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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Eating disorder
Cover Story: Fashion Models and B-class celebrities turned International Terrorists!
Or………… Wait! Do these plastic explosives match my Armani? Call the camera crew. We have to go back to wardrobe! Reset the timer. And….where’s my Zanex?
---
OMG. ummmm……..*yawn?
This isn’t World Weekly News, but a novel that didn’t know where or how exactly to end. And I’m shocked really, because I adore Bret Easton Ellis. I also secretly enjoy World Weekly News, which could arguably, at times, be a better read than this novel. Maybe he could have used Batboy or those giant army ants that eat giant housewives in rural Texas. Something I could connect to, something I could try to care about. Still, I think if Bret Easton Ellis were in need of a kidney and we matched – I’d be down.
I kept hoping the main character, Victor Ward/Victor Johnson (potentially two separate people) would just die already. But this hope occurred for the first time for me on, like, page…… 50? or so. I trudged on in hopes that he/they’d become less vacuous or maybe get impaled or strangled or blown up or attacked with a chain-saw á la Patrick Bateman (“American Psycho”) style. It would have been nice to read about Victor’s entrails being spun onto a wheel, the way they did in the middle ages when they’d burn trapped rats to dig into people’s stomachs. Rats and wheels, it’s torture genius. It proves that human ingenuity is linear, I think. Later on, we made light bulbs and 100 calorie packs. Rats and wheels, this is how much I disliked Victor Whatever.
Then, I’m wondering, am I supposed to hate Victor Ward/Johnson? He’s a man so obviously disconnected from reality – like in the way that Michael Jackson is disconnected from reality. Except Victor Ward/Johnson isn’t so far gone that he sleeps in Tupperware just yet. And his nose doesn’t fall off – just yet. He just thinks a camera crew is following him everywhere sprinkling confetti all about. This is maybe his way to cope with being involved in gory terrorist activities. (I think.) I can’t, however, figure out the confetti metaphor. Can someone fill me in? Lost! But I don’t care enough to be found, really. It’s all [insert random celebrity names here], Cerruiti, Huey Lewis and the News, Brooks Brothers, Cristal, blah, blah, blah. Did I floss today? I’m tired and bored. I’m down for the count. And so – the book gets put on the nightstand for another night or another week until primetime TV is bad and I’ve had a glass of wine.
The plot begins half-way through the novel, just at about the time you’re finally ready to put it down and give up. Thank God, a point to this empty madness. But is it? Really? I’m thinking……….not so much, no. The over-materialist banality was eating at my soul for the first 250 pages. I didn’t recover when things became more interesting. Victor’s father wanted him sent away because he was running for Senate (or was it a Presidential nomination?). His quasi-gay unsuccessful college drop-out son was not good for campaigning or something like that. Victor Ward/Johnson is lured by a person potentially hired by his father, a man named Palakon. Palakon is somehow associated with the French embassy, and then not. It’s not so clear as the lines between reality and “World Victor” become blurred. Palakon, et al. decide to take advantage of the situation they have with Victor in order to transport some uber-modern super-secret plastic explosives en route to Europe.
After this: lots of drugs and death disguised as movies sets- disguised as real death- disguised as film-making. Interrogations. Love triangles. A graphic ménage á trios that spans a full chapter. Confusion about the motive behind the violence because the narrator is unreliable. More death. *yawn
Not your best work Mr. Ellis, but still call me if you need a kidney.
Or………… Wait! Do these plastic explosives match my Armani? Call the camera crew. We have to go back to wardrobe! Reset the timer. And….where’s my Zanex?
---
OMG. ummmm……..*yawn?
This isn’t World Weekly News, but a novel that didn’t know where or how exactly to end. And I’m shocked really, because I adore Bret Easton Ellis. I also secretly enjoy World Weekly News, which could arguably, at times, be a better read than this novel. Maybe he could have used Batboy or those giant army ants that eat giant housewives in rural Texas. Something I could connect to, something I could try to care about. Still, I think if Bret Easton Ellis were in need of a kidney and we matched – I’d be down.
