Rating: 
Summary: Sorry Everyone Isn't An Intellectual Genius Like You
Review: Sorry to everyone who thought this book was a complete waste, we can't all be as intellecutally gifted as yourself. I don't think Ellis really went for any deep meaning other than to tell a story about a seemingly perfect social person who was truly a social deviant. Also, the writing style in this book really made it unique, such as the switching from first to third person. Ellis isn't saying that this is how it is... I think he is just suggesting that there could be someone like that, and it just shows that you cannot judge someone based on outer appearances. But I'm only in high school, so I guess I don't know all that much about "good" literature. All I know is that it was a good read and he got his book made into a movie. Anyone else whose done that please raise your hand?
Rating: 
Summary: In Agreement: Pure Carnage
Review: I'm not much for reading fiction literature on psychopathy, but for some odd reason, I thought I'd take the chance and give Ellis's book a read (being it is so critically acclaimed and all). I was incredibly disappointed. The book contains nothing of substance (especially philosophical substance) but filth and carnage. If you want to have an accurate depiction of psychopathy, forget fiction - go pick up Robert Hare's Without Conscience or Hervey Cleckley's classic, Mask of Sanity. And as for a reviewer's earlier association between Fight Club and American Psycho - you can't compare the two. Fight Club isn't about regaining manhood and neither is American Psycho. Fight Club is about the postmodern generation unable to be emotionally satiated by today's overwhelming dosage of feigned and simulated sentiments. American Psycho is just a sick book about people who are too rich for their own good.
Rating:
Summary: If you don't find this funny you need your head checked...
Review: From Tom Cruise in the Elevator of Patrick Bateman's apartment building to Luis Carruther's scene in a department store, this is one of the best black comedies I have read in years. There is, if you can stomach it, some major gore, (ie. a rat in a very uncomfortable bodily orfice...) but it manages to show beautiflly the disentegration of Bateman's sanity...assuming he ever had any. If you are too lazy to read and are easily shocked...go see the movie. Christian Bale is scary and convincing.
Rating:
Summary: Yes!
Review: How can you not love a book in which Armani suits and murders are described with the same chilling sense of insanity?
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT PsYcHo
Review: I wasn't able to know about the book until the movie came out. I first saw the movie, which was great. But I decided that the novel might actually be better. Boy was I right. It has turned out to become the best book I have ever read. It is now leading me to go and buy Bret Easton Ellis' other novels. This book is a book not to pass up. I strongely recommend it! THERE IS NO EXIT.
Rating: 
Summary: American Sicko
Review: I have to admit, the scenes of violence in this book (which I originally read several years ago) are vivid, astonishingly creative and unsettling. When I would read this book on a plane I would try to block the view from onlookers because I was afraid if someone saw what I was reading, they'd think that I was some sort of sicko. But it all leaves a bad taste in your mouth, like you just ate something that you knew you shouldn't have. I understand the metaphorical implications of the work, but I can't help but think Ellis seemed to relish the scenes of barabarity and racism too much.. I assumed the whole time I was reading it that Ellis was writng down his deepest, darkest fantasies, and trying to write a high-minded narrative about society while indulging those fantasies.
Rating: 
Summary: Very overrated
Review: I had wanted to read this book for years, and finally got around to it in preparation for the movie. I was sorely diappointed. I understand that the point of the incredible excess and vapidness of the 80's was trying to be made, but I don't think this was quite the way to go about it. The constant description of every single item of clothing every character wore along with their designers became so tiresome as to be distracting. And I refuse to believe there were THAT many shallow, completely self-absorbed people with not one redeeming virtue in the 80's! (I was there and I certainly don't remember that many.) Everyone was just hateful and pathetic, with the exception of Jean, the secretary, who was the only decent person in the book. The murders and Patrick's description of them became completely redundant and increasingly revolting--and I am not one who is normally bothered by this subject matter. It was just way TOO gory and sickening. I mean, I'll even give him the killing. But eating brains and intestines, "filled with some kind of paste that smelled bad"? Please! When he killed the child at the zoo, that was it for me. I mean, please, a five-year-old child? What kind of sick, twisted, person IS Mr. Easton Ellis to come up with this ........? Although, do we even know if Patrick killed ANYONE after all? I think I am in the camp of it-was-all-imagined after the little spree where he killed all the cops and the helicopter was after him--since after all he had done, he was never suspected of anything. Plus, if anyone deserved to be killed, it should have been Evelyn and Courtney, who were the whiniest, most air-headed cretins I have ever seen. It seems to me if Evelyn drove him so crazy and disgusted him so by the time they broke up, she would have been a goner considering Patrick's track record. And why did he never kill Luis, of all people, whom he loathed more than anyone? It was kind of humorous that the men were so interchangeable with their attire, haircuts, and glasses, that no one could tell anyone apart. Everyone was striving so hard to keep up with the Jonses that they had, in effect, all become the same person. Although one character stated that he made $180K a year--I'm sorry, my husband makes not much less than that, and that is NOT enough to drop $300 on dinner every night, daily facials and massages, grams upon grams of cocaine, $50 boxer shorts, and have a 4-story beach house. How ridiculous. It doesn't go that far, even back then. The ending was very anticlimactic, ambiguous, and disappointing. I understand leaving the reader wondering, but that was a bit too little information. But the most unbelievable thing to me was the passage where the 3 men spent 3 hours on a 3-way call trying to decide where to go eat dinner! Come on, women maybe, but men?
Rating:
Summary: In excess at first glance, but ultimately a multiple read
Review: I read this book when it first came out years ago. Maybe because of my age at the time, I found it was very shocking. At the time I got the impression that the author's aim was to get a reaction rather than to incite creative thought or admiration. This book is definitely for voyeurs. It reflects the worst of the 80s, the gluttony on all levels, financial as well as material. I must admit I did not like the book when I read it. The protaagonist was far from endearing, I could not understand what drove him and thus could not relate to him on any level. The character development was poor and I felt as if I was going through this rollercoaster ride of horror events. The book did not seem conventional in any way. Now having looked at the book again, it seems to be quite prescient in terms of trends. Following the succes of 'Fight Club' and the whole 'reclaim your manhood genre' it seems to fit right in this trend. Looking at it again I see it aas a horro/satire, not to be taken seriously. In fact the whole sequence of events could really be the protagonist's dream which further solidifies my view that it is like some horror ride. Read it once and be shocked, reaad it twice and find the humour. I can understand how people reacted so badly to the book when it first came out. However in this day and age it is really not so shocking given the sort of horror we have seen on screens, in fact it is positively light weight compared to Seven the movie.
Rating:
Summary: This book was amazing
Review: I really liked this book. The clothing descriptions were necessary to illustrate the extreme shallowness of Patrick Bateman's life. It is intriguing to think there could be a person like Bateman among us. I felt sorry for the guy because it seemed like he had nothing to live for except for the pleasure he derived from his murders. I recommend this book to all who can stomach it.
Rating:
Summary: Why Did They Publish It?
Review: If the idea of raping, torturing and murdering innocent women appeals to you, this is a must read. If you find the idea repugnant, go ahead and skip this one. This book should never have been published. I know it's cool today to think murder is good and funny and hip so I guess I'm old-fashioned. I plan to throw this book in the garbage and never again read a book by bret easton ellis(he doesn't deserve capital letters for his name.) Some have called this book satirical and hilarious. All I can say to them is I hope nothing like this ever happens to a woman you love. If it does, you can remember this book you loved so much and laugh at the funeral (if they find the body). Don't read it, don't buy it. Keep bret easton ellis in the obscure cesspool he crawled out of.
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