Terry is trying to get Bret to admit he's gay: "Well I'm not limited," was how I answered with what I thought was the right touch of diplomacy. "I mean, it depends." I tried to appear casual, offered a little shurg, and then nervously sipped my ginger ale in the gayness of Trumps.
- This got me good, too! I have also been in a situation where I'm trying to be chill about my queerness, and then felt EXTREMELY OBVIOUSLY GAY. This book is so queer and drops little hints about the queer experience, especially the beginning of reconciling with it, and I really appreciated that.
- BEE did lose me for a little bit when he said that Stevie Nicks looked hungover and puffy and then went on to talk about how hot Lindsay Buckingham is (several times!). I know he's gay, but in this house we are team Stevie.
- When Ryan says to Bret, "Dude, really? You were offended?" He sat up and looked at me, confused. "I'm sorry you're so sensitive." And then: "I'm just a guy." He smiled: dimples.
- This makes me SO ANGRY but is so well-written! This is exactly the kind of line that I would let a man say to me when I was seventeen. If someone talked to me like this today, I'd punch them in the throat.
This is the first moment that I can look back on in my life when I can locate the cluelessness of heterosexuals about gay men.
- This is also painfully relatable. Straight men don't know shit about shit, and it often makes them homophobic, even if they don't actually mean to be.
And none of this had anything to do with Robert Mallory because, according to Thom, maybe Robert was gay, without realizing you had to be gay to understand that Robert Mallory most definitely wasn't gay . . .
- Hilarious and relatable in a very similar way.
But then, I thought, as the fear started overriding my sadness: Who deserved anything? We get what we get.
- I don't really have a lot to say about this one. I was a little high when I read this book, and this stuck with me because I've been thinking a lot about the next steps for my life and what should I do etc etc etc, and who really does deserve anything?
Lastly - and this was something I enjoyed about American Psycho, as well - BEE is clearly a huge pop culture fan: Music, movies, books, essays. Again, the level of detail and helping to paint a more vivid picture for the reader. (Note to self: I made a playlist for the book here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qzH120HnidiyGrTgrcJ7J?si=6768432d542c4ba5 ) The setting of this book - the time period, SoCal, the canyons, the music - is EXTREMELY my shit. I have been on a real Joni Mitchell/Crosby, Stills, & Nash/Roman Polanski/Mulholland Drive/Jack Nicholson & Angelica Huston/quaalude-era LA kick for the past year or so, and this fed right into that.
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Murder, Outing, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Suicide and Antisemitism