A review by hamgamgee
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

4.75

While SIGNIFICANTLY more fucked up than the movie adaptation, I’m not trying to be ~cool and edgy~ when I say that the gore, sex, violence etc. did not feel so extreme (to me) when juxtaposed with surrealist ambiguity of the who what and where and the blatant over the top caricatures of dick head, narcissistic rich people. To me that works and doesn’t feel like exploitation or a romanticism of violence or rape just for the sake of it (but I don’t discount the argument if it’s too much for anyone else) 

I think the unreliable narrator bit works more for me in text than film. The first person writing and chapters of violence almost viscerally feel like a manic episode or a hallucination? 

Then there are the constant mistaken identities mixed in with ridiculous dinner conversations and characters constantly mishearing the violent words Patrick may or may not be saying. Impulses existing within his inner monologue in one chapter and extreme situations in the next leave you wondering if his actions are true ??? This guy rly just carrying a body around the city and no one gives a shit??? Is it real or does it just a -this says a lot about society-??? It all kind of feels like an insane fever dream and I guess that’s the mind of a psycho

I think the unreliable narrator bit works more for me in text than film. The first person writing and chapters of violence almost viscerally feel like a manic episode or a hallucination. Then there are the constant mistaken identities mixed in with ridiculous dinner conversations and characters constantly mishearing the violent words Patrick may or may not be saying. Impulses existing within his inner monologue in one chapter and extreme situations in the next leave you wondering if his actions are true ??? This guy rly just carrying a body around the city and no one gives a shit??? Is it real or does it just a this says a lot about society??? It all kind of feels like an insane fever dream and I guess that’s the mind of a psycho 
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