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Jun 21, 2010

David rated it:

Do not read this book. It's about despicable people doing despicable things.

In other words, it's about being human in the most essential sense of the term.

You will not like it because you have to like the characters you read about. Or because it's too dull or cold or passe. Or because it's misanthropic or misogynistic.

It's really none of these things, but you'll think it is and say it is and you'll be angry and spiteful and write another tired anti-Ellis More...

44 comments like (53 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2011

Eve rated it:

What I've learned from this book is that Bret Easton Ellis has totally lost it. I didn't want to believe it - I thought American Psycho was brilliant. I kinda sorta got Lunar Park. But this book seems, to me, a serious cry for help. I have NO idea why he turned Clay into Bret/Bateman, and I don't wanna know. The book had none of the brilliance of Less Than Zero, and towards the end, the violent sex just seemed to be written for shock value. OK, Mr. Ellis - I get it. You're crazy.

4 comments like (15 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2011

David rated it:

I really can't seem to remember the last time that I rated a novel with only one star. But I blame myself: I should have seen it coming. A friend of mine met BEE at a party in the Hamptons and raved about him. So despite my misgivings I thought I would take the plunge and now I deeply regret that I did so. Fortunately, the book was terribly short and it's not so much a novel really as a novella. I assume BEE knocked it out over a long weekend stay at the Beverly Hilton. I am not so much into mul More...

7 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2010

Caris rated it:

Some Asshole
1234 Some Street
Somewhere, AZ 85119

Jay McInerney
222 Whereveryoulive St
Probably, CA 90210

Dear Mr. McInerney,

I’m writing you today about a horrendous pile of shit you wrote in 2006 called The Good Life. In that book, you chronicled a few days in the life of some middle-aged guy in the wake of the 9/11 disaster. Your book sucked and, in all likelihood, continues to suck.

In 1984, you wrote a book called Bright More...

26 comments like (25 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2010

Scott rated it:

Bret Easton Ellis has always adopted two distinct personae as an author—that of the lurid purveyor of ultra violence and base sexual appetites set out to shock a bourgeois critical establishment that dares to question his literary mettle, or the closet moralist who wags his finger at the involvement of his characters, and the attendant interest of his fans, in said behavior.

Interestingly enough, it is these same warring impulses that put Ellis in a real narrative predicament in Impe More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Sam rated it:

The old gang from "Less Than Zero" are revisited in a sort of sequel, "Imperial Bedrooms". They were wasted as teenagers and they're wasted in middle age. Trent Burroughs is married to Blair, Julian Wells is around, Rip Millar is creepier than the last time, while Clay is as vapid and self-absorbed as ever.

The story begins with a film Clay wrote and is helping produce, "The Listeners", where he meets a desperate and beautiful actress, Rain Turner, who w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2010

MJ rated it:

I expect to be able to read YA fiction in under three hours (or a Charlaine Harris book), but not literary fiction. This slim, flimsy novel is not a worthy followup - especially after three decades - to that eighties-Zeitgeist-capturing classic, Less Than Zero. The characters have not aged well, natch; but much more seriously, their creator seems to have regressed in trying to invoke them again. While the jaded narrative voice of Clay (as an Alice who made the mistake of staying too long in the More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2011

Sabra rated it:

A screenwriter named Clay returns to the LA scene, after being MIA for a while in NY; he runs the same circle of friends, the same places, the same parties, drinking Grey Goose here and there in Hollywood.

Clay begins to receive mysterious texts on his iPhone, he thinks he's being followed, he meets a hot blond; she must know some tricks, she must have (all of the above of) some killer ______; because she is the reason why everything is happening, why enemies and death are residual e More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 19, 2010

R. rated it:

Highly polished Less Than Zero fan-fiction: for not one second do I buy into the idea that Bret Easton Ellis actually believes his characters survived beyond the very late 80s or early 90s. The literary equivalent of a "Späder-Man" action figure.

Also please note that Elvis Costello does not make an appearance - beyond an epigraph - as any sort of symbol or signpost, as he did in LTZ.

But Warren Zevon does.

Twice, actually.

As such, sinc More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2010

Jon rated it:

This is a dark and stormy tale of aging neurosis and overwhelming fear of becoming the has been. Easton Ellis excels when he captures the frenetic inner musings of his barely sane but somehow rational, even human, protagonist. He also really captures the tension in the complex, fear (and loathing)-laden dialogue between his disturbed characters.

This is a haunting book, like American Psycho, it is disturbing enough to stay wih you throughout the day and night.

