Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but now I have brain damage.
Review: Read at your own risk. It's the most violent thing I have read to date, bar none.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrifically Addictive.
Review: I read this when it first came out, I purchased it in the Manhattan setting of the book, and have one of the original pressings. I'd heard so much negative publicity, I had to see what all the fuss was about. Let me say, it's well deserved.................I could not put this book down, and read it cover to cover within a few days. I read it on the subway, which was a highly effective diversion from the usual horror THAT entails. I actually felt my face cringing and clenching as I sat transfixed by the gruesome, yet fascinating tale of Patrick Bateman, 80s yuppie any-man by day...prolific brutal serial killer by night. The descriptions of the sexual encounters followed by ghastly tortures and dismemberments is gross, yet engrossing all at once. ..............I was not offended like the some feminists and other groups who denounced it. I was however, shocked that Bret Easton Ellis could write a book like this and not worry what the public thought in regard to his own sanity. Who actually thinks along these lines BUT the certifiable? Mr. Ellis sure sold a lot of copies, so obviously, that isn't even a question in the "rules of attraction" to this book. ................I've discussed "American Psycho" with people, and recommended it as a must read for those who think they are unshockable. In the hundreds of books I've read since I started on adult's novels in 2nd grade, I've never read anything else remotely like this. I read Jacqueline Susann's "Valley of the Dolls" at 7, so take my word...read it, grimace with delight...then pass it on! Or better yet, guard your copy like I do, and just tell a fiend, I mean friend.
Rating:
Summary: I've done a painting on American Psycho
Review: American Psycho blew me away in many respects including the sheer psychopathic nature of Patrick Bateman and the way Brett Easton Ellis brilliantly wrote this book. Im now after reading this book interested in psychopaths and how they work, i've completed a painting recently wich was influenced in a big way by the movie and book: American Psycho. People love the painting and think iv'e got real talent. I recommend this book, it's shocking because it's about a psychopath in the purest form, Patrick Bateman is insane. 'This confession has ment nothing'
Rating:
Summary: Greatest book ever!!!!
Review: American Pycho
Bret Easton Ellis
Horror, Comedy Patrick Bateman is a rich Wall Street business man.
He has just one small problem, he is insane.This book takes you on a funfilled ride through the life of a mad killer.
This book, like Less Than Zero, shows you brutal truth and honesty.Both have drug problems through out the books paired with strange sexual scenes.
I have liked reading this book because it gives me another world to live in.It also shows how fake people really are and how image IS everything.( This was the geography around which my reality revolved: it did not occur to me, ever, that people were good or that a man was capable of change or that the world could be a better place through one's taking pleasure in a feeling or a look or gesture, of receiving another person's love or kindness. Nothing was affirmative, the term "generosity of spirit" applied to nothing, was a cliche, was some kind of bad joke.)(pg.375) I think this is mostly true because most people are just a shell, a big front for others to admire. Most people just get told to be good so they do it absent mindedly.I think this to be true.
There really is no drawback to reading this book. It should just not be read by people that wont understand it,the faint of heart, the uneducated, this book takes some thought.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest book ever!
Review: American Pycho
Bret Easton Ellis
Horror, Comedy Patrick Bateman is a rich Wall Street buisness man.
He has just one small problem, he is insane.This book takes you on a funfilled ride through the life of a mad killer.
This book, like Less Than Zero, shows you brutal truth and honesty.Both have drug problems through out the books paired with strange sexual scenes.
I have liked reading this book because it gives me another world to live in.It also shows how fake people really are and how image IS eveything.( This was the geography around which my reality revolved: it did not occur to me, ever, that people were good or that a man was capable of change or that the world could be a better place through one's taking pleasure in a feeling or a look or gesture, of receiving another person's love or kindness. Nothing was affirmative, the term "generosity of spirit" applied to nothing, was a cliche, was some kind of bad joke.)(pg.375) I think this is mostly true because most people are just a shell, a big front for others to admire. Most people just get told to be good so they do it absent mindedly.I think this to be true.
There really is no drawback to reading this book. It should just not be read by people that wont understand it,the faint of heart, the uneducated, this book takes some thought.
Rating: 
Summary: bad TV
Review: Like mass TV media, this book perpetuates the falsity of persons with mental illness being inherently violent. It perpetuates the stigma that causes unnecessary fear, opression, and poor treatment of those with mental illnesses. Of X numbers of persons at one time with an illness, a tiny percetance of those are having an acute episode. Of that tiny percentage, a tiny percentage may become violent; more prone if under the influence of alcohol. Books like this reinforce the false assumption that mental illness and psychosis *equals* violence and crime.
It's a shame that is supposed 'entertainment' and 'literary acheivement'.
