A review by pixiecircle
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

dark tense medium-paced

3.0

a rare instance in which i think the movie did a better job than the book-- not to mention christian bale's fantastic acting/monologuing. this crossed my arbitrary line between artistically gory and just plain gross. the descriptions of violence against women were too upsetting. i genuinely think this author has a certain and fundamental disdain for women after reading this, because the descriptions of violence just went on and on. ellis argues that the film doesn't work because the book is about bateman's consciousness, his psychology, but i personally disagree because i think the film did a better job at cutting what makes the novel drag (the mindless depictions of extreme violence). aside from that, i do think the writing was phenomenal, the dialogue was fast-paced and fun to keep up with, and the few monologues at the end were some of the most poignant pieces of text i've ever read. the excessive grossness of the rest of the novel unfortunately bogged it down too much for me to give a higher rating.