Rating: 
Summary: Not about a serial killer
Review: This book is easily misunderstood. This is a satire, abut a 26 year old who has wild fantasies about being a serial killer, not about one who is one. The description is remarkable, a rip on materialism in America & the adventures of Patrick take you into a mind representing all that is shallow & rotten in Contemporary Society. The titles of each chapter are effective- he has page after page describing the clothes & stores that Patrick & his friends shop, & then titles his next chapter "girl" in the scene where he supposedly tortures this "girl" to death. The who doesn't matter, but it's the play between the specifics of the shallow & the generic of the emotional, or what most people would think "what truly matters" in life. What truly matters for most is not what matters to Patrick, or if it is, we don't know it. He is, afterall, in his own little world. Not to be read with a queasy stomach, my only criticism would be that I think the novel is too long & can drag at times. For that, I give it 4 stars rather than five, but I still recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Man the first 350 pages AMAZING the last 50 tedius...
Review: For most of you who have read past Eliss novels know that he is a master of the satire, and a brilliant writer, this holds true the same for American Psycho. We should have seen this novel coming at least sooner or later. It takes place in end of 80's era New York City (where else). Ellis takes us back to this time when the yuppie generation was in full swing, where cloths meant more then the value of life. The controversy over this novel was it's violence, but what about Naked Lunch or Ann Rice, hell even Hubert Silby Jr. masterpice Requiem for a Dream which came out in the late 70's all have drug, sex, and violence, maybe not to this extent, but pretty damn close. Ellis when doing this novel wanted to show not a storie of an insane yuppie serial killer, but rather how much these people respect appearence rather then personality. He wanted to see just what somebody such as Patrick Bateman the main character could get away with. Well he did it in a beautiful researched and analyzed book. Through out we hear over again designer cloths, resturant names, peoples names, streets, buisness card games, murder, and sex. This however was on purpose at least so I think. The first 350 pages of this novel were absolutly amazing, last 50 were tedius good, but in the end tedius. I was at the point to were if I heared a designer cloths name like Calvin Kline or Hugo Boss I was going to go insane, but Eliss I can see why you did this to make us sick of our American culture ways the materilizing of our homes, bodys, and lives. You are a genious Mr. Eliss, just keep on shocking the world and change will happen. American Psycho yet another American classic!
Rating: 
Summary: American Psycho is an American classic
Review: I rarely read stories involving serial killers anymore. The idea of having to stomach pages of carnage without a shred of illumination only sends me into a downward spiral of human hopelessness.Contrary-wise, this book, as dark as it is, completely engrossed me from page one to finish. American Psycho captures the soul of a serial killer as he tries to understand himself. And that soul is clearly bared in these pages in simple straightforward sentences, too clearly maybe for a society that craves deception so badly that it -we- elect officials to do the lying for us. No way can this book be represented in a movie. No way.
Rating:
Summary: Most disturbing book ever
Review: This certainly is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. Shockingly graphic in its portrayal of sexual acts and violence. Yet also a finely crafted piece of fiction.
The protaganist is by no means an obvious sociopath. He freely mingles with his peers.
The hardest part to get past was Patrick Bateman's detailed description and analysis of the clothes, shoes, appearance and even business cards of everyone he meets. You soon get past this by realizing it is the epitomie of characterization. It is his entire motivation - To be better than everyone else.
It's the first boook I've read by Ellis, but I think I'll pick up another very soon.
I'm still not sure if the acts depicted in the book actually took place or are the delusions of Bateman. And the fact that I'm still thinking about it point out a lot about the quality of the writing.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book of all Time
Review: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis is one of the greatest books of all time. The fact that it had to be shopped around to so many different publishers because of its controversial nature gives you an idea of its brilliance. No other novel has ever tried to do what this Ellis has done with American Psycho. The characters are frighteningly real, despite the main character's penchant for violence. Patrick Bateman's character works on so many levels that you have the feeling that this person must actually exist. The book itself, like its characters, is many layered. You can read it as just a story, you can read it as a tale of one man's delusions, you can read it as social commentary. A mix of the three is probably the best, and the closest to what Ellis was thinking when he wrote the novel. The violence in this novel is depicted so graphically that reading it in small doses might be better for most people. I read the novel in a day, and it completely changed my outlook on the world. I sniffed cheese on a take-and-bake pizza to make sure it wasn't arsenic. But the fact that this novel actually has the power to change your world view is a testament to its power and creativity. It is the only book I have ever read that affected me in such a profound manner. American Psycho is not just an ultra-violent romp, though. It does has humor mixed in as well, though some of it is twisted humor. If you want to read an amazing book that will make you laugh, make you gasp and make you change your outlook on life, then this is it.
