Rating: 
Summary: Why is Patrick Bateman wearing two ties?
Review: Both devastating attack upon and homage to the shallowness of yuppie America. Two points which have a bearing upon many reviews in this site:This was reportedly, one of the most exhaustively proof read books ever - unsurprising if you bear in mind the publishers' quite reasonable fear of fearsome charges of trivialisation / glamorisation of violence. It is, then, surprising that Patrick Bateman is quite clearly wearing two ties at one point in the book. Coupled with the more obvious (and more important) inexplicable disappearance of the body of his supposed victim (Luis?) this does seem to point to a "Bateman is fantasist through and through" reading. (I do not have a copy of the text to substantiate this point right now - if interested but doubtful, do e-mail me and I will give you chapter and verse.) It is also interesting to note that Ellis did not intend people to read the 'boring' bits of the book (the endless pontificating about Huey Lewis and the News etc.). In an interview with Melvin Bragg he claimed to be quite surprised that people didn't realise that you were allowed to skip them.
Rating: 
Summary: Shows how lazy, boring and conventional most novelists are.
Review: I both love and hate this book. After I had finished it I imagined going back in time and influencing events in the past so that I never became aware of it and lived out the rest of my life in ignorant bliss. I wondered what I would do if I had that opportunity. I wondered whether I'm glad that I read something so abnormal or disturbed by the abnormalities it revealed within me.I wondered whether it had made me a better or worse person. I didn't come up with any answers. Maybe Bret Easton Ellis should publish a kind of American Pyscho Lite. Initially this sounds sacraligious, like I haven't understood the real idea behind the book. And I believe I have. The scene with Meredith and the mace and could be cut out without compromising the stark power of the book. There are other hyper-violent passages, yes. But this scene hasn't got any of the comic-book effect that the others have. The chapters containing the rat and the drill and the car battery are so beyond the pale they become comic book and just, just readable. The killing of Meredith made me put the book down, mid-chapter and put my copy out of sight, unread for a couple of months. Initally I intended to burn the book. I felt guilty about having read it and I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn't even vaguely interested in reading on. Eventually I did, staring on the next chapter after Meredith's death and I haven't looked at those passages since. The only thing I've ever read that made shake uncontrollably. No other novel, like one with a plot, seems at all original now.
Rating:
Summary: Strangely compelling, like transexuals and traffic accidents
Review: Bateman has moments that reveal what many peoples reactions would be, if not restrained (thankfullly) by sociol conditioning. When he pulls the knife on Carruthers to escape, for example. As well as this he has occansional moments of vunerablilty that almost make you disregard his earlier actions and forgive him, such as when he admits to working at P&P, just to fit in. His fustration with his associates shallow lives also strikes a nerve.
Rating: 
Summary: As literature, it's useless. As an Event, it's fascinating.
Review: On its own merits, "American Psycho" is bollocks. The characters are barely even ONE-dimensional, the "story" is beyond dull, and Ellis's prose is simplistic and rife with grammatical errors (He would have you believe that he did that on purpose, because that's how a maniac would write, but his other books are the same way). Ellis thinks he's making some penetrating insight into our shallow, plastic society, but all he's really doing is getting his jollies by writing sadistic porn. However, if you do a little research into the uproar surrounding the book's publication- the NOW protests, the Paul Bernardo "copycat" murders, etc.- reading the book becomes a fascinating study of what it takes to ruffle feathers nowadays. -Chris Willie Williams
Rating:
Summary: But is it for real?
Review: Yes, it is funny, repetitious and horrific beyond belief but is it real? My wife reckons that all the killings so gorily depicted in the book do not happen - they are merely the phantasies of our anti-hero's sick brain. Me, I think he did it. What's your view? - let me know please.
Rating: 
Summary: Shallowness Reaches New Depths
Review: With this book, Bret Easton Ellis has invented new ways of sucking up contemporary literature. I can't believe I read the whole thing; it's not as if there was anything enjoyable or resourceful about it. In fact, I'll say if your idea of a good time is masturbation and murder, this is your new manual. This guy is the literary equivalent of John Hinkley, Jr. That bit about Jamie Gertz? Whatever. It's as though Ellis tried to compress an INXS video into the space of 400 pages. All that self-righteous bum torture and the horribly monotonous insights into what everyone was wearing? It drove me up the wall! How'd he get away with publishing this?! I thought the days of William S. Burroughs and purposless polemics were gone forever, but I guess I was wrong. Seal the vault on this steaming pile and read something else. So vain and meritricious! I'm going to go sedate myself, watch Bambi, and wash my brain out with soap.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't even finish it--disgusting
Review: This book was extremely difficult to read without even including the gore. Endless references to things that nobody cares about. So hard to follow, seeing that he uses the maniacs point of view. Also, the gore was unbelievable. I couldn't even finish it after one particular scene. I will definitely keep this book away from my child. I don't think anyone is ever old enough to read that.
Rating:
Summary: an awesome read
Review: One of the most interesting books I've _ever_ read. Can't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: There is a reason this book has almost 400 reviews.
Review: Whether you loved it or hated it or didn't understand it, I'll bet you remembered it; I'll bet it affected you in *some* way. Unlike a lot of reviewers, I won't try to read Bret Easton Ellis' mind and tell everyone what I think he meant when he wrote this. I just want to comment that I think a lot of the reviews were from some really closed-minded people. Good job, Bret.
Rating:
Summary: Totally disgusting and jaw dropping...
Review: ...but well done in my opinion. I think those who didn't like it are dwelling on the fact about the detail the author goes into about clothes and such. Honestly, I think, since it's from Bateman's point of view, this is what is EXTREMELY important to the man, and in that, describes the maniac quite well. Definatly don't read this while eating. I've read some graphic stories; Stephen King, Dean Koontz... but this... beats those authors any day on the gore scale. It's not some monster from a sewer or some all knowing powerful creation... It's a guy... It's real... believable. Brought me back to BookWorld from MovieLand! It's just... incredible.
| 
