Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

63 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

gawdz0rz'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

2.75

i never want to see the word “hardbody” ever again 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gore, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Murder, Death, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Racial slurs, Fatphobia, Classism, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Body shaming, Racism, and Homophobia

Minor: Drug abuse, Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Vomit, Antisemitism, Abortion, and Eating disorder

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.

itsbethanynixon's review against another edition

The book itself is so long and I’ve have listened to hours upon hours of it on audible and it’s just not getting anywhere in the story - I don’t actually mind the content warning I’ve listed when there’s an actual story that goes along with it… the characters seem so two-dimensional and it’s boring as fuck 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Gore, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug use, and Fatphobia

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

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

zoemaeboonz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

This book was a hard one to get through; by page 80 I was already considering whether this would be too gory for me to finish reading. I am glad I got through this book though and whilst I would not recommend it to anyone or read it again I do think that it is a good work of fiction. The way in which Ellis portrays a character with such realistic psychopathic qualities and depersonalisation - a very manic sense of mind is really well written. I don’t think I will ever read a novel where such mental illness is portrayed with such unapologetic truth. It is clear that Ellis got his inspiration for most of the very graphic murders from psychopaths such as Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. I found myself actually skimming through some parts or even having to put the book down at points because of how intense these scenes were (most notably the rat one because wtaf). Bateman is not being romanticised in this novel nor is he being portrayed as a likeable character by the author. The way it is written is through this very manic first point of view and in times when Bateman depersonalised from himself we saw the passages being written in third point of view. This book will probably sit with me for a bit and I find myself having to write about it because of this - most notably the amount of Xenophobia and slurs that were in this book was definitely hard to read and the fact that the term ‘yuppie’ was the least derogatory term put in the book says it all. The quote that probably sums up this book for the reader in a way that can make you understand the bigger picture in this novel is probably this: “…and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I am simply not there.”. This is not an easy read because it is not meant to be an easy read; Bateman is a psychopath and a horrible person and all the things written affirm this about the character and who he is. Though I disagree with the back of my book saying it’s ‘one of the greatest novels of our time’ I can agree that it is a good work of literature that I will gracefully never lay eyes on again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Animal death, Cannibalism, Death, Dementia, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Cursing, Dysphoria, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Rape, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Abortion, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Infidelity, Torture, Homophobia, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit

sparky63's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

0.5

It was very difficult to read and while likely on purpose, the structuring on some chapters felt like filler

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Classism, Murder, Vomit, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Child death, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Drug use, Gaslighting, Animal death, Blood, Death, Sexual content, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Addiction