Reviews with content warning for Body horror - American Psycho

This may be too pussy, but the movie is better. The book was too boring to read and it had so much information for me to remember. The clothes, restaurants... I got confused. This makes me sound like a child... But I think that the whole point of the book is to make you feel like the rich are just boring phychos who want to feel special. The visons that Patrick had were right, as someone who may have phycosis this is sometimes what goes thru my head whether I like it or not - gore and hate. Sorry Mr Ellis, but next time I will read it throughoutly.

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solspringsreads'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

1.75

I get why this book is like this, I just don’t care. (I even get how my “not caring” relates to the themes of desensitization to violence!) I can see why people have been so inspired creatively by this narrative and why people find value amidst the repeated violence and listing of brands; but I feel like it topples over the line between social commentary and reveling in the societal aspects on which it’s supposedly commenting, perhaps moreso than other interpretations/adaptations of this work, like the 2000 film. Even so, I can understand the value in reading this book and why its impact has lasted for so long.

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pilvinentaivas's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-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

2.5

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saint_eleanor's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny tense 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

5.0

Ok so TLDR: really great book, will really piss you off, super gorey (lots of torture), wonderfully written, anti-capitalist anti-yuppie, really hard to get thru so don't let any ppl tell you its 'essential reading'.

I'll start off by saying this book gets 5 stars bc it deserves nothing less but that doesn't mean I enjoyed reading it 100% of the time, in fact i actively hated reading a lot of it lmao.
There are like 2 main camps when it comes to American Psycho: one camp says it should be banned bc its misogynistic, horrible, far-right, etc. The other camp says that it's the alpha male handbook, and that patrick bateman is peak male performance. Both are really off-mark imo.

In the first place, misogynistic characters do not make a misogynistic book. Pretending misogynists don't exist in our writing is completely counter productive. Additionally, this is literally the most anti-masculine, anti-capitalist, anti-yuppie, anti-1% book I have read in a long time. The author paints Patrick Bateman as the most pathetic, bootlicking, bandwagoning, whiny, narcissistic P.O.S. and I really don't understand how you could come away with any other impression.

Ellis repeatedly makes the point that Bateman is in love with Donald Trump and will do/say anything Trump does/says (80's NYC remember), including switching up arbitrary opinions. He is a self-proclaimed pedophile, rapist, racist, and necrophiliac. Additionally he is completely materialistic, lost in a Kafka-esque nightmare ruled by sound systems and skincare products and is totally obsessed with 'having the best thing'. Not to mention his obsession with every single person's outfits throughout the whole book. I hated him so much i was actually seething half the time. This book is especially terrifying because Bateman is as real as any real-life wall street psychopath, there are so many men like him IRL.

Some of this book was hilarious actually, the monkey TV thing, the 'kill all yuppies' napkin that struck fear into the heart of poor pathetic patrick, and the 5-men-choosing-where-to-eat thing was hilarious. Additionally, Patrick keeps telling everyone over and over that he's homocidal (if we believe his narration, not sure i do) , but his handsomeness and his wealth overshadow his obvious lack of a soul and social skills. He is the opposite of charming, he is actively unsettling, and yet the environment that he's in completely pushes men like him to the top of social circles. When people tell you who they are, LISTEN!! Also I personally think that his absolute hatred of women paired with his love of men is evidence of internalized homophobia and that Bateman is in fact, gay. I think is is especially plausible due to the fact that Ellis has said that he based parts of Bateman on himself when he was in a really bad place (Ellis is gay & talked about how he used to sleep with women and hated it, which would translate well to this point in Patrick's character), which seems like a really complex and maybe overlooked aspect of this that the Sigma Males don't want to acknowledge. Additionally the only character in the whole book that really freaks him out is

Luis, who comes onto him, yet is one of the only characters that escapes his wrath.

Anyway, loved this book. I really couldn't put it down even when the gore was almost too much for me and I wanted to rip Patrick's head off. You can also tell it's good bc of how long this review is. Fuck Patrick, fuck wall street, fuck yuppies, and fuck the guys co-opting Christian Bale's photo for their dumbass Alpha Male grindcore instagram accounts, yall did not pay attention.

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flatstrahmly's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is definitely a very divisive book. A lot of people love it, some people hate it. I for one think Bret Ellis Easton is a genius. From the way it is written, to the themes it covers and the subjective nature that opens up discussions. I had a lot of thoughts whilst reading so here we go..

Patrick Bateman is a Wall Street broker, unhappy with his career (alluded to by his girlfriend Evelyn) but he won't quit as he wants to fit in with his social circle and uphold his image. There is nothing behind his mask of sanity and faux charm. Throughout the book, the narration drones on in a mundane tone and this does not switch from whether he’s discussing his materialistic possessions or whether he’s detailing a brutal assault or murder or cheating on his fiancee. It is all one note.

Patrick likes music. Well, he listens to it. He reads about it. He regurgitates reviews from newspapers and critics, all to fit in and seem like he is something other than a shell of a human. You can see his unreliable narration slipping in when he speaks about Whitney Houston, and he says that a song is about how ‘we cannot emphasize with others, only with ourselves’. — stop projecting, Patrick.

He is consistently ignored throughout the book and when presented with his admissions of evil, they act as though he said something that wasn’t at all out of the ordinary. I think this alludes to the fact that if you have enough money and status, you can get away with anything even if you don’t hide your true views and you are outwardly spoken. There are plenty of people in our society who have done terrible things, yet gotten away with it due to money or connections.
(There’s a quote at some point throughout the book where Timothy Price states ‘Once they hear how much I make, my behavior couldn’t matter less.’ and I think that sums it up.)

People constantly mistake their colleagues and those among their social circles for other people, as they’re too vapid and wrapped up in their own lives to take a minute to genuinely pay attention, get to know people, and recall them. Everyone fits in and dresses the same - their social standing requires them to. No indiviuality. No distinction.

It is alluded to during a meal with his ex-girlfriend from Harvard that Bateman is maybe some form of “nepo-baby”. This ties into social issues the book presents, the privilege and advantage that can come with having connections, status and money.

Throughout the book, he consumes a lot of drugs, pops a lot of pills (some used for insomniacs - thanks Google), and drinks a lot. It is possible that sleep deprivation, along with the cocktail of drugs and alcohol could make his delusional state worse and cause hallucinations. He states many small things throughout the book that any sane person can tell are all in his head, like bones in chocolate bars, etc.

Also, during the scene with the escorts (I don’t know if this was on purpose), a lot of what Patrick describes is porn-ideals. Which is what we’d EXPECT from him with the videotapes he watches. Either he’s doing his little unreliable narrator job or it’s just another reason to believe he is delusional.

I love unreliable narrators and Patrick Bateman is no acception. You cannot believe a word he says, the recounting of events he gives.

As far as adaptions go, the movie is amazing though it is a LOT more diluted than the content in the book, which is far more disturbing. It is not REALLY a horror though. At its core it is almost a running commentary and if you dig a little deeper, you will find the excellence beneath.

If you can get through his yapping about Huey Lewis and The News.

It is really up to the interpretation of the reader to not only determine if Bateman is infact a serial killer, or just a very mentally unwell man suffering from delusions, but to take certain things from the book - whether you think it’s commentating on the state of America, social issues or capitalism.

I could write a lot more regarding this novel after sitting on it for a little while but this review is already long enough and a bit rambly, I don’t intend this to be perfect - my first ever review on Goodreads, woohoo!

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