Reviews with content warning for Excrement - American Psycho

Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

57 reviews

hydecircus's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

3.5

I mean obviously it's hard to rate a book like this without either sounding completely insane or completely ignoring its cultural impact and message. Trying to rate it on a technical level, it's a genuinely great read, but a very difficult one. One of the only books I've ever read to leave me genuinely sick to my stomach in some scenes. A lot of reading it is just going "oh I understand why that wasn't in the film", either because its so graphic it would just be completely impossible film/get approved for film, or because its just so downright boring. You don't go into this book expecting just how many clothing and product and music descriptions there are going to be. And the weird part is -- it really does work! Get through the endless brand names and pages of graphically described rape and you come to an ending that punches you directly in the gut, somehow everything that came before leading up to it perfectly. I don't mean the actual, last scene (which in the flim serves as one of the first scenes), I mean around page 349 (in my copy), when

the tense changes from first person to third. You've known Patrick was an unreliable narrator basically all along, but nothing cements it quite like him completely dissociatibg from himself, in the worst moment of his life, becoming another character rather than the protagonist, and then, when he recovers, shifting seamlessly back into first person.

It's not a book I'd recommend without reading the content warnings, and even then I might suggest watching the film first considering just how much nastier the book is. Even so, I'm glad I read it and I think if you can handle the subject matter you should give it a go, especially if you enjoy unreliable narrators.
EDIT: ok honestly after reflecting a bit i think its just one scene that is like. really bad and i probably just shouldve have read it while eating and you guys would probably be fine 👍 i think its better than the film but maybe the film makes the message more accessible also. still rotating this book around in my head maybe ill change my mind on this later

Content Warnings

angie10110's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-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

3.5

would i re read this book? Honestly I have no idea

This was one the craziest books I have read so far, some chapters I felt like I was just reading words with no meaning. This book was good but I also felt like some chapters were written for the sake of being disturbing, the way the author describes things was very well written and gave me a lot to visualize. The beginning portion of this book started off very strong including the middle portion, the ending felt like I was in a dream like nothing was actually happening yet so much has already happened. I wanted to put the book down at certain scenes but i couldn't help myself. I have seen the movie and the movie is tame compared to this book, i don't think i would recommend the book to people who have watched the movie for its popularity and if they aren't avid readers. My favorite chapter in this whole book is when Patrick and jean are at the café and talking to each other about people and why jean likes him and his whole "there is an idea of a Patrick Bateman" monologue because it goes into more depth about this man and what he really thinks about himself and about what he is.

Content Warnings

theoreads'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

Content Warnings

trentl14's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-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

Serious trigger warnings for just about everything. Sexual assault, murder, violence, gore, mental manipulation. This is not a book for the feint of heart

Content Warnings

jakeaboi's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny 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

3.0

This book was painful to read, for both good and bad, both intentional and unintentional. The book's depictions of murder are extremely graphic and horrifically realistic. This level of detail is great to represent Bateman's violent outbursts. However, this same level of detail can also get pretty annoying when it comes to descriptions of clothing and music. Bateman's ramblings about these things are supposed to show his comedic, intense obsessions, and to juxtapose these against the graphic killings. But, they end up getting stale and rather annoying to read as the book goes on. For the most part, the book was an entertaining, gruesome, and fascinating look into the mind of a serial killer. But, don't expect the book to cut out the unnecessary, minute details about Patrick's life.

Content Warnings

sierrabowers'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

2.5

This book was disgusting and filled with gore. I honestly was not prepared for the amount of gore that was given. I was disappointed at the plot. It was not interesting at all, and was just a horrible person murdering people. Why would I want to read that? Toward the end, the author was alluding to the fact that the main character may have been hallucinating the entire time and never actually murdered anyone? And also switched from 1st to 3rd person point of view during an episode. That could have been a metaphor for his dissociation. Overall, I do not recommend, and it was a waste of my time.

Content Warnings