Rating: 
Summary: A Very Unique Novel....
Review: The Rules Of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis, is his second novel, and definitely one of my favorites (the other being American Psycho). The story evolves around Sean Bateman, (Patrick Bateman's brother, the sick and demented character in American Psycho) Lauren, a girl who changes boyfriends as she changes majors, Paul, a bi-sexual who has the hots for Sean, and other guys around the college. It is set in New England during the Regan 80's. They spend their time getting drunk, doing drugs, and having sex. Yet, these characters are unlikable, they dont have a clue what they want to do in their future, or the present. They barely go to class, and that is all they do. What makes this book so good? The writing that Bret Easton Ellis does in this novel. This novel brings back the 80's; full of drugs, sex, and music, and it pokes fun at it. The novel is very entertaining, and yet very unique in many ways. The novel tells us about these slackers who rather have sex and get drunk, and yet they dont have a single clue of what they want to do with their lives. One of the thing that Ellis does not make us feel sorry for them, which is very different from other writers out there; James Patterson, Stephen King, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and the list goes on. A very unique novel by one of the finest modern writers of our time.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Novel From One of the Best Modern Authors
Review: The Rules of Attraction, set at a fictional New England college very similar to the author's alma mater Bennington, chronicles a few months in the lives of two young men and a young woman as they search for some meaning or purpose in their lives. Sean is a narcissist whose hobbies include having sex with freshman girls, going to parties, and dealing cocaine. Paul is a shy bisexual whose naivete is matched only by his desire to land an attractive mate. Lauren is fixated on purity and sexuality and in love with a boy that has no memory of her. These three characters form a love triangle, centered around Sean, that is rocked by drugs, drinking, and partying.
Ellis's style in this novel is very mainstream considering his other work; The Rules of Attraction is a product of many of his literary influences with a sprinkling of his own creation. It is told by several narrators, not only the three main characters but also several secondary characters and there are even a few passages where the narrator is unidentified. This smells heavily of Faulkner, but Ellis makes it unique by including interesting and often symbolic details and having inconsistent narrations (i.e. one character will describe an event differently from another character).
There is no real plot in The Rules of Attraction; it is a series of narrated episodes that have a cumulative effect. We see relationships grow and ebb, death, and young people groping for meaning or even anything tangible in their lives. Most of the characters are filled with a sense of hopelessness. It's not that they don't care; they don't know how to care. The characters live in a moral vacuum where everything in ambiguous.
By the end of the novel, you may feel sick to your stomach with this emptiness. But that's the point. Ellis wants us to realize that people cannot live happy lives by emulating the students of Camden College. Sean, Paul and Lauren are the result when you lose touch with reality.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect gift for anyone in college!
Review: A friend gave me this book for my birthday my freshman year in college, telling me that he related so much of it to his college experience in a lot of the observations it makes. I had seen the movie and liked it quite a bit, but he insisted the book was amazing. Having not seen the movie before reading the book, he had an advantage I did not, for I already knew a lot of the plot lines, but there was added material and the writing style really was unique and interesting. Having spent my first semester in college, there were so many things in it that I laughed about, noticing similarties since I also live in college housing, as do the characters in this novel. I think anyone in college will find a lot of things in common with this book, whether that's good or bad. It made for a very interesting read, especially since I can draw on my college life and laugh at how some things have changed since the 1980's when the book is set, and how some have not. College is a defining time in your life, and this book provides some very interesting comments on its function and purpose in modern society.
Rating:
Summary: INCREDIBLE
Review: Oh my god. After seeing the movie based on this book, I was immediately left with an unsettled, almost unsatisfied feeling. I viewed the movie two more times, and then fell in love with the plot. After numerous decisions not to pick up a copy of the book, I finally began to read it. The book sucks you in. It is one of the most fast paced books I have read and the writing style is extraordinary. Ellis' word choice is noticeably careful. The technique of literally switiching narrators spontaneously is quite entertaining. Also, the truth and honesty that flows throughout the novel is captivating. Set in the 80s, it vividly brings you to the time period, often with musical references, and social issues from the decade. This was one of those books that I didn't want to keep reading because I never wanted it to end. It left me feeling joyous, and thirsty for more.
Rating:
Summary: I always knew it would be like this.
Review: Where "Less than Zero" lacked in direction and "American Psycho" lacked in consistancy, "The Rules of Attraction" picks up to pieces to form Bret Easton Ellis' most intriguing and important novel to date. Unlike his other novels, I never once felt the need to question the direction of the plot, I was instead lost in the unique and profound story told by the different views of these college students who attended a liberal arts school in New England. Sure like all Ellis' novels, there's drugs, sex, and a lost sense of identity. But unlike his other novels, "The Rules of Attractions" keeps fresh chapter after chapter. I think it had alot to do with how the book was written, with different commentaries by all the characters in the novel. Sometimes the diiferent perspectives of the characters contridicted the other and miscommunications with the conversations were to say the least, really humorous. This is really a touching, sad, funny, and remarkable novel. I guess there are some people who probably can't stomach Ellis' style of heavy drug use and sex. All I can really say if you are that type of reader is: Deal with it. Rock'n'Roll.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing, Beautiful, Tragic...
Review: Simply one of the best novels I have ever read...the character development and dialogue are superb and so real for college students. Anyone who has attended a small liberal arts school can relate on so many levels to this novel...from the countless nights of binge drinking, random hook-ups, to endless cigarettes and skipped classes I swear Ellis was writing about St.Bonaventure. Ellis has a great talent for creating characters that you despise and love at the same time. Yes, most of the people encountered in the story are self- absorbed, spoiled-brats, yet when the novel ends, you find yourself wanting more of them. I re- read parts of this novel frequently and always find something new in it; while feeling a pathetic and sad nostolgia for those care- free days and random nights of beer and empty romances that Ellis re-creates so well.
