Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Míň než nula by Bret Easton Ellis

10 reviews

beyondthevalley's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

"What's right? If you want something, you have the right to take it. If you want to do something, you have the right to do it."

Quickest I've read a book in a very long time... fast-paced and addictive. I really love Ellis's style and can't wait to dive into more. Truly upsetting by its tail end but guides you there in a way that is seriously master class. A condemnation of 80s excess and capitalistic greed, bled and bred by the parents into their children who want for nothing and therefore strive for nothing and, as Rip says, the only thing they don't have is something to lose.

So clearly an influence on Gregg Araki (who is one of my all time favorite directors) in the depictions of teenage ambivalence turned nihilism turned casual violence. Can't say I feel good after this but am still very glad to have read it, and for it to have moved so fluidly and quickly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking

Most of the intense scenes are brief but very extreme. Notably two scenes, where a video is watched and a scene at the very end.

starneva's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

Shockingly solid and appropriately controversial. 
This is more so what I expected The Catcher in the Rye to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking

kittiesss's review against another edition

dark sad 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: Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, and Trafficking

Minor: Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Abortion

chay_sand's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

I am torn. One on hand the prose was really nice, immersing me in California without even ever being there. On the other hand, it can get graphic. And with that descriptive prose that is a strength of the book, it also doesn't allow the reader to hide as things get worse. Better than I expected though, so I guess I liked it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Alcohol

Moderate: Abortion

kazli's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-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 feel guilty for liking this book so much but it was so good. the way it's written helps convey the feeling of loneliness and being emotionally detached. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism

hungryheidi2013's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, and Abortion

cocogoran's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Not the best audiobook for me, I found that the narration style didn’t really match the tone. Interesting story, would like to revisit it in text instead of audio. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Rape and Trafficking

Minor: Racial slurs

_bxllxe_'s review against another edition

dark tense 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

5.0

What would you do if you were young, wealthy, and apathetic? What if sex and drugs weren’t enough anymore? What if the the only things left to entertain you were the worst things? What if you had nothing to lose? 

Bret Easton Ellis is fascinated with these questions, and he explores the answers in this chilling, dystopian LA landscape. 

“I want to go back,” Daniel says, quietly, with effort.
“Where?” I ask, unsure.
There’s a long pause  that kind of freaks me out and Daniel finishes his drink and fingers the sunglasses he’s still wearing and says, “I don’t know. Just back.”

“[…] she thinks I want to hug her or something and she comes over to me and puts her arms around my back and says something like ‘I think we’ve all lost some sort of feeling.’”

“But you don’t need anything. You have everything,” I tell him.
Rip looks at me. “No. I don’t.”
“What?”
“No, I don’t.”
There’s a pause and then I ask, “Oh, shit, Rip, what don’t you have?”
“I don’t have anything to lose.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Rape, and Trafficking

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, and Abortion

awgeezmckenna's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Trafficking, and Alcohol

begla's review against another edition

dark sad 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

one of the most unique reading experiences i’ve had if only because when i read it i felt ‘less than zero’ myself. clay’s depressive, episodic narration is so evocative it makes the reader fall into the same fugue state experienced by our main character. clay spends his four weeks of christmas break in a stupor, knowing he hates his friends, everything they do, and still continues to do it- there isn’t anything else. ellis’ first book is by no means the great american novel but fictionalizes, if somewhat dramatically, the life led by those considered by tabloids and movies and sex tapes to be great americans

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, and Trafficking

Moderate: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Rape