Book Review - American Psycho

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis 

6 Stars
399 Pages
Satire/ Thriller / Horror / Murder /

*** I actually didnt end up finishing this book, I do plan on rereading it and completing it but I had about a fifth of the book left to go when I stopped. Decided to publish this anyways because it sums it up regardless.

So when I first started this book I was breezing through it and then it all just got to be too much, I started to stop and start and it just got slow. The "turning point" was the dry-cleaners scene, it starts to get kind-of confusing. Let me explain; you know that what is honestly going on does not match the narration, that we have an unreliable, unstable narrator and that throughout his perceptions have been warped. Then we go beyond and he seems to totally break from reality - which in the movie is easy to follow along because of the visual  but is impossible to comprehend from a readers perspective - I think it is something people should read, or at least read excerpts from. I thought of it as a horror novel going into it but it is so much more and much akin to Orwell or Huxley.
Along the lines of the authors just mentioned, as a book it is a despicable read. Sarcastic, satire, condescending... just horrible. There isn't a single likeable character, there is very minimal slowish plot, lots of development and detail compared to the action (there is murder and mayhem but in a smaller supply that I had pictured and in a much different format). Published in 199,1 I think the topics have gotten more rather than less relevant,  which is unfortunate. The themes are : the doom of man, the stupidity of humanity is infinite and consumerism is all...

So overall I would recommend this for academic purposes but not for a pleasure read and you might want to watch the movie before or after just so that it makes some sense.