Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This is one of the funniest and well written books I've ever read. There is just nothing bad you can say about it!! Enjoyable from beginning to end.
Rating: 
Summary: As usual.
Review: Alright. Firstly, those of you who think that this novel was an attempt to gain publicity through sheer shock value are too stupid to live. There are twenty-one pages of violence, out of nearly four-hundred, and you want to say that the gore was the main focus of the text?As for the rest of you, who claim to "get" this book--I'm not sure that you really do. Sure, you're vaguely correct in labeling the book as a critique of modern culture--but the fact that you seem to think that the music reviews are unrelated indicates that your understanding of Patrick Bateman is limited at best. All Ellis is saying is that Bateman's social circle is so void of all meaning that he resorts to excessively cruel killings in order to fill that empty space. His (poor) attempts to review music are the same effort. This is purposefully analogous to a reader's effort to extract meaning from a text (the book itself moves its references through various literary camps as it progresses, from Dostoevsky to absurdist plays)--you just didn't cut deep enough. As for plot, it goes nowhere because there is nowhere to go--it's not an adventure story, nor a tale of rebirth and coming-to-terms. Lastly, this incessant branding of characters (and the resultant identity-confusion) is not an obsession of the main character, or is at least not merely an obsession. Rather, it is the disease that those twenty-one pages are symptomatic of. Some of you did at least "get" that. You can love or hate a book, hail it as genius or disaster, but try to at least understand something before you pass judgment on it. For my own part, I wish that I had such an ability that would let me write a similarly challenging book at the age of twenty-six.
Rating:
Summary: Genius, simply genius
Review: Great dark comedy with one of the most original stories ever told. This is a definite must read if you have a good sense of humor. Although some parts are a little too graphic & violent it is a great book. Well I have to go and return some video tapes........
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, the violence...awful...
Review: It's funny reading reviews of this book here that condemn the violence.
The book's called 'American Psycho'. Duh. What did you expect, just a walk by the river and love scenes? Some people are stupid.
Where's my axe?
Rating:
Summary: Not quite a good book
Review: 1. This 1991 book is an interesting book about the mind of a (potential) psychopath, and about the life of a rich New York high-flyer. 2. I was unsure what we were supposed to to take about the 'killings' as true, and what we were supposed to take as false or unreliable.
Example: Page 219. We're supposed to accept that Paul Owen's body is hauled, in a sleeping bag, past a night doorman, then past some friends who chat, and then into a cab, with no questions asked by the doorman, friends or driver about the sleeping bag with a body shape in it?
Example: Paul Owen is killed and his body is limed. Later his apartment is messed during the gruesome killing of two other victims, with the wall bloodied with the words 'I'm back'. Yet, later on, his apartment is found to be clean and tidy and being sold by an agent; and, further on, Harold Carnes says he 'had dinner with Paul Owen twice in London just ten days ago'. No mention of any police investigation at all into Owen's disappearance. Are we supposed to take Patrick Bateman as so deranged that he is telling us he committed murders he didn't commit (or that the book's really all merely wishful thinking of a successful businessman, and no actual killings occurred?), or are we supposed to take Harold Carnes as a corrupt lawyer who is in on some sort of strange and unexplained cover-up, or mistaken? We are not told, so we have no way of reconciling this.
Example: Chapter 'Valentine's Day' (p.382) begins: "...the maid as she waxes the floor, wipes blood smears off the walls, throws away gore-soaked newspapers without a word...". So, what are we supposed to make of that? She's so blind she can't recognise a crime scene? She's stupid? Or, no murders occurred in reality? (Similar comment for the bloodied sheets at the Chinese dry cleaners).
Example: So many killings described, but (apart from the saxophonist killing), a general police hunt doesn't get mentioned, and Bateman seems unworried about being caught to the point where he rarely refers to it. What do we make of that? Did he kill really? 3. The Huey Lewis, Genesis and Whitney Houston chapters appeared to be irrelevant, as did the fifteen pages of 'Just where are we going to eat?' dialogue in the 'Another Night' chapter. Those pages should have been deleted by an editor before this book went to print. 4. The purpose of not finishing the chapter called 'A glimpse of a Thursday afternoon', and just ending it in mid-sentence on p.152 was lost on me. Was that a misprint or deliberate? Did it have a point? 5. The book was built on too many repetitive gimmicks: The Patty Winters show stuff; The hundreds of 'She's/he's wearing' descriptions; the Les Miserables references; expensive meals; beggar obsession; beggar teasing; we went to eat...; video returning; I had two hours down the gym etc. 6. The book was longer than it needed to be. 7. The ending was flat and disappointing. 8. This book is a good example of how to write dialogue well. The portrayal of the yuppie lifestyle was done well. Overall: It was a good piece of writing, but was spoilt by trying to be too clever. The writer could have produced a better book by making it half the length it is, and having fewer gimmicks in it. For a better read of the macabre, do go and read: 'The Wasp Factory' by Iain Banks. That's a brilliant book.
Rating:
Summary: chilling!!!
