American Psycho

Rating:
Summary: Depressing, Disgusting, Disgraceful
Review: If the author's intent was to tell a revolting tale about a character with absolutely no redeeming qualities, then this book is a triumphant achievement. It's sad that someone with Ellis's talent would resort to cheap and vile gimmicks to create a work that is more controversial than it is significant.

Rating:
Summary: Appalling and grotesque
Review: This book attracted me beacuse of some of the snippets of reviews printed on the back cover. Boy, did I get a shock. It is the only book I've ever read that I don't want to keep, or ever open again. To my mind there is no story, few characters are drawn convincingly and it is full of unmitigated horror which seeps out after pages of boring descriptions of the fashion statements of yuppies. I think this is a sick book and it should have a serious warning on it that it is unsuitable for younger readers and only fit for those with a penchant for brutal horror. I shouldn't have bought it and I am sad to say I am going to bin it, something I never thought I would do to a book.

Rating:
Summary: I want to see someone make this a movie...
Review: I read this book about six years ago and it still gives me the chills. This is not recommended for the weak. I don't think Leonardo would do the role any justice. Maybe Robert Downing Jr.

Rating:
Summary: How many disappear each year in your city/region
Review: Enjoyed the book. Apart from the couple of occasions when I had to put it down and leave it for a few days to recuperate.

Bateman exists many times over in every city. Most will probably never choose to explore this side of their character. Hope you never meet one, as let's face it, you are not going to know until it's too late!

Read the book and you may have a slight advantage.

Rating:
Summary: Catalog or novel?
Review: I must admit - I bought this book because, like many others, I wanted to see if the descriptions of the main character's actions were really as stomach-turning as I had been hearing. They were. I only got about halfway through the second (or third) chapter before I couldn't take it anymore. I never even got to any violence. The chapter I gave up on was about him shaving. SHAVING!! No glimpse into his thoughts of any kind while shaving, just shaving. The most repulsive part was the yuppie toiletry catalog that it turned out to be. It made me wonder if he didn't kill his victims with the pungence of scented soaps, creams and mousses emanating from his face. This review is 1-star because I couldn't choose negative numbers.

Rating:
Summary: Total waste of time
Review: Reading this book was a total waste of time. We learn that Mr. Ellis knows all about clothing brands but after the first three pages, hearing what everyone is wearing and how much everything costs was tiresome. The killings are indeed graphic but can't stop the book from being boring over all.

Rating:
Summary: Very, very disturbing
Review: I red this book several years ago. I came to it with a lot of prejudices and I had to accept that it really shocked me. Those deeply disturbing descriptions of rape and murders were hard to forget. Looking back I think that it made a landmark in contemporary literature, changing in many ways our thoughts about what was modern writing. The YUPPIE side is, I think, perfectly exposed and matched with teh PSYCHO side. In the other hand I was bothered by the insistence of Breaton Ellis in showing the "emptyness" of Patrick (and the Yuppies) putting words like "I'm empty, I has nothing inside" in his own mouth. That was too explicit. A big mistake caused, perhaps, in the lack of confidence of the author in his readers' inteligence to get the point. Anyway, after all this years I still remember very vividly several passages of the book and I still enjoy very much the descriptions of the 80's "ambiance".

Rating:
Summary: My best [e-mail]
Review: How can a mass-murderer be your best friend? Bateman's the good-guy in all this most of the time. So he goes off the rails occasionally, but that's fiction for you. Bateman is not a shallow character. He's obsessive. Ellis' attention to detail, specifically on his descriptions of products, etc. is a part of the book that will annoy some, but will make others laugh. I laughed.

Drugs? Always a good read.

Murder? You just stand back from it and say 'Go ahead Bateman, do what you have to do....'. Then step back in when he's finished (he is your best friend after all).

Best book I've read, barring Dice Man and Wasp Fatory.

Rating:
Summary: Sick... smart... boring.
Review: I read American Psycho about three months ago and I am ashamed to say I took it at something like face value. Big mistake. Read like this it is boring (huge passages of inane drivel concerning fashion, designer labels, the latest resturaunts etc.) and potentially harmful (God only knows the ideas it'll give some idiots). But having had a good while to reflect and mull it over, one realises that it is an extremley subtle and powerful satire, Bateman a characature for the yuppie generation and, indeed, the eighties. Also, some of the dialouge is simply hilarious. But Ellis is perhaps too clever for his own good and this book is often dull and extremley long-winded. All the same, a must read if only to be able to discuss it with others.

Rating:
Summary: Brooks Brothers, a knife, some blow, lets have fun.
Review: With priveledge, perversion also follows. This book is entertaining and demands that the reader has the patience to pay attention to detail, no matter how seemingly mondane...it is important to Bateman's character development.