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aceofknaves88's review against another edition
1.0
Oh man....this was a tough one to get through. This short story collection consisted of 13 VERY loosely linked short stories, most of which were about very little. Much like in Ellis' first novel "Less Than Zero", the characters were all too shallow, too emotionless, too stoned and too poorly formed. The stories were "day in the life" snapshots of all the characters, all of whom led lives where nothing at all really happened. With exception of two chapters, one about a guy who was (or thought he was) a vampire and another chapter about a kidnapping, all the stories were just dull.
margauxreadit's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
natazzz's review against another edition
2.0
This book has no plot, which would be ok if not for each chapter describing a different random day from a different person's perspective. Boring and pointless.
lhbyrne94's review against another edition
challenging
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
jwmcoaching's review against another edition
2.0
A very hit and miss collection of very loosely interrelated Ellis vignettes...
ezraray12's review against another edition
3.0
I don’t know. Maybe I just didn’t “get it”. I figured out pretty quickly that it jumped viewpoints, but it’s so jarring and clunky and there’s so little tying them together (except I guess tumbleweeds and also L.A. is a prison) that it’s not even interesting to see the different viewpoints. So much of my time was trying to figure out who was talking and who the people around them are. It starts to build towards the end with what looks like a promising plot twist but once that story ends it’s just on to the next random thing and ends on probably the *least* interesting story.
It could have been a lot more enjoyable if there had been a bit more crossover, like having a good assortment of both new and repeat characters, and if we had maybe checked back in on the characters in earlier stories.
It could have been a lot more enjoyable if there had been a bit more crossover, like having a good assortment of both new and repeat characters, and if we had maybe checked back in on the characters in earlier stories.
failedimitator's review against another edition
2.0
There were bits I liked, but for the most part, this wasn't an enjoyable book. I finished reading it while at the airport, and I just left it there because I didn't need the extra weight.
sparkleboymatty'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
1.0
This was already bad and then there were vampires and it was even worse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Racial slurs, Rape, and Sexual violence
litdoes's review against another edition
3.0
A wasteland of the young and disillusioned fill the cast of this nihilistic novel. The landscape is set in LA, the City of Angels, Hollywood, and the time sits squarely in the mid-eighties at the height of MTV, where tanned and synthetic looking blond boys and girls hang. Names of rock stars and actors, movie, music and other pop culture references are generously thrown in for good measure.
Valium is the choice antidote to partied-out hipsters and coke the designer drug used by the early twenty-somethings as well as their parents and stepparents. Rich, privileged and promiscuously bisexual, a main character that is related in some way to the others elsewhere in the book is featured in each chapter . They are callous, even in the face of death and destruction and the party never stops - not for a minute. There is something chillingly familiar yet fantastical about the stories, as one character says near the end of the story, "it's like a movie I've seen before and I know what's going to happen... How the whole thing's going to end."
The stories get decidedly more hopeless and bleak as you read on, like a journey down the abyss of all that's base in human nature. Families are dysfunctional; parents and children have little in common except getting wasted on alcohol or using the same party drugs and getting high, and sleeping with the same partners. For the most part, the stories are realistic and chilling, except when vampires and kidnappers/murderers join this cast. While still in keeping with the decadence of the other stories, I felt that the narrative in these segments spiralled into a kind of gore and violence that seem a little misaligned with the rest of the novel. I felt the same way with the author's other novel, "Lunar Park", when supernatural elements appeared in the story and took over the rest of the narrative.
That said, the tone of the novel is consistently detached and matter of fact, which is something that the writer excels in, making the appalling events and the characters' responses to them all the more chilling.
Valium is the choice antidote to partied-out hipsters and coke the designer drug used by the early twenty-somethings as well as their parents and stepparents. Rich, privileged and promiscuously bisexual, a main character that is related in some way to the others elsewhere in the book is featured in each chapter . They are callous, even in the face of death and destruction and the party never stops - not for a minute. There is something chillingly familiar yet fantastical about the stories, as one character says near the end of the story, "it's like a movie I've seen before and I know what's going to happen... How the whole thing's going to end."
The stories get decidedly more hopeless and bleak as you read on, like a journey down the abyss of all that's base in human nature. Families are dysfunctional; parents and children have little in common except getting wasted on alcohol or using the same party drugs and getting high, and sleeping with the same partners. For the most part, the stories are realistic and chilling, except when vampires and kidnappers/murderers join this cast. While still in keeping with the decadence of the other stories, I felt that the narrative in these segments spiralled into a kind of gore and violence that seem a little misaligned with the rest of the novel. I felt the same way with the author's other novel, "Lunar Park", when supernatural elements appeared in the story and took over the rest of the narrative.
That said, the tone of the novel is consistently detached and matter of fact, which is something that the writer excels in, making the appalling events and the characters' responses to them all the more chilling.
buddhafish's review against another edition
2.0
Pretty disappointing. My fourth BEE novel, and definitely the worst one yet. This was the first book published after American Psycho and that must have drained him, because this is nowhere near his normal standards. Definitely not a good example of Ellis at his top form. Some of the chapters were okay, some were damn right awful; the vampires chapter, for example, can just have a big 1 star label slapped onto it. There were, that I could see, two references to his previous books though. There was a DISAPPEAR HERE sign, like from Less Than Zero and in the final chapter in the zoo the protagonist says something about it being so quiet, someone could be murdered there. I am pretty sure Bateman kills a kid in a zoo in AP, so I guess he is referencing that, unless it's a happy coincidence.
I did, however, play Bret Easton Ellis bingo whilst reading this. I saw on Goodreads somewhere Murakami bingo and thought it was pretty funny, there are many writers who you could play the game with. So, this was everything in this book that I've seen before, that is ticked off the BEE Bingo:
- L.A.
- Valium
- Trump Tower
- Armani
- Psychiatrists
- Dead Animals
- MTV
- Affairs
- Bisexual Flirting
- Sex with Minors
- Killing Women
- GQ
- Cocaine
I did, however, play Bret Easton Ellis bingo whilst reading this. I saw on Goodreads somewhere Murakami bingo and thought it was pretty funny, there are many writers who you could play the game with. So, this was everything in this book that I've seen before, that is ticked off the BEE Bingo:
- L.A.
- Valium
- Trump Tower
- Armani
- Psychiatrists
- Dead Animals
- MTV
- Affairs
- Bisexual Flirting
- Sex with Minors
- Killing Women
- GQ
- Cocaine