lindserature 's review for:

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

2.0

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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THE SHARDS is a work of autofiction that follows a group of high schoolers through their senior year as a serial killer begins to target the people around them. Bret, a budding young writer, is exploring his sexuality and learning to navigate the world around him when a new student, Robert, begins attending Bret’s school. He quickly enamors Bret’s group of friends, but there is something strange about him. The coincidences with the serial killer beginning to attack people in the area are uncanny, but only Bret sees it. Will he be able to solve the mystery and convince his friends before it’s too late?

While this seems like an intriguing plot — and on the surface it absolutely is! — this is one of the most tedious novels I have ever read. I feel that authors sometimes can reach a certain status at which editors feel that they are beyond reproach, which often causes a severe lack of editing and bloat. Do we really need to hear about every single song Bret heard when he was seventeen? Do we need to know every movie he saw? Every street he drove? Does any of this matter to the story in any way? It feels extraneous and, at least for me, detracted heavily from what was an interesting premise. 

Similarly, the amount of sex and masturbation in this book is way over the top. I get that the narrator is a teenage boy, and I definitely don’t consider myself a prude, but do we need every minute detail of every sexual encounter he has? Again, it detracts from the book itself. I actually like the juxtaposition of the murders with Bret developing his sexual identity, but the hyperfixation and extreme detail is borderline outrageous.

A major theme for me here is that Ellis beats everything to death until it is devoid of meaning. Even potentially powerful scenes and conversations have all the life sucked out of them. There are some good moments and very interesting ideas here, but overall I felt that this one should have been majorly edited before hitting shelves. It worked for AMERICAN PSYCHO because of the nature of that novel and its narrator, but it definitely doesn’t work here. Two stars.