Rating: 
Summary: Not for the faint at heart
Review: This is my first Bret Easton Ellis novel, and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. I laughed out loud at a lot of this novel, because it was so true. I'll admit, the clothing descriptions do become a little tiring, but it's all part of what this novel is about. This novel is by far one of the most graphic and disturbing that I have ever read (i.e. not for the Oprah set, so just pass and go back to Jane Hamilton or Anita Shreve). I'm not squeamish in the least and I actually had to put it down and catch my breath during a couple of the scenes near the end. Bateman is truly disturbed, but Ellis handled it in a magnificent way. You can truly see how he is losing his mind, the thoughts that are running through is head, etc., which makes it all the more interesting. I felt like I was in the mind of a serial killer, which is an interesting place to be. Bravo to Ellis for this great novel--I picked up Glamorama today at the airport, so I hope it comes close to this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Thanx for Nothing
Review: Literally 250 pages of this book are flat, catalog-like reviews of clothing, food, and records. Yes, I get it: "Yuppies are shallow. Yuppies have no internal life. Yuppies go to trendy restautants. Yuppies are compulsive." I didn't need 250 pages of this non-writing to get it.Oh, wait a sec....here's the rest of the book: Escalating, meticulously graphic depravity. Yes, I get this, too. "Bateman is getting progressively more crazy, and he's really nuts. Really. No, I mean REALLY nuts. Look, look what he just did! He's nuts I'm telling you!" This novel feels like it was a short story with few themes, lousy dialog, no insight, and improbable characters. Ellis then added 250 pages of catalog verbiage and 50 pages of morgue-photo verbiage. This story learns nothing, teaches nothing, and is basically; nothing. A fitting follow-up to "Less Than Zero", this book should have been titled "Zero".
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning book, full of everything sinister
Review: Extremely graphic and explores every depth of my imagination with awesome description. I can't believe it's just sooo masterfully done with awesome imagery and hidden treats.
Rating:
Summary: Very Poorly Written
Review: This is without a doubt the worse novel I have ever read. The storyline is comical at best. The characters are not developed at all. There is no plot what-so-ever. To top it all off, the distinction between illusion and reality is never addressed. This unfortunantly could have been the saving grace of the novel. After viewing the movie, which is identical to the book, I've concluded that both are nothing more than a waste of space and time. The plot of the movie, similiar to that of the novel, is comical. The characters are not developed. The distinction between Patrick Bateman's illusions and his reality are non-existant. After watching the movie, I've concluded that the movie is far worse than the book. I gave the book 1 star, only because this was the lowest rating available.
Rating:
Summary: I don't know what Ellis' editor was thinking...
Review: The man can't write. Normally obsessive about finishing a book once I start it, I finally gave up on this one about 1/3 of the way through. Basically, it read like a Wall Street shopping list. Once or twice, fine, but when every other sentence is a list of clothing designers and shoe sizes, the storyline (was there one?) bogs down and comes to a laborious, agonizing halt. The violence wasn't even disturbing because I was so incredibly bored. Plus the characters -- every last one of them -- were one-dimensional cardboard cutouts, so I really couldn't muster up the energy to CARE that anyone was getting verbally, sexually, or physically abused, or mutilated and killed. Getting through even the first 1/3 of the book was pure agony. I'm sure Ellis was trying to make a point, but it was so badly mangled in his total lack of writing skill that it was totally lost. All I could think after each sentence was "I don't care. Tell me something I'd be interested in." I can't even see why there was such a controversy over this book. It's so pathetic it boggles the mind why anyone would consider it worth the effort of loud protests. Long and short: don't waste your time. It's a lousy story related extremely badly.
Rating: 
Summary: Display in the Yuppie Museum
Review: It's all been said: Parts of this book are disgusting and/or hilarious; you can take your pick between calling it a deranged male revenge fantasy and a brilliant satire; the mere fact of its publication is cause either for hope and joy or for an agonizing reappraisal of our previous standards of judgment, etc. I'm not about to waste anyone's time rehashing the controversy. Unfortunately, that leaves me with nothing to consider - this book basically doesn't exist. How exactly is one to assess American Psycho, anyway? It violates all the traditional rules of fiction, to be sure, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - plenty of experimental writers have produced great art by violating the traditional rules. The problem here is that Ellis left out all the traditional virtues, like plot and character and theme, and replaced them with nothing but a number of laundry lists - lists of suits and dresses, lists of appetizers and entrees, lists of body parts. (The writing style is exactly the same for all of these lists, but that's part of the conversation about the book, and I promised you I wouldn't go into that.) In short, American Psycho is a sort of post-ironic Sears Catalogue. Any assessment of it as a scathing indictment of materialism, an antifeminist manifesto, a psychological thriller, seems tacked on - the book doesn't really read like any of that. Consider that the narrator's level of involvement in his own life when digging into his lunch is exactly the same as it is when digging into a woman's body with his bare hands - to wit, nonexistant. Satire is a comment on something; American Psycho is no comment on nothing. The novel has its fascinations - it haunted me for a few days wondering just how far it would go - but it's ultimately unnecessary. Once you know that it's about a rich young Wall Street yuppie who murders people in his spare time, you don't need to read the book. It doesn't exist. The controversy over it will last long after it fades out of print. It's a historical artifact, not a novel. So American Psycho gets two stars for provoking some interesting discussions, and loses the other three for failing to participate in those very discussions. Benshlomo says, When the story about the story is more interesting than the story, there's no story.
Rating:
Summary: If you're 20, you won't get it.
Review: If you JUST NOW picked up on this, and can't relate to the overwhelmingly disgusting yuppie display that overtook the 20 something's in the mid 80's - you will not like, nor get this book. (Unless you just plain ole LIKE serial killer stuff - then have at it.) But, if you, like me, lived the yuppie movement and hated it as much as disco in the 70's - you will think it is brilliant. It nails the fakery of the era better than a Martha Stewart Faux finish.
Rating:
Summary: This is Not An Exit
Review: Bret Easton Ellis has got to be the most talented author in modern America. Using Patrick Bateman's stream of conscious you experience the ultimate downward spiral of a young successful man. But not only is it the downward spiral of this man, but the downward spiral of America. Patrick Bateman loses his humanity and takes it out by torturing the young women and prostitutes who fall for his glamour and status. The fact that Bateman and several others are confused for other characters by their own supposed social circle further proves the "carbon copy, I just want to fit in" mentality that seemed to overcome America in the 1980's. This book is more of a social commentary than a work of prose.
Rating:
Summary: Garbage
Review: Reading this book was such a collossal waste of my time that I am tempted to plant a dozen trees just to make up for the ones which were used to print this nonsense. Not only is the violence gratuitous, but the author appears to have nothing but contempt for the reader because the only significant point he was trying to make is repeated over and over and over and over.....it was as if Ellis thought we had to be beaten over the head to "get it." I mean, really...how many times can one discuss horn-rimmed glasses and Armani suits? Memo to Ellis: OK already...nobody actually LISTENED to Bateman. He kept telling everyone that he was a psycho, but they were such self-satisfied, egotistical, greedy jerks they just didn't LISTEN. They didn't HEAR. We get it. Thanks for the newsflash.
Rating:
Summary: This will be the last book of his I read......
Review: And not because of the violence....simply because it, like Glamorama, was silly, insipid, and boring. I tossed aside Glamorama half way through, unable to find a reason to keep reading. This time, I picked up Amr Psycho because of the movie coming out...but one quarter of the way through, I've started skimming. I read Less than Zero years ago and enjoyed it, it captured the times well. Sadly, it seems that the author hasn't matured as a person or as a writer since that debut.
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