Rating:
Summary: Every parent's worst nightmare about college life
Review: Of the three novels by Bret Easton Ellis I've read, this is my favorite. Unlike the ultra gory American Psycho, this book is disturbing and darkly funny in a mostly realistic way. It's about a group of spoiled students at the fictional Camden College who, for the most part, spend all their time smoking, drinking, doing drugs, and having sex. Despite all their wealth and access to substances, the characters are all miserable and emotionally crippled, unable to really relate to other human beings. Paul, who's sensitive and gay, falls for bad boy Sean Bateman. Sean (brother of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman, who makes a brief cameo in this book) is a promiscous drug user who falls for virginal Lauren. Lauren, however, is hopelessly in love with Sean's friend Victor. It's both sad and hilarious the way all the characters have fixated on other people who cannot return their feelings. And although I'd like to think most college kids aren't this screwed up, this novel does reflect in many ways the confusion and craziness of life post-high school.
Rating:
Summary: Very intense -- worth buying!
Review: Upon reading the first chapter, I was duly shocked, not by the content (a freshman in college loses her virginity in a drunken two-man date rape) so much as the stark, matter-of-fact portrayal in which the picture is painted. Reading further, I discovered that the same spare, bare-bones prose exists throughout the novel, pointing out the general state of apathy in which the students of the fictional Camden (rumored to be modeled after SUNY-Albany) exist. The narrative does not center around a single protagonist, choosing instead to switch the narrative from chapter to chapter between Sean Bateman (brother of American Psycho's Patrick), Lauren Hynde (the quintessential 'girl everyone wants'), and Paul. Less frequently appearing are Less Than Zero protagonist Clay, the francophone Victor, and a nameless, suicidal girl whose worship from afar of Sean ultimately end disastrously. It quickly becomes apparent that the characters contained within Rules possess no real emotions, and instead seek to fill that void with sex, drugs, and any other distraction they can get their hands on. Even as the nameless girl professes her 'love' for Sean, it is clear to the reader that it is a case of mistaken identities, confusing love with infatuation with a man she has never spoken to. As in most of his work, Ellis creates utterly unlikable characters and combines them with a slew of au courant pop culture references in order to hold up a literary mirror to society, which in turn makes the reader either realize the intent and appreciate it, or sputter indignantly about that no-talent hack who writes about them people doing sex and smoking drugs all the time. If you appreciate social satire, then The Rules Of Attraction, as well as Ellis' work in general, is for you. But if you can't handle a little shock factor, then skip it. I purchased this book through Amazon.com right after another great purchase, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, about an unlucky writer addicted to the personals. Both are intense, recommended books. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A Look at Lost Values
Review: I have read some reviews regarding how empty this novel seems. I must disagree. Ellis shows true style in his use of perspective as he tells, and retells, the novel's events through the different characters. He shows how the 80s generation prolonged the high school extremes, love or death, into their college years -- as the people simply exist to take drugs, fail classes, find new bodies to lay down with, and attempt suicide to get attention. I found the novel to be highly amusing, and his technique of ending the novel in mid-sentence suggests that the condition may only continue.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: an outstanding piece of writing. the rules seem to state that if 'a' likes 'b', 'b' will not like 'a', but 'c', who, in turn, will not like 'b', but 'd', ad infinitum. thus Lauren likes Victor, who seems practically unaware of her existence. Paul likes Sean, who, illuminatingly, screens Paul almost completely out of his personal narrative. Sean likes Lauren who, as noted, likes Victor. one might think that the main characters deserve to botch any attempt to get together with the real objects of their romantic lives, given how unfaithful they are, and how casually they treat sex, which is mostly done drunk, and with whoever's to hand. however, faithful romantic love is dismissed as futile too - the most romantic of the narrators, tellingly never named, ends up despairing, and committing suicide.Easton Ellis uses the different narrative voices in the novel very skilfully to demonstrate how the same events are viewed differently by different people, how people can read each other wrong, and interpret events and other people wrong, in particular, altering or concealing the truth to suit their own needs and self-image. though all the characters are almost entirely egotistical in their approach to life, Easton Ellis writes from inside his characters, rather than outside: the writer does not sneer at his characters, and, overall, invites the reader to see them as products of their environment. the main characters are confused and unhappy about life, without really knowing why, or how to make themselves happy. they wearily return to what are supposed to be life's pleasures - sex, drugs, parties - because they don't know where else to turn. nor are any alternative pleasures suggested by the novel. any idealism about the pleasures of art, for example, is soon crushed: Sean thinks Lauren's poetry is rubbish; Lauren's poetry teacher is a pitiful, lecherous creature; the characters who talk about art do so in such a pretentious way as to make art seem meaningless. nor do any of the characters find any kind of redemption. the way the novel starts mid-sentence and ends mid-sentence is a useful stylistic device to point out that what we are seeing here is merely a snapshot of a recurring sequence of episodes - these same type of events will just keep happening, parties, drugs, casual sex, parties, drugs, casual sex, parties ... for me, Easton Ellis falters slightly only at one point, when one of the characters improbably stops and considers why we should care about the pain of these rich kids, when their pain often occurs as the result of such trivial incidents. pain, we are told, depends on circumstances, and is as relevant if the result of not being able to book a table at one's favourite restaurant as of anything else. here the author's voice comes through a bit too strongly, i think - Easton Ellis loses his lightness of touch when he attempts didacticism. but, this is only a slight blip in an extraordinary novel.
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