Rating: 
Summary: CRAZY, SILLY, EXCELLENT DETAIL OF DEATH
Review: THIS BOOK IS PRETTY GOOD. SOME WHO HAVE REVIEWED THIS STATE THERE IS TO MUCH VIOLENCE AND TO MUCH DETAIL IN DESCRIBING APPERANCES OF EVERYTHING INCLUDING THE OUTSTANDING AND TRULY VICIOUS MURDER SCENES. I HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH THE PANSIES WHO WOULD WRITE SUCH POOR REVIEWS. THE WAY THE AUTHOR DESCRIBES IN GREAT AMOUNT ABOUT EVERYTHING BATEMAN DOES HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND THE CHARACTERS INVOLVED AND THE ENVIROMENT THEY ARE IN. THE SAME BORING BUT INTERESTING STEPS HE GOES THROUGH DAILY FROM THE TIME HE GETS UP TO THE TIME HE GOES HOME FOR A RELAXING.......MURDER. HA. HA. HA. IN DESCRIBING EVERYTHING THAT BATEMAN THINKS AND FEELS YOU REALLY START TO UNDERSTAND THE WAY HE WORKS, THAT IS FOR A SECOND AND THEN HE WILL TURN AROUND AND DO SOMETHING TOTALLY OFF THE WALL. THERE IS SOME PEOPLE IN THIS BOOK I REALLY EXPECTED HIM AND WANTED HIM TO MURDER BUT I GUESS THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH MOTIVATION IN KILLING SOME OF THE MOST ANNOYING CHARACTERS. IN CERTAIN PARTS IT SEEMS HE HAS NO REAL METHOD IN PICKING HIS VICTIMS. HE GOES FROM ONE EXTREME TO ANOTHER. I DID ENJOY THIS BOOK AND ITS MAIN CHARACTER. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THE ENDING REALLY LEAVES YOU HANGING. THE AUTHOR ELLIS MUST BE A LITTLE SICK HIMSELF WITH SOME OF THE AWESOME DETAIL HE WOULD COME UP WITH WHILE DESCRIBING THE MURDERS. WHICH THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. I THINK EVERY ONE IS A LITTLE DEMENTED BUT JUST WILL NOT ADMIT IT OPENLY. I DO NOT WANT TO SAY ANYTHING ELSE IN FEAR THAT I MIGHT RUIN THIS BOOK FOR SOME ONE WHO WANTS TO READ IT. THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW. FRANK RIZZO
Rating: 
Summary: Things We Are Dumber For
Review: There is only really no reason for this book, I cannot call it a novel. It holds no worth, it was a waste of time to read, and I am dumber for wasting that time. Save yourself the grief, read the back of a cereal box. (they made put a star)
Rating: 
Summary: Read this book if you dare
Review: As I browse through the reviews posted here I am not surprised to see that Bret Easton Ellis's novel, American Psycho, is either loved or loathed. I truly loved it. From the very first pages you read it becomes obvious that you ARE reading a comedy. American Psycho, no matter how sick, perverse or disgusting it may be, is undoubtedly a comedy. And a funny one it is. The humor comes mostly from the fact that we are reading what the main character, Patrick Bateman, is thinking. In the torture-chapters we get straight-out descriptions of what is happening. Ellis wastes no time like King or Koontz in creating eerie atmosphere because he does not have to - this is not a horror novel. It may be horrific but it is not horror. As I was saying, the humor comes from Bateman's completely uncaring thoughts towards his victims. He knows they are persons, that they have lives, backgrounds and families (in one chapter he even regrets killing one victim because it had so little effect on society in whole) but he still does not care. He's living in a world where clothes and restaurants have more value than human beings. The people who say they hate this book are obviously blinded by the violence in it and fail to see its significance; Bateman kills because his life is so painful that he needs to inflict his pain to others. And the fact that his killings are so brutal only shows us how painful his life is. This book represents just how bad one man's life can get. But that does not mean that everyone should read this book. I would only recommend it to people who think they can deal with reading chapters and chapters of unbelievable cruelty (not to mention graphic sexual descriptions), and to get the point - the humor - of the book, you need to read those chapters. After I told a friend of mine that this book was seriously disgusting he asked if I could give him an example and I did. I let him read little less than two pages. After reading half a page he put it down and said that this book couldn't possibly be good. That it was only an excuse for the author to paint from his mind mindless acts of violence. This book was disgusting and nothing else. There are a lot of you who are going to think exactly this about the book, but I still think that every serious book-enthusiast should read it. It is an important piece of modern literature that will live on as a monumental of just how bad the materialism of 80s America was.
