Rating: 
Summary: Accurate Portrayal
Review: The Rules of Attraction represents a very honest and accurate depiction of what upper middle class college life has become over the last 20 years. The author does a masterful job of capturing the ennui that is sure to follow every incoming class. In typical Bret Easton Ellis' fashion, the book is brutally honest and impossibly hard to put down. For fans of this book, I would recommend that they also check out Fried Calamari (imagine Sean and Lauren having a date 10 years after college) which does a great job of capturing the lost generation as they try to mature and find a stable relationship.
Rating: 
Summary: He's talkin' 'bout my generation!
Review: Finally...a work captures that unnamed thing I loathed but could never explain to the outside world. I was in college in the '80s, and knew so many people like these characters. It's not just about sex, and it's not just about drugs/alcohol...it's a kind of soullessness. And when I drank to survive it, they called it partying. Thank you, Mr. Ellis, for speaking the truth.
Rating:
Summary: fierce people
Review: If you like Brett Easton Ellis or Jay McInerny-this is a perfect book for you. Starts off in NYC like many BEE and JM books, then takes the reader to upstate New York where there are so many twists and turns, it's hard to keep up. Lots of fun to read and hopefull for the story to continue in another book in a year or two. One of those books, that's hard to put down. If you like these types of books, I also recommend anything by Jason Starr. Aloha. SM
Rating: 
Summary: Rashomon meets Bevery Hills Brat Pack, everyone loses
Review: Somewhere inside this very, very tired and very, very stupid novel is a germ of a good idea, but I'll be darned if I'm going to go digging for it. Just reading "The Rules of Attraction" alone was painful enough.Bret Easton Ellis made his mark, shallow as it was, with "Less Than Zero" and "American Psycho," ..."Attraction" is the absolute bottom of the barrel. It's a kaleidoscopic take on various people lusting after each other in college, each with about one personality trait apiece if you discount the fact that they are only really defined by what they want and how they can get it. ... The book reeks of pseudo-artlessness on every level -- Ellis tries to avoid looking pretentious by using four-letter words galore, which only makes him all the more pretentious. Apply the Siskel Test here: Are any of these people worth even eating lunch with? If not, why read a whole novel about them? I wish more writers would try applying that rule to their own work; we could be spared a great many more garbagey novels with inflated pedigrees.
Rating:
Summary: Moral Vacuum Extraordinaire
Review: To say the central characters of Sean Bateman, Lauren Hynde, and Paul Denton are hedonistic, narcissistic, egomomaniacal heathens would be the understatement of the decade. Having said that, I started The Rules of Attraction today and finished it today as well. Shall we say, it was enthralling and compelling? But in a sick, laconic, & cynical way that only Bret Easton Ellis could deliver. Ellis's attention to detail, his mastery of dialogue, & his ability to define time and place make this an enjoyable, albeit nihilistic ride from beginning to end. All of the malcontent characters have little or no regard for the rules and laws of society as they recklessly pursue hedonism at any cost. Lauren decides to change majors from art to poetry because "I would rather spend my money on drugs than art supplies." Good stuff. Through all of the sexual posturings, drinking, & drugs, Ellis emanates his satirical ridicule at the declining morals of our lurid society by exposing the moral vacuum that comprises it and its individuals. As Sean would say, Rock 'n Roll. Deal with it. Was hoping to see Patrick Bateman cameo in movie....oh well.
Rating:
Summary: Moral Vacuum Extraordinaire
Review: ... To say the central characters of Sean Bateman, Lauren Hynde, and Paul Denton are hedonistic, narcissistic, egomomaniacal heathens would be the understatement of the decade. Having said that, I started The Rules of Attraction today and finished it today as well. Shall we say, it was enthralling and compelling? But in a sick, laconic, & cynical way that only Bret Easton Ellis could deliver. Ellis's attention to detail, his mastery of dialogue, & his ability to define time and place make this an enjoyable, albeit nihilistic ride from beginning to end. All of the malcontent characters have little or no regard for the rules and laws of society as they recklessly pursue hedonism at any cost. Lauren decides to change majors from art to poetry because "I would rather spend my money on drugs than art supplies." Good stuff. Through all of the sexual posturings, drinking, & drugs, Ellis emanates his satirical ridicule at the declining morals of our lurid society by exposing the moral vacuum that comprises it and its individuals.
Rating:
Summary: Sex, Drugs, Rock n School
Review: If I were to sum up this book in one word, it would be clairvoyant. I loved the feeling of dissonance by the brut male main character of his whole surrounding even though it was obvious that at times he was truly and deeply bruised mentally by other characters in this book. Sean, the main character, had the coolest, calmest attitude throughout the whole book, however, he was the guy who was hurt the most by girls when he was rejected. I loved the symbolic nature of the dialogue that showed the thick skin of these characters and the consequences of nonchalant gestures and how these kids come to learn that they must "deal with each other" to be successful and not get hurt. To allow yourself to be vulnerable is to set yourself up for pain and self implosion.
The message is very bleek but it rings true in high society and shows a glimpse inside the head of Ellis' tropical fantasy/reality symbolic world, whatever that may mean.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Hoot
Review: The characters and scenarios are "totally" over the top, but close enough with reality to relate with. I found this book to be an excellent satire of the perversity, hollowness, recklessness, and lawlessness of many children of privilege who go nuts in small rural liberal arts colleges in the East. Ellis juxtaposes the societal stereotype that children with means coming from good families are supposed to behave and be interested in their education with the reality that many of these children are out of control, morally bankrupt, emotionally detached from other people, and don't give a darn about what their learning. All in all, Ellis does a good job of exposing some of the hypocrasy and phoniness of prototypical "Camden" through the eyes of some severely vapid characters. That this book is immersed in 80's referrences is irrelevant; this book is not a period piece. The story was the same when I went to college in the 90's. The bohemian theme of the college could easily be interchanged with the conservative and waspy feel of schools like Dartmouth and old Williams that are mocked in this piece. Just exchange black for plaid and khaki.
Rating:
Summary: Ellis' Best Work
Review: Stop it, you people who are analyzing this book for plot. Quit trying to nail down the elusive symbolism, you whiners. This book is not about any of that. This book is a photo album of when we were yicky and MTV was still young. I went to college the first time back in the 80s and I have read no book that captures the feeling of that time as this book does. Yes, we were yuppies, but we were also the first of the slackers, too. This is by far Ellis' best work. It does not get the press of his other books, but long after they have been forgotten, this one will be hailed as a classic.
Rating:
Summary: *Swoon*
Review: This is probably my favourite of all the Ellis books...Faster paced than "Less Than Zero" and less gory or redundant than "American Psycho" or the "Glamorama". Rules of Attraction is just right! Nevertheless a plotless novel, following each character from their own perspectives offers an interesting and comical cross-pollinating point of view for the reader. ... Cheap thrills galore~...Give me more please.
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