Reviews with content warning for Ableism - American Psycho

**Trigger warning: everything and they're severe! Specifically animal cruelty and death, human torture and death, sexual assault, but those are the main ones.**

Absolute masterpiece honestly. I don't know that I enjoyed this book exactly. I enjoyed certain aspects and it was actually hilarious at parts. There were other parts that made me want to tap out due to the horrific cruelty. It also seemed boring at times but that felt very intentional. Showing the mundane of the "American psycho's" life when not committing atrocious acts.

I have a theory on what it means and "did Patrick really commit these crimes or was it just his fantasy?"** So there are spoilers from here out:**
Yes, he did. However, he only involved those on the fringes of society (sex workers, homeless individuals) so it was like it didn't happen as far as the wall street elite were concerned because those people didn't matter to them. Patrick never involved his upper class dates in his gory acts though he did fantasize about it.
The way he is not believed/ flat out ignored when he confesses to these crimes to his peers goes to show they only see what they want to see in their world. They're blind to what doesn't fit their schema. On the other hand, the "bums" and cab drivers (the poor class) recognize Patrick and his crimes because his violence fits their schema.
People only see what the world typically shows them and ignore what doesn't fit their worldview. The privileged wealthy new yorkers can ignore Patrick's violence because it's too messy and scary and doesn't concern them. The lower rungs of new York society don't have that luxury and are all too acquainted with violence and mistreatment.
Patrick is then essentially two people which is reflective of the two realities in 1980s new york: boy next door, polite, handsome Patrick that reflects the experience of the upper class elite and monstrous, psychopathic, evil Patrick that reflects the brutal and violent experience of the impoverished.
The elite are indifferent to the suffering of the impoverished. Patrick's violence and confessions are a metaphor for this apathy.

Content Warnings

hollieadaw's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.0

Content Warnings

nouanni's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.0

put me into a reading slump.

Content Warnings

eurydice_books_09's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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

3.5

American Psycho is my favorite movie so obviously I liked this book, but it was a little bit traumatizing haha. Boring lot’s of times but the murder scenes are very descriptive and nothing that I’ve ever seen before so I did like that a bit.

Content Warnings

kylamayb's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.0

This book was well written. That is just about all the praise I can give it. I would not recommend my worst enemy read this book. I love horror and figured I would give this book a go, I have never regretted a decision more in my life. This book is full of gore, sexual assault, racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, classism, animal abuse, etc etc. I understand that that was the point of the novel, however, I think that it was disgusting in a bad way. A lot of this book felt too real and in your face. I was able to somewhat enjoy when confessions were slipped in nonchalantly between Bateman's ravings but those scenes were few and far between. When there weren't pages upon pages of scenes graphically describing sexual assault it was repetitive. Once again, I understand that that was the point of the book however, it was boring. When I wasn't nauseated from the graphic violence described I was simply bored. I gave this book three stars because it was written well, if it was written worse it would have easily received one star.

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