Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

101 reviews

michaelion's review against another edition

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

1.75

Maybe the real Psychos were the Americans we made along the way...

A book is bad when I have to question what purpose it served humanity. I am a person who fundamentally believes that all art can be made with no reason or goal in mind; art for art's sake; art because the person who made it felt something, felt they had to get it out, felt they had something to share with the world. I read this book because I wanted to watch the movie, yes I'm that kind of person, and I wish I could unread it. What purpose did this book serve to the greater good of humanity? Fuck the greater good, what contribution to humanity does this book give? It has no analysis, no deeper introspection into the era, the mindset of the people. There's no meat on the bone that is this book.

It has its moments and its beauty, for sure. I love the stream of consciousness and unreliable narration, I love the speaking to the audience, the break rom reality and seeing things in the perspective of a movie, sure. Those elements are great. But as a whole? I never question why art is made. There's art I like and art I don't like. It's easy for me to spot art I like, It's easy for me to spot art I don't like, and there are definitely things that lie in a middle grey area, but for all three of those things I almost never question why it was made. It's an inherently fascist idea to say art should have a purpose else it is a waste of time or attention but this is one of the few exceptions I've encountered. The movie better be good after the shit I just read.

And to be clear, I'm not just mad at the content of the book. It was very upsetting sure, but

about a quarter in is when you get to the first kill and it's mentioned nonchalant. So you read almost 100 pages and finally get to the part you came for.

Most of this book is a whole lot of nothing. It works, only because that's the style of this particular type of writing, but once the kills start to ramp up it's like Oh, you wasted my time, and now this is TOO intense. And I'm sure the whiplash was also purposeful, and I'm starting to get a little too nitpicky, but there are things that are more important / could have been more central to the plot that were not given any spotlight.

I tried to find it in my heart to give it a higher rating, I really did, but I can't lie to my future self who will reread this review and go "damn, the book was that bad?" Hi, future self. To answer your question: No. The book was much worse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Vomit, Antisemitism, Stalking, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Abortion

zoehakim's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

what?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Dementia, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

emamno's review against another edition

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

0.25

Bret Easton Ellis is such a talented, descriptive, imaginative author and he chose to create this? Ew.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Classism

I almost threw up reading it

kittiesss's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

swaggle's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Blood, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Trafficking

lexisbookishburrow's review against another edition

I get the author is trying to show how boring Patrick Bateman is but he’s doing an even better job boring me to death. I tried to stick it out but the over descriptions and misogyny was too much for me. My boyfriend convinced me to stop since even he could tell I wasn't enjoying it. Not my kind of book and I’m honestly not sure how other people finished it. 

I enjoyed the movie and though I might like this too. I was wrong. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Antisemitism

scarletkeiller's review against another edition

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

5.0

a truly nauseating read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

emzella's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

jayvdw's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

2.5

This book is gross, slow, dark and twisted. 

First off, the book is very slow, especially in the beginning. It fits the theme and sets the book's tone, but it doesn't read nicely. The book has some big themes and criticisms about 1980s America, which is very interesting and insightful. Patricks focus on clothing, brand, music and materialism really sets a mood whilst reading and depth to the characters. BUT IT'S FUCKING BORING.  Personally, I skipped most of these, the long lists, I understand why they are there and that Bret intentionally puts them in the book to be boring and bore the reader. 

The book is super super gross and not at all for the faint of heart. The book goes into detail about the murders and sex. It is very unsettling and I sometimes strayed away from reading for a few hours after certain chapters.

My favorite part of the book is clearly a few chapters near the end.

In these chapters we start the get clear indications that Patrick and thus the narration can't be trusted. I loved Chase, Manhatten chapter. The sudden switch from first person to third person in this chapter really showed me how psychotic Patrick is. This combined with the absurdity of the chapter really made me realize that Patrick is untrustworthy and made me question a lot of the things that happened in the book. This was supported by the idea that Patrick often says things about murder or rape, that the people around him just ignore. His trustworthiness is confirmed when his lawyer says to has had lunch with one of Patrick's victims.

Overall, I think this book is very interesting and learnful. Even in the modern day a lot of the themes are still present or even worse.  The book is however a very boring read or very gross most of the time, due to this I gave it a low rating, simply because I did not enjoy reading it for most of the book, I also feel like the book could have been half the size. The ending was a let down in my opinion and a bit too vague. It would have been better if the ending focussed more on the trustworthiness of Patrick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

This book is gross and very very explicit with sex, murder, rape and torture. Not only to men and women, but also animals and children.

mangooo_spagetti's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Slow paces book that does everything it’s trying to do. Reading this book also has dropped my rating of the movie significantly, both because of it’s failure to convey the fact the Patrick Bateman is not cool, and for it’s decontextualized ending. They made the movie into a thing that has a beginning, middle, and end of a story, wheras the book is more of something with movements. Like an orchestra. The first introduces you to his life and is by far the funniest, which fades gracefully into the second, the longest and most brutal. The second begins with his killing Paul Allen, and the American psycho movie does that just fine. But the thing the movie is missing is the third. The third movement where patrick bateman shows us just how crazy he is, and gets more delusional, and the story more fragmented and experimental. The clear image of this wallstreet buisnessman who wants so desperately for people to see how crazy he is, and how terrible of a person he is, but either he doesnt do anything and just sits there delusional dreaming about how such a terrible world would not care. Or they genuinely dont notice or care. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, and Alcohol