Rating:
Summary: Offended...by the writing, not the gore
Review: I read "Less than Zero" in high school, and was inspired by the honest and sometimes brutal portrayal of affluent young people in Los Angeles. I was also impressed that the age of the writer was close to my own, so I approached his controversial follow-up with great anticipation. I was expecting something equally raw, but touching and real. "American Psycho" is raw all right, but in a way that makes you wonder whether it actually had an editor. There is NOTHING in this book. It's completely gratuitous and devoid of soul. For the first 40 pages I thought it had to be a joke and Ellis would get to the punchline soon, but it turned out that he was serious. Every scene begins with a literal TWO PAGE description of the clothes on the characters, which can first be tolerated as a lengthy set-up...except that the set-up continues for the entire book, apparently in lieu of actual character development. The story takes you nowhere and shows you nothing. There are scenes of incredible violence but I did not find them offensive. In fact, the gore is the only thing that snaps the reader out of the tedium. Unfortunately, the violence is so thinly veiled, so obvious in its attempts to shock that it falls flat, becoming nearly comical. Halfway through this book I had an epiphany: "This is the worst book I've ever read!" I was tempted to pitch it out the window and spare myself, but since I had paid for the thing, I refused to give in. I began to view the book as a rival. I was going to finish it, me against this vapid piece of bloodied fluff, if only to be able to speak with authority in the future on the worst book of the 1990's: "American Psycho".
Rating: 
Summary: Brutal, gory, sick, twisted.
Review: If you like deep books, books that allow you to get into the mind of psychotics, you will like this book. However, it is extremely brutal in it's detail. Too over the top for me, even in a literary and artistic sense. Sick. The character is complex and interesting though, and that allows for a good read, but far from an easy read.
Rating:
Summary: Won't leave readers with a warm fuzzy feeling
Review: Patrick Bateman is a true American Psycho- he always has reservations at the most trendy restaurants, but never has reservations about murder. Bret Easton Ellis does a fine job of taking readers into the world of a murderer in the 1980's. Patrick works on Wall Street during the day and tortures people at night. He is an intelligent, rich, and handsome man, who doesn't have a conscience. He works hard on perfecting himself at the gym, and gets facials on a regular basis. He can name each article of designer clothing that anyone is wearing. His brain is filled with trivial information that makes him fit in perfectly with the yuppies he hangs out with. He fits in well during the day but acts out his perverted thoughts at night. Throughout the book it is never clear whether he is actually torturing and raping women, or if it is all in his mind. The detail that he goes into makes it all seem very real, but certain things lead the reader to believe that it is just fantasy. Nobody seems to notice that the designer bag he drags across the lobby of his apartment is in the shape of a body- people just compliment him on the bag and ask where he got it. There are many times in the book when he is in the middle of a conversation, and he will casually mention his love of torturing women. People either don't notice his comments or take them as a joke. This shows the attitude of many young, rich people in the 80's- they are too obsessed with their own petty issues to notice anything about others, except for the designer clothing they are wearing.
The graphic descriptions that Ellis uses are necessary- he can't hold back if he wants readers to get a clear idea of who Patrick Bateman is. The book is written in a very interesting way. For example, one chapter just ends in the middle of a sentence when Bateman is delirious and screaming at some waitress. The chapter just ends without finishing the sentence, and the next chapter begins with Patrick discussing sweater vests. The unique style is also shown when the book,which is written in first person, suddenly changes to third person towards the end. It doesn't leave readers with a warm fuzzy feeling,and anyone picking up a book called American Psycho shouldn't expect that. It's an incredible book for people who are interested in the way a twisted mind works.
Rating:
Summary: 1980's Introspective? Could be...
Review: I'm not sure what Mr. Ellis was attempting to accomplish with all the sex and violence, but I can tell you what I think he was trying to accomplish... The 1980's, in my mind, was the "bored" generation. We had everything (not that we don't now) from our favorite music on TV and video games right in our homes. I remember being a kid and always telling my parents "I'm bored, there's nothing to do." Ellis' book reminds me of that. As you read the shocking descriptions of sick sex and violence you become bored. Person after person is slaughtered and you soon find yourself wondering when a hero is going to poke his head out of the rubble. If you think about the '80's, a decade when movies were made or broke at the box office by the amount of violence in them (video games too, for that matter) the violence in this book begins to make sense. I think Ellis speaking to how there is nothing sensational any more. Nothing is "over the top." There are a few funny moments when you depart the depravity for some quite in-depth reviews of the works of Phil Collins, Whitney Houston and other pop-artists. For the most part, however, this book makes just one long, blood drenched, gore-choked, meandering point: "The 1980's was a decade for the disenchanted."
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