Rating:
Summary: Something's wrong with Ellis
Review: There's something wrong with Bret Easton Ellis. Him being a writer though, I guess that's what got him to where he is at in his career. I'm in the middle of American Psycho, I haven't finished it yet. I can't put it down. It's a disturbing and very entertaining novel that grips you with all of it's might, and never lets go of its deathly hold. I saw the movie, and it hardly lights a candle next to the book, though the movie, I must say, wasn't too bad. The book, obviously, is WAY deeper, scarier, and more interesting. Patrick Bateman is an EXTREMELY well-groomed person. He's very rich, very intellegent, and very good-looking. He lives a routine-like type of life. Everyone that he works with or sees at the gourmet restauraunts that he eats at with numerous different types of men like himself and ditzy women look the same. Brand names of shoes, trousers, coats, shirts, and even ties are mentioned constantly. It's even mentioned, more than once, might I add, that Bateman wears sixty dollar pairs of boxer-shorts. Types of gourmet food, like Brand Names, are also mentioned constantly. Bateman is disturbed. He likes to kill women during hardcore sex. The sex scenes are VERY VERY graphic, every filthy sex-term is used. Bateman is almost like a sexual, porno-addicted freak-maniac. He tortures and kills women in such a nasty way that I can't even describe. You have to experience it for yourself to catch the full and real drift. Hope you enjoy the book, ha. I got to go finish it now.
Rating:
Summary: Bored to Vulgarity
Review: Society has become a vain world of designer tags and created a serial killer obsessed with Brand Names and Gruesome bloodshed. His killings are like a longtime drug addict who can no longer even weigh the consequenses and is almost bored with his own behavior but knows none other to excite him. In a word...."Brilliant" If surgery shows make you queezy, LOOK OUT!
Rating:
Summary: Triumph of Style
Review: What is truly remarkable about this book is not its shocking subject matter, but its nearly perfect style. Ellis worked so hard at depicting reality as it really is (often dreadfully boring and repitious) in Less than Zero that when he actually had something interesting to write about in American Psycho it flows effortlessly and without forcing. It is not the shocking murders which ring in my mind years after reading it, but the delightful details - Bateman's photographic recall of the fine points of Vogue fashion advice - his never ending struggle to return videotapes on time, his horrified discovery that he has nearly returned to a video store a tape in which he has recorded his own murder scene. This is also a book filled with wonderful contempt for the masses, which appears is perfectly consistent with the serial killer personality, since an inflated sense of their superiority is one of their great common denominators. Thus the great scene when Bateman, having been somewhat apprehensive (very unusual for him) of a meeting with a police detective, discovers much to his relief and bemusement that the detective is just another yuppie fool to be effortlessly manipulated and spun. But the greatest triumphant irony of this whole astonishing show is when the ultra cool, unflappable Bateman is finally rattled - not by the fear of apprehension, or pity for his victims - but by the intolerable discovery that his beer guzzling, cultureless brother is not only able to get a reservation at the best restaurant in town (which laughs and hangs up on Bateman when he tries to get a table) but even is a good friend with the chef who comes and sits at his table. That this is the only thing that truly disturbs Bateman is the coup de grace of this darkest of all black comedies.
Rating: 
Summary: OK
Review: this is book about a young yuppie in nyc near the end of the 80's. the main character is also a psychopathic killer, or is fantasizing about killing-it is hard to tell. while there are very well written explicit scenes the majority of the book is detailed desriptions of clothing and gourmet entrees plus vapid conversation and thoughts. i think the author is doing this to make us feel the characters emptiness his shallowness, the lack of substance in him and those around him-but it goes too far and is tedious...you have to wonder if this author is a fashion designer when he isnt writing.
much of the time it is a chore to read..interspersed with interesting peaks.
On a deeper level it shows again that money isnt everything..im going to rent the video and see if its any better.
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: I don't read fiction about serial killers since most of that pornographic suspense(?) requires that I lop off half my brain and call them 'sick' and me 'sane.' But this book overwhelmed me. I'm still recovering. It's almost too brilliant to talk about. In fact, I think I'll read it again.
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