Review: Patrick Bateman is a 26-year-old Wall Street hotshot who runs with a crowd of materialistic people just like him. They're always looking for the latest hot restaurant or club to take their spoiled whiny women who are part of their group. Pat likes Courtney, who is dating Luis but cheats on him with Pat. Beyond this lifestyle, Pat is a raging murderer, unapologetic as he commits random violent executions -- some die fast, others (partiucularly women) die painfully and horrifyingly slow. Pat drops clues about what he does constantly for he wants his character to be acknowledged. He flat out tells people what he's done and they act like he's said something else (I liked when he said he was in murders and executions and the person to whom he's talksing says "ah, yes -- mergers and acquisitions!") He buys pets to torture and kill them -- the fact that one of his girlfriends does not notice her pet's body is in the freezer for days says more about her than him. The murder scenes are graphic and hard to take. But there is also the chilling notion that there may well be several American Psychos out there right now. Patrick is very believable and on the surface, very ordinary. You probably know 12 people like him right now (the part that is trendy and successful, that is.) BRRRR!
Rating:
Summary: Disturbingly brilliant
Review: Having read this book as an assignment in a college class, I was blown away by the gore and mysogony etc. at first. Soon the repetativeness and detail about 80's yuppie life become etched in the readers mind. A week after reading this book I was walking down the street and I saw a beautiful woman and I found myself thinking 'that hardbody would look great in my fridge.' I am not a psychopath in any way, nor do I think less of women; however, 'American Psycho' is so well written that it truly brings you into the mind of a serial killer and slowly the reader starts to understand the killer. Bateman has no reason for his blood-lust, nor does he have any true feelings towards anyone, he just lives to kill. The more I though about this book the more I had an idea that Bateman didn't kill anyone at all, he just fantasized about it. The guy has all the money in the world through an inheritance (he only goes to work to maintain the appearance that he is a succesful guy) and he really has nothing to do with his days; hence, I think he might have been daydreaming. I would not be surprised if everything is just in his head, it would explain how he never gets caught despite the fact that he a messy trail of friends and hookers. Either way the book is brilliantly written and really captures the greed and commercialism of the yuppies.
Rating:
Summary: Great writing, but not much more at times
Review: Bret Easton Ellis' writing is as good as it gets. In AMERICAN PSYCHO, he exposes a vast knowledge of designer clothing, chic restaurants, and torture methods which become associated with the stereotypical Wall Street man, Patrick Bateman. However, Bateman proves to be anything but stereotypical, which is what makes this book so powerful. The murders could not be more gruesome, and it's ridiculous that many reviewers have complaining about it. The supreme shallowness and evil of Bateman plays out into magnificant satire. The repetitiveness of the book, however, is what takes away from it. Perhaps if Ellis had put his characters in a setting other than a restaurant every chapter, it would not seem like a chore to get through some of the chapters. Other than that, great book.
Rating:
Summary: An IMPORTANT, very underrated novel.
Review: AMERICAN PSYCHO is easily the most important novel I have ever read. Ellis takes us deep into the heart of a serial killer, walking us with him day by day through is privledged life. By day, Patrick Bateman (older brother of THE RULES OF ATTRACTION's Sean Bateman) is a twenty six year old Wall Street broker with more money than he knows what to do with. He has many friends, and even more flings, and lives a life many only dream about. By night, he lusts for blood, devouring victims, raping, killing, and eating them, only to get ready for the next day of eating in expensive resturaunts, picking new suits to wear and worrying about what kind of gel he will put in his hair.
What makes this novel so incredible is the satire. Ellis writes this novel in the point of view of Bateman. We know that he is sick in the head because of what he does, but Ellis wants us to understand that just Bateman's everyday life and his thoughts, murderous or not, are sick. Bateman does not live a normal life, even for the rich. All he cares about is fitting in. Eating where he will be seen, and wearing what will turn heads. His whole life revolves around being the perfect person. No person should be like this, and it is Batemans lust for being accepeted that feeds his homicidal behavior.
Many would like to think of this book as a comedy, but that is another area that the satire comes in. Although we may end up laughing outloud at least twenty to thirty times in this novel, it is not meant to be funny. We really laughing at Batemans insanity, and his thoughts that we know are not normal, but he thinks are.
The murder scenes are bloody, and very detailed, which may disturb the squimish. Batemans thoughts throughout these scenes are even more disturbing. His lust for whores and as he puts it in the book "hardbodies", covered with blood and guts caused much rage with protesters and to this day many book stores will not carry this book. But if we can look by the ideas that this book is "terrible" and "disgusting" and "trash", it is obvious that this is easily the most detailed and accurated book about the life of a (although fictional) serial killer every written.
I give Bret Easton Ellis applause for bringing the public this Literary Masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I heard that this was a good book, so I read it this past summer. I was blown away. Not only was the satire in it intelligent, the humor in it made me laugh out loud. This book has been labeled as anti-women, but I don't think it is. True, it's very violent, but it's all to prove a point. After reading several of the most violent passages, I had to put the book down for the rest of the day, and it's quite a disturbing book, but everyone should check this one out.
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