Ellis' world is so different from mine and his characters are so different from anyone I know, and I think that's why I enjoy his books so much. Yes, it's a great feeling to identify with characters and read about stuff you know about, but I also really like to read about something very far from my own life. Like science fiction, Harry Potter or a Victorian novel... or a Bret Easton Ellis novel.

The world he creates is horrifying and depressing, and the characters are sad, lonely and unable to connect. I kept wanting to slap the protagonist to make him feel something, to make him act. Or to just get him the hell out of that horrible environment. I kept thinking "do people really live like this, act like this, think like this?". I'm horrified and fascinated at the same time whenever I read Ellis, and this was, to me, one of his best...