Stylisticly e More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 28, 2011

Robert added it

Twenty five years after the publication of Less Than Zero, Ellis revisits the characters in his newest novel, Imperial Bedrooms. In the very first pages of this new book, narrator Clay addresses the differences between the earlier book and a film that was adapted from the book. Ellis is quite cute with this bit and it works well to set the stage for centering this story on Julian, one of Clay’s closest friends from his youth. Clay apparently is able to overcome his addictions to approach a mo More...

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Apr 01, 2011

MaryG90 rated it:

Ci sono libri che divori in 1-2 giorni e libri che rimangono abbandonati per settimane sul comodino. Questo libro appartiene alla seconda categoria. Dopo un inizio sprint, ho iniziato a rallentare la lettura fino ad una pausa di qualche settimana e, dato che il mio gradimento è direttamente proporzionale al tempo impiegato per la lettura, sono rimasta un po' delusa. Forse è colpa mia, le aspettative erano molto alte, perchè Ellis è uno dei miei scrittori preferiti. Prima regola del lettore è, in More...

0 comments like

Dec 31, 2011

Ugh rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Oct 27, 2011

Darren rated it:

single sentence excerpt:

"At the casting sessions it was all boys and though I wasn't exactly bored I didn't need to be there, and songs constantly floating in the car keep commenting on everything neutral encased within the windshield's frame (...one time you were blowing young ruffians... sung over the digital billboard on Sunset advertising the new Pixar movie) and the fear builds into a muted fury and then has no choice but to melt into a simple and addictive saddness." More...

0 comments like

Oct 22, 2011

Guillermo rated it:

Question the narrator of Imperial Bedrooms - Bret Easton Ellis's follow up to his cult novel, Less Than Zero - because you've been duped before. In Less Than Zero, we're led to believe Clay's the one at the helm. He's writing the story as it happens. Imperial Bedrooms, on the other hand, opens with Clay - once again - narrating: "They had made a movie about us. The movie was based on a book written by someone we knew." Clay describes the book and the movie and the differences between t More...

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Sep 19, 2011

Ket rated it:

"Imperial Bedrooms" picks up where "Less Than Zero" left off years ago, and explores what happened to all those vapid characters we forgot about in the 80s. Every guy, including Clay, the narrator, seems to be connected to the mysterious Rain, a wannabe manipulative actress, who parades through this anorexic novel whenever it's convenient. Since she's about as developed as a slim stick of gum, we have no idea what makes these men so crazy about her. Why Clay is being stalk More...

0 comments like

Aug 30, 2011

FrumpBurger rated it:

Read this book today, yessir, and...what can I say? I don't like it much. Not because, as another member so smugly put it, I can't deal with not liking characters in a book, or because it's misanthropic and misogynistic. Nope, the reason I don't like this book is, simply put, because I. Just. Don't. Give. A. Fuck.

I don't give a fuck about the banal characters, the boring ass storyline, the mediocre writing. I don't give a fuck about the trite "Hollywood is empty and everyone is aw More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2011

Spac3m0nk3y rated it:

This is one of those guilty pleasures to read if you feel like life is pointless and shallow, although it lacks the sort of maturity I'd expect from a prolific author like Ellis.
In many ways, it is just a drag on your consciousness, a real downer, depressing, and self-indulgent. I like his attempt at portraying morally vacuous, decedent rich kids in a realistic, harrowing way, but at the same time, who really cares? They're just rich kids who are squandering their opportunities, and no More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 25, 2011

Chad rated it:

Southern Californian nihilism at its best. I love BEE. Always have. I never cared that he wasn't part of the literary elite. Like a great punk band he always wrote what he wanted, he always ripped off the bandage to reveal the nasty wounds and pulsating lies, and he never listened to anyone's criticism. Still, I wasn't really looking forward to this novel. I never really got into sequels and the original Less Than Zero was a sacred novel to me; I didn't really need or want to see what happened t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Matty added it

The latest offering by Bret Easton Ellis, Imperial Bedrooms is a sequel to his controversial debut novel Less Than Zero. Unlike the former instalment, Imperial Bedrooms is missing that gripping intensity that Less Than Zero has. From the very start of the novel Ellis explicitly informs us that this will be a very different novel but just how different I was not expecting. The format is the same however the writing style is a marked difference.

Imperial Bedrooms seems to concentrate more on the p More...

