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American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

Start date: July 1, 2013

Finish date: July 31, 2013

Discussion: DB book club - finished reading

Discussion leader: Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!}

Why we're reading this: Suggested by Rabbit: Our first DBook Club vote says this'll be the one we're reading to kick things off -…more
[close] Suggested by Rabbit: Our first DBook Club vote says this'll be the one we're reading to kick things off - enjoy, and feel free to discuss as we go along!

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DB book club - finished reading

February 2014 - GEEK LOVE discussion thread
By Heather V · 6 posts · 11 views

last updated Apr 12, 2014 02:38PM

January 2014 - JOSIE and JACK
By Heather V · 1 post · 8 views

last updated Jan 01, 2014 08:31AM

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What Members Thought

Jan 28, 2011 Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror, dark, serial-killers, four-stars, present-day, book-to-movie-adaptation, thriller, triggering-for-me

This book was intense. It made me feel really uncomfortable. It's hard to put it into words. Definitely not for the weak of heart. Great writing.

ETA 10/31/14 after watching the movie at least 10 times in the last two years:

The movie was a lot more palatable then the book, but still disturbing (at least for mainstream horror). The book and movie are a bit different in the fact that the movie feels more like dark comedy for me, and the book more horror.

I read a lot of horror, and this novel distu ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 01, 2013 Heather V ~The Other Heather~ rated it it was ok

Shelves: disturbing-books-reading-list, dark-and-darker, db-book-club, proceed-with-caution

This was my second read of the book, and the first after having seen the film version multiple times. I liked the film, actually - it was hilarious in all the right places and took a gruesome turn when it needed to - but unlike almost every other instance in my reading/viewing life, I decidedly did NOT enjoy the source material more.

Everything that can be said about "American Psycho" in a review has already been said, usually better than I could, in the Goodreads review section alone. Instead of This was my second read of the book, and the first after having seen the film version multiple times. I liked the film, actually - it was hilarious in all the right places and took a gruesome turn when it needed to - but unlike almost every other instance in my reading/viewing life, I decidedly did NOT enjoy the source material more.

Everything that can be said about "American Psycho" in a review has already been said, usually better than I could, in the Goodreads review section alone. Instead of rehashing the plot or giving inferior accounts of themes and nuances, all I'll offer is what I have taken away from the novel, twice now.

Ellis's style of writing is quite obviouly an acquired taste. I've made attempts at other books in his library with differing results, but I think I've discovered that I'm just not a fan. I had similar problems getting lost in "Glamorama" and "Lunar Park" and "Imperial Bedrooms," for example. I've given the guy a fair shot, I really have, because I wanted to love his stuff, especially "American Psycho." It doesn't look like it's in the cards for me.

My issues seem to lie primarily in Ellis's attention to detail. For some I know it's impressive, and in this book it's essential to flesh out Patrick Bateman as an obsessive, narcissistic personality. Even so, I found it grating. Page after page about the fonts and colour choices of business cards, interrupted by oddly throwaway lines about whom Bateman supposes his fiancee is screwing on the side, just pulled me out of the story time and again. Recognizing the importance of these details didn't manage to make them any more palatable for me to read, unfortunately. And while a few of the more shocking scenes - no spoilers, but unsurprisingly they involve rape and murder! - managed to be effective, perhaps even because of the banality of the rest of the narrative rather than in spite of it, there are others (an early one involves a homeless man and a dog in an alleyway - I'd advise animal lovers and people persons to avoid this book at all costs for moments like those) which feel completely inorganic to the character and...more...just sort of there for the sake of "the shock." It sickens, yes, but in a gross, offensive way, rather than in a way that might've helped me get deeper into who and what Patrick Bateman actually is. If that was the point...well, it didn't feel like the payoff was worth all that effort.

If you've read other books by Ellis and you like his style, you may well adore this book. For me, though, it never managed to feel like anything other than work as I read every page. I'd hoped that coming back to it years later, with a new perspective granted by the movie version, I'd be able to gain a new appreciation for what Ellis was trying to do. He created an iconic character in Bateman, that much is for sure. The trouble is that, amidst all of the nitpicky and dispassionate details, however imperative they were, I just couldn't make myself give a damn. ...more

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