Reviews

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

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fwykle99's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

4.25

ladybaela's review against another edition

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2.0

2.5 stars

Not quite sure what to say about this one

It took me a very long time to get through it due to the subject matter

Even though this was very well written, in its own disjointed way, I found it very hard to enjoy this book as I couldn't stand being in Patrick's head for long.

vonbergundy's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny 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

3.75

Movie better

headinthebooks's review

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4.0

ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ

Hip To Be Scared by Ice Nine Kills

ılıılıılıılıılıılı

ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

2:11──────●─── 3:23

◁ II ▷

HEY PAUL!

I’ve always loved the movie American Psycho, such a funny and disturbing movie which really shows how fucked up human being truly are, it is like a reflection of who the viewers really are and how modern society is.
So my brain finally went “Why haven’t you read the book yet you slowpoke?” So I did.. and uhmm.. wtf..
It was a journey, a gory and sex filled journey to say the least. But did I love it? Of course! We follow Patrick Bateman, probably one of the most unreliable narrator and one of the most pretty sick guys ever written(Patrick said about himself "I'm a pretty sick guy")! But holy shit.. it was boring.. well most of the times.. just like Bret Easton Ellis(the author) himself said in an Interview in 2012 with Paris Review.

The book was so bloody and gory even for someone like me who has nothing against gore. But holy shit.. I take a step back when snuff(A real (not staged) filmed murder; usually of raping and killing someone. In some cases it is viewed for sexual arousal.) started to happen… cause that shit is weird and fucked up. So warning, there is a lot of snuff and Necrophilia(Having sex with the dead).
There is not a guy more fucked up than Bateman, not even Trump.. which also was named multiple times in this book because of Bateman’s obsession with the carrot.

I liked how it was narrated by Patrick Bateman himself in a first person narration which makes it more personally but makes the reader question if it actually happens specially when the narration turns from first person to a Third-person limited narrator, makes you think that maybe all the murders was just products of his own imagination or if they really happened simply because we only have his words for it.
Also you don’t really find adult books written in a first person narrator, it is mostly children book or YA so it actually made a bit creeper to read it..

Also the really weird midsections of music knowledge was really weird, but also adds to Patricks character, he think he is god when it comes to music because he knows everything about music, but dear Pumpkin Bateman, you don’t know anything! And the whole "this person is wearing this suit by this designer" was so boring..

On a side note, American Psycho made me feel like I had done something wrong after reading it. Like I witnessed a murder and didn't tell anyone and I just wanted to take a shower and wash of the shame. So thank you Bret Easton Ellis for scaring me and multiple other humans being.

togidemi's review against another edition

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2.0

technically a 2.5 but i'm bumping it down because when you're THIS glad for a book to be OVER, it's probably not all that great. i did not realize a book could have so many brutal, merciless murders and still be so damn BORING

I'm aware, yet again, that this book is once again another book that is too smart for me. A point is being made. Messages and themes are being woven in. I KNOW Ellis is being intentionally vapid to drum in how vapid Bateman's life (or, I guess, society is). But you know what? I cannot possibly give less of a liquid shit. I was already warned this book would be boring, but godDAMN I was not prepared for my brain going on autopilot, skipping paragraphs and pages and chapters at a time. Ellis just seemed determined to waste as much of my life as possible. I actively looked forward to murders just so I could feel something, ANYTHING, but eventually even the murders got old. CAN YOU IMAGINE? CAN YOU IMAGINE A STORY BEING SO MIND-NUMBINGLY BORING THAT YOU CAN READ THE GRAPHIC MAIMING AND DESECRATING OF INNOCENT PEOPLE AND THINK "sweet, only 40 pages left"??

But yes, the violence is very graphic. I read from reviews that even true crime and horror fans would reel from this, and my hubris (" I really liked Pretty Girls and Dead Tube, though! :) ") did not adequately prepare me. However, again, eventually you get jaded and it's just. Wow. Blood. Intestines. Nipples. Degloving. A'ight.

I do give the book props though for being funny when it feels like it. (Which is not nearly enough times to save it. GOD.) The running joke of Patrick saying incredibly violent shit out of nowhere and having NO ONE notice or care was hilarious. If anyone says " I need to return some videotapes" to me, I might actually cackle. The urinal cake scene was a riot as well. I'm so pissed that the absurd dark comedy aspects of this story, which are pitch-perfect and American Psycho's only saving grace, is buried under metric tons of BULLSHIT.

I probably should have just watched the movie, as it would've cost less hours of my life I'm never getting back, but reading this has at least taught me that I'm probably never going to like surreal, AP-style storytelling and should thus stop forcing myself to read them. So... thanks, I guess.