A review by ben_patten
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

challenging dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ellis' prose is so incredibly rambly that often paragraphs, entire pages even, blur into one amorphous blob of names and places and brands and his unwillingness to use a comma or sometimes a full stop becomes brain-numbing, in a way intentional and fun to read, though its insistence on sticking to its style regardless of how repetitive it gets is admirable and it's also a fucking laugh riot, non-sequitur sentences and random punchlines become a flurry of random winking humour that never failed to make me cackle aloud and Patrick Bateman remains one of the great, pathetic protagonists who's so easy to like despite his faults, one of which is that one time he did that thing with a fucking rat. It's that, extended to 400 pages, over and over and over, and sadly this still is not an exit.