Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

201 reviews

pantslint's review against another edition

dark funny tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Having read Clark's Boy Parts first, I can appreciate this book for what it is based on when it was published (early 90s). Though, I'm definitely judging it based on today's standards around social climate, which is the main reason why my rating is fairly low.

The extreme violence against women in American Psycho is quite honestly unnecessary. Yes—Bateman is literally a murderer and actually the worst person ever, but it turned into senseless torture porn. There is an extreme amount of sexual violence disproportionate to the need for my understanding of his character. I can already infer that he's a raging, violent misogynist—without the detailed grisly scenes

of how he tortures sex workers and his other dates.

Even more, I think Ellis uses enough methods to display the unraveling psychological state of Bateman's character, without having to write such extreme scenes of torture.
For example:

• senseless and increasingly violent murders of the poor
• completely unreliable narration
• stream of consciousness writing
• chapters that are just random reviews of music albums
• increasingly racist and homophobic descriptions of others, including frequent slurs
• his ample knowledge of other serial killers and their lives
• In Ch. 46, when narration switches to 3rd-person as he dissociates

There's so much more. But my main point is that Ellis already did all that and I'm making the argument that Ellis only ended up writing torture porn for the incels. Whatever!!!

This book made me fucking LAUGH. There are so many one-liners and ridiculous conversations to choose from:

• Price says, "...for Christ sakes—you can get dyslexia from pussy—" when talking out of his ass about the AIDS epidemic (Ch. 1)
• "You spin a dreidel, Preston... not a menorah. You spin a dreidel." (Ch. 3)
• Bateman's tirade about the red snapper pizza (Ch. 4), because what a fucking freak
• Van Patten replying, "They didn't look Spanish to me." when Price sarcastically remarks that the table of women would be hot if you speak Farsi (Ch. 5)
• The f-bomb war in the bathroom (Ch. 5)
• A CLUB LITERALLY CALLED "NEKENIEH" (Ch. 10)
• "...the thing looks like a fucking Big Mac" (Ch. 14)
• the phrase, "low, faggoty whisper" in Ch. 21 because what in the actual fuck does that mean
• MAKING FUN OF THE OLD QUEER MAN'S LISP IN HIS NARRATION... "Akthent on thee latht thyllable" and "exathperated" was FOULLLLL (Ch. 22) The dithrethpect is crazy 😭
• All of Chapter 41, "Another Night." Because what in the Mean Girls???
• The chocolate dipped urinal cake in Ch 43....

Ellis is a great satire writer. Don't even get me started on how everyone calls each other the wrong name and how they all just go with it.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. I'm sorry, I skipped the album review chapters. And the branded descriptions of what everyone wears. If I didn't, I don't think I would have finished this book at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Sexual violence, Rape, Torture, Murder, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Cannibalism, Classism, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Addiction, Drug use, Alcohol, Misogyny, and Racial slurs

Minor: Vomit

avery_hutchinson's review against another edition

dark 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

Interesting writing style, but it felt like the book was attempting to be as vulgar and dark as possible without having much of a clear message that I could discern. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Racism, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, Blood, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Violence, Addiction, Cursing, Mental illness, and Animal death

samchelsey's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Body horror, Sexual assault, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Racism, Violence, Racial slurs, Drug use, Addiction, and Alcohol

Minor: Abortion

dubtronius15's review against another edition

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Animal death, Body shaming, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Child death, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Bullying, Cannibalism, Death, Rape, Classism, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cursing, Gore, and Murder

aliclare's review against another edition

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcoholism, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Abortion, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child death, Torture, Excrement, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Extreme violence.

serenspace's review against another edition

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Torture, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

veggiebettyy'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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Child death, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Hate crime, Classism, Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Vomit, Alcoholism, and Blood

dupeskara's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Stalking, Vomit, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Classism, Murder, Death, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism

ok damn too many warnings the book store owner was right this shit crazy asf

clowningaround's review against another edition

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

5.0

I hated this book so much. This book was so gross. Fucking sick. My two most written annotations were ew and no. My other two most written annotations were Jesus Christ and stop. I had to skim the s3xual parts because it was so gross, and the only pages I had the skip completely were from the

RAT SCENE.

I had to go home from school after reading even just the first parts of the

rat scene.

I felt quite ill from it. I just kept finding out more and more horrible things about him. Worst book I've ever read, while still being the best book I've ever read (because it completely accomplished it's goal). 5 stars. Loved it.
Tldr: he is really an american psycho. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Cursing, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Rape, Classism, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Lesbophobia, Animal death, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Abortion, Antisemitism, and Pedophilia

solspringsreads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Death, Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Excrement, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Stalking, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Abortion, Alcoholism, Child death, Classism, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, and Sexism