Rating: 
Summary: Painful but accurate
Review: I picked it up and read it over the last two days after I saw a preview for the movie version coming out in 2000. Easy read, 399 pages that go very quickly, but what a disturbing damnation of American society. I found it entirely plausible that this sort of empty creature could exist - and thrive - in our society today. It is obviously a bit of over-the-top satire, but nonetheless I thought it was earily accurate and moving. Not for the meek, though...
Rating:
Summary: The end result of a shallow life dominated by hatred.
Review: Living in a big city puts an enourmous emotional burden on each and every one of us. Each day, day in day out, we are confronted by the old, the poor, the deformed, the homeless - our very worst nightmare of what could happen to us. Our membership of this huge society makes us feel like these people are somehow our fault, and that by not helping each and every one of them, we are bad people. You can't help them all. You have to reject some. Patrick Bateman's behaviour is just the end product of such a society, where in order to survive emotionally, people have to be reduced to just objects around you, where you end up feeling furious hatred towards the man in the street for begging from you and making you feel bad, to someone in front of you walking slowly, to anyone doing anything that makes you uncomfortable. This is a frightening book. I'm going to live in the country.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Edggy, A Great Treasties on 80's Consumerism
Review: The book is about the excesses of the 80s. How in the 80s everything, and I mean everything became objectified. This does include women. If everything is objectified, dosn't it make sense that everything is disposable? Wasn't the 80s about everyone taking responsibility for there own lives and not worrying about others. Is it so far fetch that things in AP could happen given this philosphy?
Rating: 
Summary: Read for yourself
Review: Turn your computer off. Stop reading customer reviews. They are every bit as vacuous as the passing fashions enumerated in American Psycho.
Rating: 
Summary: Impactante,frío,muy duro,.....EXCELENTE.
Review: Cruel definición de la sociedad clasista norteamericana.Donde el dinero,las "marcas",y el poder es lo único que importa. Además el sadismo descrito en los crímenes de Bateman es inigualable.
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: I must confess, I allowed my curiosity to get the better of me and picked up "American Psycho". I knew beforehand of the novel's gore, but I was hoping that the literary benefits of the book would somehow redeem it. I was dead wrong. I'm aware that the author intended to portray the vapidity and consumption of the 80's, and on some levels he succeeds, but endless and infuriating descriptions of people's clothing, a thread-bare plot and only brief moments of inspired writing make an all-together tedious read. Granted, there were moments that I enjoyed--the thought process Bateman's going through toward the end of the novel as he's lunching with his secretary would be a good example. In all, moments like these were too few. A little admonishment to those who feel that Bateman's killings were actual: absolutely not. If one reads the novel carefully and not just for the sensationalistic gore and mayhem, it is clear that Bateman is not committing these crimes, but is daydreaming about them. There are numerous examples in the book to support this, namely when Bateman comes back to Owens' apartment. Incidentally, I liked the chapters devoted to Genesis and Whitney Houston. They revealed not only Bateman's conformity, but his terrible taste in music as well. In short, ignore this book. For a truly disturbing portrayal of serial killer chic along with a plot that actually moves, stick with Thomas Harris.
Rating:
Summary: Bad, Sickening, your time and money could be better spent
Review: I admit it: I also bought this book because I was perversivly attracted by its sinister reputation (as most of its buyers, surely). Well, never again will I be so silly. This book is basically just very boring, it has nothing much to say and so resorts to hyper-violence and grotesque sex to try to counterbalance just that. It fails miserably. But this book is not just bad, it's dangerous: in the wrong hands a book like this can really produce violent behaviour. Starting from the assumption that cersorship is never an option, and that even a partial ban (to minors, for instance) would do more demage than anything else as it would only increase curiosity, the only hope would be that editors, authors and the media people in general would be a bit more self-restraining in feeding the public with this sick material. Unfortunately, as sex and violence do sell (they sold to me, for instance), there will always be plenty of books/movies etc. where the only real ingredient is just this, but please don't call it ART.
Rating:
Summary: The American novel of the "Me" decade
Review: I reluctantly began reading this book shortly after it was first published -- reluctantly, because I had read the disgusting excerpts published in Atlantic Monthly and National Review, and had been following the uniformly negavtive press. But, I had run out of American '80's authors to read, and a friend finally persuaded me to read her copy. In the end, I regretted having put off reading American Psycho. I liked the book because it is an affective critique of the American "Me Decade." I hadn't expected that the book was social commentary -- the negative reviews had lead me to believe the story was only designed to shock, sort of like the "shock jock" radio that was popular in the early '90's. Sure, the violence was shocking, and eventually I learned to skim over the violent parts, but there is much more to the book than just the violent scenes. What makes the book even more interesting is the unreliable narrator. If you are into unreliable narrators, American Psycho is the book for you. It is also one of the funniest books I've ever read. I hadn't been lead to believe that the book was funny, but it was. If you are concerned with the treatment of women in American Psycho, don't worry. Just about anyone you can imagine meets a grizzly end at the hands of Patrick Bateman. Men, women, young, old, rich, poor, several ethnic groups -- Bateman is an equal opportunity killer.
Rating:
Summary: Not for Morons
Review: If you like linear works with formula story lines, do me this favor; do not read this book. All that will happen is you wind up writing a book review telling everyone else that you obviously missed the point of this book. The book is about existential depression born out of the 80s material excess lifestyle. This sends the main character on a detail-specific, goriffic killing spree. The literary treatment of all the details of the main character's like is as much the story as the acts. Truly this is on par with "No Exit." Be warned. It is graphic in its violence, but far boring. In fact, if you do find yourself bored, you might consider getting some form of help before you too become a Sean or Patrick Bateman.
Rating:
Summary: Just got it...
Review: I just got this book that everyone is talking about. I heard a lot about it, and as soon as I heard the ban was lifted in Canada on it, I rushed out and picked it up. I except this book to be very good. Ive read the first two settings, and I admit, its a bit slow and is very detailed (ie. What people are wearing and who their colthes were made by.) But still, I have more good reviews of this book then bad reviews, so I think I will like it. I just cant wait until the movie comes out. If anyone would like to discuss this further, please email me.
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