Reviews with content warning for Outing - The Shards

Ho letto "Le schegge" di Bret Easton Ellis. 😳 In realtà ho ascoltato l'audiolibro e non scherzo quando dico che in un giorno ne ho ascoltato un terzo, anche se dura 26 ore (ha più di 700 pagine). Avevo già sentito tante opinioni positive quindi mi aspettavo che fosse bello ma veramente non riuscivo a smettere.

In questa autofiction, Bret è alle superiori e durante il suo ultimo anno cose strane cominciano ad accadere e si scopre che un serial killer è attivo nella zona. Bret ne diviene ossessionato e sospetta del suo nuovo compagno di classe. È una storia con tanta tensione e tanta violenza ma una delle cose intriganti è il fatto che il narratore non è affidabile per cui ogni lettore può interpretare la storia a modo proprio. Ha tanti trigger warning ma io l'ho divorato e lo consiglio.

È stato interessante come l'autore ha intessuto l'omofobia nel racconto.

L'omofobia interiorizzata è un motore per Bret per fare o non fare determinate cose; la paura di essere scoperto lo porta a non denunciare ciò che sa, a non condividere la registrazione delle torture su Matt. Questo finisce per esacerbare tutte le sue paranoie. Chissà se sarebbe potuta finire diversamente se solo Bret avesse pensato di poter essere attratto dagli uomini senza giudizi esterni. Perché alla fine, i pensieri omofobi che ha non sono che echi di ciò che qualcun altro gli ha detto nel corso della storia. Per cui l'omofobia è stata come un personaggio che teneva sotto ricatto costante il nostro protagonista.

Quello che mi ha tenuto incollato, comunque, è stata la scrittura di Bret Easton Ellis e ammetto che non avevo letto niente di lui prima, ma di certo adesso sono intrigato e voglio leggere altro, quindi consigliatemi altro di suo.

Content Warnings

raeisreading's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

Listening to the audiobook production of this book made it difficult to exist in my real life simultaneously because of how sucked into the tense madness of serial killer stalked 1980s LA. Provocative, intense, and truly gripping. Don’t stop once you start but don’t read before bed.

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disguisedposer's review

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

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chromiumboron's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

First and foremost, JUSTICE FOR SHINGY.

"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.

Content Warnings

torturedreadersdept's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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amebarre's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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kayewa's review

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dark slow-paced

4.0

Probably should have known a Less Than Zero - American Psycho mash-up was always going to be where BEE’s journey took us. It’s absolutely too long, it’s definitely not for the faint of heart, and if you tired of his long lists of 80s brands / music years ago, he’s still doing that, but I’m still here for his drugged out nihilist dreamscape when he’s making it work. Definitely glad he took time from hosting his wretch podcast for this.

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valeriekate's review

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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? Yes

5.0

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