Rating: 
Summary: Not A Book for Everyone
Review: I bought American Psycho because I heard that it was a good book and I thought it would be interesting summer reading. I managed to make it through the incessant desciption of the first 120 pages and I continued to read through the blood and sex and gore but I just could not finish the book. It left me cold. Don't get me wrong, I understood and grasped the satire (which other reviewers didn't seem to see, making their experinece with the book nothing more than designers and blood). I think Ellis made a completely valid and worthwhile point. That part that I derived from the book, I enjoyed. But the constant death and torture was enough to nauseate me. I literally got chills reading several parts and there were certain chapters I had to skip, such as "Torturing Dog" and "Tries to Cook and Eat Girl". Ellis expertly reflected the vapid and shallow yuppie culture, but, as one who is very fond of Jane Austen and Maeve Binchy, the blood and gore was all too much for me. So, if you have the stomach for it, I would recommend American Psycho as an excellent satire, but if reading about the graphic torture (that kept me awake at night) of defenseless animals and humans, then perhaps this is not the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: A Glance Into The Brain of A Madman...
Review: Many people I've spoken to tell me that they found the book disgusting, worthless, an inane subject with no social or insightful value at all. In response I ask them this: Haven't you ever wondered what goes on inside the brain of all the notorious mentally derange serial killers, etc.? With this book Ellis has created the most intricate and revealing character since (I think) Holden Caulfield. We immediately see that he is quite obsessive-compulsive, a bit neurotic, meticulous, cautious, and calmly talks about his constant disturbing hallucinations. He is repeatedly mistaken for somebody else and plays along with it because everyone is rich, 27, blond, good-looking. He talks about all the things he does in front of his friends and they respond with, "Oh Patrick, you have such a wonderful sense of humor." As the reader you have a front-row seat to the inside of his mind, since it is written entirely in 1st person. (There are scenes written in 3rd, that jump back to 1st, showing that Patrick sees himself as a sort of character in an ongoing cinema which he cannot control, and sees and talks about what he is doing as if he is an announcer narrating a car chase. And haven't many of us thought this way before?). There is a lot of hot debate about the extreme amount of violence, for those of you who feel that it's unnecessary, turn on the 10 o'clock news or the movie on HBO... nothing but death death death, necessary?. The author is just giving us an intimate view of something we're bombarded with everyday, which has desensitized people all over the world. Humans kill each other, not any other living being does this to its own kind purposely, just because they feel like it. This is a harsh reality of life and averting your eyes will not make it go away. As for myself, I found what he was thinking during the most violent scenes more disturbing than anything: I wonder if my secretary made reservations to this restaurant, none of this helps me fill the void I feel deep inside of me, or when he tries to cook the girl's head in a frying pan: I just want to be loved. Bret Easton Ellis is a literary genius, and anyone who disagrees should go read this book (all the way through) again.
Rating:
Summary: Post-modern Frankenstein
Review: Vulgarity may dominate your senses but focus more on the characters surrounding Bateman and the 'psycho''s thoughts at the end chapters. The narrow-minded, self-centered weltanshaaung of the 'extras' surrounding Bateman gives us at least one of the answers to the constant question: 'Why so much violence in our world?' We are all so eager to complain about it (if we notice it at all), but few take the effort to do anything about it.
Rating:
Summary: Yuppieville at its worst
Review: I have to preface this review with the fact that I did not even finish the book but I just could NOT. It bored me to tears. Especially, the fact that the author was incessantly dropping names, whether it be, fashion designers, trendy restaurants, expensive health clubs, etc... OK, so we know that is what yuppies do but do you have to beat the dead horse? I have to say, the author style of writing is also not very easy to read, or it could be that it is not to my liking. I find myself re-reading sentences in order to understand the concept. In closing, I will be donating this book to the local library for someone else to give it a try.
Rating:
Summary: A book I felt ashamed to have read
Review: I did something to this book that I've never done before in my life. I tore it up after reading it so that it wouldn't get passed on. There was no reason for this book. It's not a sharp satire of the '80s. It's not cogent, incisive or insightful. I think it might be bad. And I didn't want to see the movie because I didn't want to support this particular story.
Rating:
Summary: 20th century "les miserables"
Review: Get through the mind-numbing violence and banal patter, and what do you have? An able vehicle in which two timeless themes are "hammered" home: All that glitters is not gold, and man's inhumanity to man. I was struck by the multiple references throughout the novel to ubiquitous "Les Miserables" advertisements, etc. Isn't this a particularly delicious comparison, spanning two centuries--Ellis's Manhattan in the 1980's and Hugo's Paris in the 1780's? Perhaps the more things change, the more they stay the same? Unlike Valjean, no redemption for Bateman, though. This is, after all, not an exit....
Rating:
Summary: A trip into the mind of a psychotic
Review: This is a very good book. The character development, which is the point of the book, is very well done. You have to be open-minded in your approach to it. You need to see beyond the gore, because that really isn't the point. The point is in establishing the mindset of an insane person and give the reader a sense of how he feels and thinks. This book will affect the reader and will make him think. That is one of the main reasons I read fiction. To gain insight and try to learn from that insight.
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