Scan barcode
tessjvl's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.5
booksandpaiges's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
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
maanlijk's review against another edition
4.0
I decided to write a new, updated review of this book since I had an extended discussion about it with my teacher.
The critics in 1994 were very negative about this book and not having read American Psycho, I didn't know what to expect from Ellis' style I just started reading. Before you start reading, realise that in every chapter a new protagonist appears and his or her name isn't always obvious or even known. In the beginning, the people are shallow. L.A. Glamour including the Valium that's richly taken and the empty lives of most successful people. It made me think of The Catcher in the Rye, no explicit climax. And then you end it, remember the funnily absurd sex scenes & maybe smile a little and you put it back on your bookshelf. Was it worth 5€? Yes. I still think about i now and then, wonder why they made such bad decisions. Is this book shallow? No! Would a shallow book contain a boy thinking about death? And murder? And vampires? That's what all the teens are obsessed with. A vain Edward Cullen and a older Violet from AHS. This book was a progressive collection of story and if you are a human of your time, you will at least like a few (and it's okay to not like them all, because you don't like all the characters of a book either way?). I already read a story unknowingly in an English class years ago & I guess more teachers will let their youngsters read Ellis.
The critics in 1994 were very negative about this book and not having read American Psycho, I didn't know what to expect from Ellis' style I just started reading. Before you start reading, realise that in every chapter a new protagonist appears and his or her name isn't always obvious or even known. In the beginning, the people are shallow. L.A. Glamour including the Valium that's richly taken and the empty lives of most successful people. It made me think of The Catcher in the Rye, no explicit climax. And then you end it, remember the funnily absurd sex scenes & maybe smile a little and you put it back on your bookshelf. Was it worth 5€? Yes. I still think about i now and then, wonder why they made such bad decisions. Is this book shallow? No! Would a shallow book contain a boy thinking about death? And murder? And vampires? That's what all the teens are obsessed with. A vain Edward Cullen and a older Violet from AHS. This book was a progressive collection of story and if you are a human of your time, you will at least like a few (and it's okay to not like them all, because you don't like all the characters of a book either way?). I already read a story unknowingly in an English class years ago & I guess more teachers will let their youngsters read Ellis.
sarahweiss's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
nickreallylovestoread'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
2.0
Collection of vignettes that start off strong but has a lackluster middle section. At it’s best, this collection is reminiscent of Ellis’ other works, but fails to capture the same feeling Less Than Zero or American Psycho brought.
So much of these narratives are plagued with inaction that they didn’t read like stories, just some sort of sick voyeuristic pleasure. Stories boiled down to “X character is a cold distant person and loses themself into drugs and lust.” I mean, that’s Ellis’ works in a nutshell, but he fails to make it interesting. Anne’s section “Letters from L.A.” is one of the dullest things I’ve read from a published collection.
Check this book out if you *really* want more Bret Easton Ellis, but my recommendation would be to re-read one of his other works.
So much of these narratives are plagued with inaction that they didn’t read like stories, just some sort of sick voyeuristic pleasure. Stories boiled down to “X character is a cold distant person and loses themself into drugs and lust.” I mean, that’s Ellis’ works in a nutshell, but he fails to make it interesting. Anne’s section “Letters from L.A.” is one of the dullest things I’ve read from a published collection.
Check this book out if you *really* want more Bret Easton Ellis, but my recommendation would be to re-read one of his other works.
bookshy's review against another edition
3.0
Not my favorite b.e.e. book so far, but I still enjoy his writing and concepts. A good collection of loosely connected stories.
trevorjameszaple's review against another edition
2.0
For most of the book Ellis is writing about what Ellis is ALWAYS writing about: the sad lives of the tragically hip, the soullessness of his generation (and don't even get him started on the next one!) and the utterly vapid moral sinkhole that is Los Angeles. Because this is more of a short story collection than a proper novel, the characters are all loosely connected to each other. The first half of the book features short, vague vignettes of Ellis characters, the kind you just want to stick a knife into so they'll finally shut up. The nadir of this is an epistolary story about a young Camden girl (Jesus H Christ, here we go) full of feelings and awkward earnestness who writes a series of letters to Sean Bateman (dear god...). She moves to Los Angeles and slowly loses her earnestness and emotion; L.A. turns her into another vapid libertine who can't feel anything and relies on drugs for moments of feeling human. Ellis isn't even trying by this point; it's literally as though someone read Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction and decided to write Bret Easton Ellis fan-fiction. Just absolutely awful.
Then we get a supremely fucked-up Eighties rock star, a heroin-soaked child killer in the desert near Las Vegas, a dying girl just trying to work on her tan, and some vampires. Honestly, Bret Easton Ellis writing a vampire story was sort of what saved this book for me (that and Bryan Metro Goes To Japan) as it managed to differentiate itself momentarily from being a bad Ellis pastiche. At the very least it reminded me that he did, after all, write American Psycho.
Still, this one's for fans only.
Then we get a supremely fucked-up Eighties rock star, a heroin-soaked child killer in the desert near Las Vegas, a dying girl just trying to work on her tan, and some vampires. Honestly, Bret Easton Ellis writing a vampire story was sort of what saved this book for me (that and Bryan Metro Goes To Japan) as it managed to differentiate itself momentarily from being a bad Ellis pastiche. At the very least it reminded me that he did, after all, write American Psycho.
Still, this one's for fans only.
corneliabull's review against another edition
vet ikke hva det er som gjør det, men jeg digger boken!
ichundelaine4711's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5