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Jul 19, 2011

Alex rated it:

I think I was titillated, bored, horrified and exasperated with this book to the degree which the author intended and while I was feeling any of the above, I was awaiting the next emotion coming around on the wheel. Maybe that's why his books make great movies, he's actually pretty good on twitter and I'm kinda into his empire/post-empire pop deconstruction thing: he knows how to guide the wheel with a steady touch. I almost wonder if the books are a means to those extra-literary end More...

0 comments like

Jun 26, 2011

Paul rated it:

Less than Zero is one of my personal favorites. I bought this book when it came out though I really couldn't afford it because of the lay off and everything. However, I on a whim decided to read it. Clay of Less than Zero was a passive hole in the middle of a decidely ill moral universe, afraid to merge. Here he is still just as scared, but resembles the American Pyscho character more. Like that book, this is really just a catalog of shocking stuff, including a snuff film. Yet, this tries More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 10, 2011

Joyce rated it:

Mesmerizing But Flawed

If you read Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis presents the sequel in a sharp, enthralling short novel. If you didn't read Less Than Zero it's OK, you will be introduced to the same characters but they are now adults. Set in Hollywood, Easton assures us that the movie industry scene has not changed. Narrated in a present tense stream of consciousness, Clay, our wealthy screenwriter, returns to L.A. during Christmas to supposedly help cast for his movie, The Liste More...

0 comments like

May 20, 2011

Laura added it

I have read almost all of Bret Easton Ellis's work. The only one I haven't read is The Informers. I spent a lot of time with American Psycho in graduate school. I would say that I know what to expect from an Ellis novel. Here is a list of Ellis's books in the order that I would rank them (from best to worst):

1. Lunar Park
2. American Psycho
3. Imperial Bedrooms
4. Rules of Attraction
5. Less Than Zero
6. Glamorama

I really thought that I was done with E More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 11, 2011

Pam rated it:

http://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2011/...

Clay’s L.A. has changed since the 80′s. Or maybe it’s him that’s changed. On second thought, it really hasn’t changed at all. Backstabbing, drug running and terribly bad relationships, abound in Bret Easton Ellis’ most recent novel. As a follow-up to his very first published book, Less than Zero, Imperial Bedrooms, follows the once knowing teens in to less certain and very jaded middle age.

Clay stumbles off of a plane coming out o More...

0 comments like

May 10, 2011

Jo rated it:

Do you remember when Bret Easton Ellis was a ground-breaking new author who wrote novels that shook you to the core, that angered you and made you feel like you were reading something new and unique? I know that's how I felt when I read American Psycho - it was a horrible look into a killer mind, one that stayed with me for a long time after I finished reading the book.

I've read two books by Ellis recently, Imperial Bedrooms and Lunar Park. They both have the same problem in that ther More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2011

Ted rated it:

Erica Wagner does a serviceable job of summarizing the Bret Easton Ellis novel Imperial Bedrooms in the New York Times, in which he brings us to speed on the whereabouts and doings of the characters in in his first book, 1985's "Less than Zero". She does a creditable job as well at highlighting his novelist skills --a talent as a surreal quick sketch artist is duly noted--and furnishes a longer list of matters that have made him , in large part, the most tedious of contemporary novelis More...

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Dec 29, 2010

EOB rated it:

I don't know if BEllis' current "Where Are They Now" period represents a cynical attempt to cash in, an ill-advised therapeutic exercise, capitulation to a post-Glamorama loss of relevance, or (d) all of the above. However charitably you choose to view this phase, _Imperial Bedrooms_ is another wrong step in an already poor direction.

Wherever BEllis took risks with Lunar Park, in _IB_ he retreated from them with uncommon vigor. It feels like what it is on its face, a high c More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Lorileinart rated it:

Imperial Bedrooms is Bret Easton Ellis' sequel to Less Than Zero. It's not a book for most people.
Having dismissed most of you out of hand, I now turn my attention to those of us for whom this book was written.
If you were young, smart, rich, and beautiful in the early 1980's, here is our glorious, shameful tribute (it was once okay to openly admit you were an elitist). Before the ravages of AIDS, herpes, crack cocaine, and the resulting cautionary morality that swallowed us whole, we More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2010

Maya rated it:

Let me start out by saying that I'm no Bret Easton Ellis hater.

Is he exercising some kind of personal demons by revisiting these characters, this setting, and and addressing the disastrous film adaptation of Less Than Zero and creating the conceit that the original book was created by some unnamed other, not the "real" Clay?

I wasn't expecting that Clay had grown up to be some kind of philanthropist, but for me the ideas and the people had become boring. And perha More...

0 comments like

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