I kept hoping the main character, Victor Ward/Victor Johnson (potentially two separate people) would just die already. But this hope occurred for the first time for me on, like, page…… 50? or so. I trudged on in hopes that he/they’d become less vacuous or maybe get impaled or strangled or blown up or attacked with a chain-saw á la Patrick Bateman (“American Psycho”) style. It would have been nice to read about Victor’s entrails being spun onto a wheel, the way they did in the middle ages when they’d burn trapped rats to dig into people’s stomachs. Rats and wheels, it’s torture genius. It proves that human ingenuity is linear, I think. Later on, we made light bulbs and 100 calorie packs. Rats and wheels, this is how much I disliked Victor Whatever.
Then, I’m wondering, am I supposed to hate Victor Ward/Johnson? He’s a man so obviously disconnected from reality – like in the way that Michael Jackson is disconnected from reality. Except Victor Ward/Johnson isn’t so far gone that he sleeps in Tupperware just yet. And his nose doesn’t fall off – just yet. He just thinks a camera crew is following him everywhere sprinkling confetti all about. This is maybe his way to cope with being involved in gory terrorist activities. (I think.) I can’t, however, figure out the confetti metaphor. Can someone fill me in? Lost! But I don’t care enough to be found, really. It’s all [insert random celebrity names here], Cerruiti, Huey Lewis and the News, Brooks Brothers, Cristal, blah, blah, blah. Did I floss today? I’m tired and bored. I’m down for the count. And so – the book gets put on the nightstand for another night or another week until primetime TV is bad and I’ve had a glass of wine.
The plot begins half-way through the novel, just at about the time you’re finally ready to put it down and give up. Thank God, a point to this empty madness. But is it? Really? I’m thinking……….not so much, no. The over-materialist banality was eating at my soul for the first 250 pages. I didn’t recover when things became more interesting. Victor’s father wanted him sent away because he was running for Senate (or was it a Presidential nomination?). His quasi-gay unsuccessful college drop-out son was not good for campaigning or something like that. Victor Ward/Johnson is lured by a person potentially hired by his father, a man named Palakon. Palakon is somehow associated with the French embassy, and then not. It’s not so clear as the lines between reality and “World Victor” become blurred. Palakon, et al. decide to take advantage of the situation they have with Victor in order to transport some uber-modern super-secret plastic explosives en route to Europe.
After this: lots of drugs and death disguised as movies sets- disguised as real death- disguised as film-making. Interrogations. Love triangles. A graphic ménage á trios that spans a full chapter. Confusion about the motive behind the violence because the narrator is unreliable. More death. *yawn
Not your best work Mr. Ellis, but still call me if you need a kidney.
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book confused me. What's with the confetti and the cold?
This book was a very frustrating read and yet I couldn't put it down. It works for the most part as biting satire (I enjoyed Ellis' ability to vomit the names of every mid-90s celebrity that existed) but the twist took so (so, so, so, so) long to develop. And then the last 1/3rd of the book transforms into a nail-biting thriller. I'm definitely glad that I read it but it'll be awhile before I pick up another Ellis book again.
A little uneven. The first half plays like a (very funny) comedy, but it morphs into an intense page-turning thriller about 200 pages in.
I loved that the narrator was a vapid dunce. Watching that character get in way over his head was a blast.
The story was heady and a little confusing at times, but overall it was a fun read.
I loved that the narrator was a vapid dunce. Watching that character get in way over his head was a blast.
The story was heady and a little confusing at times, but overall it was a fun read.
Like other books of Ellis, this novel is often bothe boring and weird, intentionally. Victor Ward is a model who turns into a terrorist, for a not particularly clear reason. Just like American psycho, at some points the line between reality and the bizarre is blurred. For example, in the second half there is a camera crew following our protagonist during his involvement into some quite graphic novels.
All in all, the book alternates between dull and fascinating. Only for if you like the authors other work.
All in all, the book alternates between dull and fascinating. Only for if you like the authors other work.
