American Psycho

Rating:
Summary: What a great book
Review: After reading some 100+ reviews, the only thing I can think of is...good grief some reviewers are missing the point. Yes, the gore is over-the-top, yes, I now know more about upscale dining and designer fashions than I could care to admit...the whole point of the story is Bateman's out of control spiralling into the depths of madness, not an attempt at creating a literary masterpiece for the ages. You're expecting a trip into this nightmarish landscape to have structure or an intro-body-conclusion framework? If that's what you wanted stick to reading essays in high school textbooks. Personally, I was riveted. The book is unsettling and different in a delicious sort of way.

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Summary: THE MOST FOCUSED, RAW, AND HARDCORE VISION OF THE FUTURE.
Review: Although this book is not intended for everyone, the depth of the character developement, and the authors focused concentration into the depths of demensia is as raw, and untamed as they come. The book is a detailed description of the 80's, as well as the future. Congrats to Ellis for his beautiful depiction of the modern existencialist. UNCOMPRIMISING, NAKED, TRUTH OF VISION.

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Summary: Author attempts to use violence and gore to mask boredom.
Review: This book is really boring. It is a blatant attempt to use violence to sell copies by an author who has no ability to tell an interesting story. Don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: After the initial shock it basically sucks.
Review: The title of the book pretty much says it all, but after you get past the morbidly fascinating gore this really isn't a great novel. It's very repetitive, and doesn't really provide much insight into why the title character does the things he does. And, every time you think you've arrived at a plot twist you end up disappointed. I credit the author with being able to transport the reader into a psychopath's mind, but what are we supposed to do once we're in there? You might as well quit reading after you get to the first murder, because everything after that is just more of the same. Murder, murder, murder, okay we get the point. Now I know why the author made it so bloody - because it's so damn boring! I kept waiting for some kind of startling revelation about the nature of man, or at least an interesting conclusion. But, as the author states in the last line of his book, "this is not an exit."

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely demented
Review: This book was downright hilarious at times. Then it jars you with violence that is, well, sick. Using electric drills to carve out a woman's mouth and then ripping her throat inside out is only one of the many fine bits of lovingly detailed gore we are treated to. But, hey, look at the title, what did you expect, Bambi? Seriously, the book will make you laugh out loud with the mere mentions of Kenny G, Mike and the Mechanics, and the lack of depth of certian Whitney Houston lyrics. Or in the fact that everyone keeps mistaking the narrator for somone else: 'hey Saul!', 'talk to ya later Marcus', etc. The sickest thing about this is that this is how some people REALLY are in real life. The 80s yuppie was very, very scary, and Ellis thinks so too. By the way, at 399 pages, this book moves REMARKABLY fast.

Rating:
Summary: Like an updated version of Norman Mailer American Dream
Review: Like an updated version of Norman Mailer American Dream in a modern style, this book delivers like a AK-47. Thanks Bret, from now on,I know how I should dress to be cool. To Bret and the other style maniacs, do you know of any litterature references on the following topic that was grossly overlooked in the book: "How to walk with a suit without crumpling, rumpling or crinkling it" excuse my English, I am French, but concerned reader will know what I mean.

Rating:
Summary: might be fantasy
Review: I had the same thought on first reading the novel. i thought it was all in Batemans head. I re-read it and came to the semi conclusion that he did do it or some of it. When its a first person narrator we can't trust what he or she says. Did he brake up with Evelyn? he says he did but thats not what other people think. did he kill owen? thats what he says and he uses the apartment for other stuff. others say they saw owen on london and his place wasn't messed with. i still think he did it and i would love ellis to write him and others in future novels. i hope he starts writing more than 2 books a decade

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Summary: the book of my generation!
Review: In the early 80s I used to date a guy who was very much like the main character of this book; not that he was a "psyco" but everything the character says, how he acts, what he cares about, etc. reminded me of the guy so much that it got scary at times. Anyone who lived in the "happy" 80s in a rich snobbish life style would understand how it was - all the brand names, all the consumption (even consuming the people around you), artificiality.... I sort of dropped out of that life style because I did not end up like the characters in this novel. (My ex boyfriend continued in that path and he now works at the World Bank.) Recommend highly to any one born in the early 60's. At last we've got a book representing what our generation went through.

Rating:
Summary: Don't be fooled by hype
Review: A juvenial attempt at grossing the audience out. Here's a tip for the author, readers enjoy a good STORY! Do we really need a description of the sound a brain makes as it separates from the skull? Aparently we do when the actual story itself is so weak. This reads as if it was written by a teenage boy raised on Beavis and Butthead. I can imagine Ellis at his typewritter as he finishes yet another drawn out description of sex and murder: "heh, heh, that was cool!" Grow up Bret and keep your demented fantasies to yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Merrily, merrily, merrily, this book is just a dream.
Review: Aside from the fact that American Psycho is a satire, everyone seems to have missed the point. It's audience should read the book over again and concentrate on the beginning. There the reader will find the key to the book: it's all a dream. It's not real. Once the reader sees this he will understand the nature of the book and be able to laugh out loud without feeling sick, dirty, or ashamed. As for the women who had a freak fest upon it's publication, screaming bloody murder about it's anit-feminist undertones, let's remember that the antogonist/protagonist is nothing but a contemptible fellow who has nothing to offer society but a grim look into the psyche of a deformed and deranged man. It in no way promotes man's lust for power over women, but apes and derides it.