Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

113 reviews

pantslint's review against another edition

dark funny tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Having read Clark's Boy Parts first, I can appreciate this book for what it is based on when it was published (early 90s). Though, I'm definitely judging it based on today's standards around social climate, which is the main reason why my rating is fairly low.

The extreme violence against women in American Psycho is quite honestly unnecessary. Yes—Bateman is literally a murderer and actually the worst person ever, but it turned into senseless torture porn. There is an extreme amount of sexual violence disproportionate to the need for my understanding of his character. I can already infer that he's a raging, violent misogynist—without the detailed grisly scenes

of how he tortures sex workers and his other dates.

Even more, I think Ellis uses enough methods to display the unraveling psychological state of Bateman's character, without having to write such extreme scenes of torture.
For example:

• senseless and increasingly violent murders of the poor
• completely unreliable narration
• stream of consciousness writing
• chapters that are just random reviews of music albums
• increasingly racist and homophobic descriptions of others, including frequent slurs
• his ample knowledge of other serial killers and their lives
• In Ch. 46, when narration switches to 3rd-person as he dissociates

There's so much more. But my main point is that Ellis already did all that and I'm making the argument that Ellis only ended up writing torture porn for the incels. Whatever!!!

This book made me fucking LAUGH. There are so many one-liners and ridiculous conversations to choose from:

• Price says, "...for Christ sakes—you can get dyslexia from pussy—" when talking out of his ass about the AIDS epidemic (Ch. 1)
• "You spin a dreidel, Preston... not a menorah. You spin a dreidel." (Ch. 3)
• Bateman's tirade about the red snapper pizza (Ch. 4), because what a fucking freak
• Van Patten replying, "They didn't look Spanish to me." when Price sarcastically remarks that the table of women would be hot if you speak Farsi (Ch. 5)
• The f-bomb war in the bathroom (Ch. 5)
• A CLUB LITERALLY CALLED "NEKENIEH" (Ch. 10)
• "...the thing looks like a fucking Big Mac" (Ch. 14)
• the phrase, "low, faggoty whisper" in Ch. 21 because what in the actual fuck does that mean
• MAKING FUN OF THE OLD QUEER MAN'S LISP IN HIS NARRATION... "Akthent on thee latht thyllable" and "exathperated" was FOULLLLL (Ch. 22) The dithrethpect is crazy 😭
• All of Chapter 41, "Another Night." Because what in the Mean Girls???
• The chocolate dipped urinal cake in Ch 43....

Ellis is a great satire writer. Don't even get me started on how everyone calls each other the wrong name and how they all just go with it.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. I'm sorry, I skipped the album review chapters. And the branded descriptions of what everyone wears. If I didn't, I don't think I would have finished this book at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Sexual violence, Rape, Torture, Murder, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Cannibalism, Classism, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Addiction, Drug use, Alcohol, Misogyny, and Racial slurs

Minor: Vomit

avery_hutchinson's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Interesting writing style, but it felt like the book was attempting to be as vulgar and dark as possible without having much of a clear message that I could discern. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Racism, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, Blood, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Violence, Addiction, Cursing, Mental illness, and Animal death

samchelsey's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Body horror, Sexual assault, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Racism, Violence, Racial slurs, Drug use, Addiction, and Alcohol

Minor: Abortion

aliclare's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcoholism, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Abortion, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child death, Torture, Excrement, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Extreme violence.

serenspace's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Torture, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

clowningaround's review against another edition

challenging dark funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I hated this book so much. This book was so gross. Fucking sick. My two most written annotations were ew and no. My other two most written annotations were Jesus Christ and stop. I had to skim the s3xual parts because it was so gross, and the only pages I had the skip completely were from the

RAT SCENE.

I had to go home from school after reading even just the first parts of the

rat scene.

I felt quite ill from it. I just kept finding out more and more horrible things about him. Worst book I've ever read, while still being the best book I've ever read (because it completely accomplished it's goal). 5 stars. Loved it.
Tldr: he is really an american psycho. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Cursing, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Rape, Classism, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Lesbophobia, Animal death, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Abortion, Antisemitism, and Pedophilia

solspringsreads's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

I get why this book is like this, I just don’t care. (I even get how my “not caring” relates to the themes of desensitization to violence!) I can see why people have been so inspired creatively by this narrative and why people find value amidst the repeated violence and listing of brands; but I feel like it topples over the line between social commentary and reveling in the societal aspects on which it’s supposedly commenting, perhaps moreso than other interpretations/adaptations of this work, like the 2000 film. Even so, I can understand the value in reading this book and why its impact has lasted for so long.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Death, Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Excrement, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Stalking, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Abortion, Alcoholism, Child death, Classism, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, and Sexism

saint_eleanor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ok so TLDR: really great book, will really piss you off, super gorey (lots of torture), wonderfully written, anti-capitalist anti-yuppie, really hard to get thru so don't let any ppl tell you its 'essential reading'.

I'll start off by saying this book gets 5 stars bc it deserves nothing less but that doesn't mean I enjoyed reading it 100% of the time, in fact i actively hated reading a lot of it lmao. 
There are like 2 main camps when it comes to American Psycho: one camp says it should be banned bc its misogynistic, horrible, far-right, etc. The other camp says that it's the alpha male handbook, and that patrick bateman is peak male performance. Both are really off-mark imo. 

In the first place, misogynistic characters do not make a misogynistic book. Pretending misogynists don't exist in our writing is completely counter productive. Additionally, this is literally the most anti-masculine, anti-capitalist, anti-yuppie, anti-1% book I have read in a long time. The author paints Patrick Bateman as the most pathetic, bootlicking, bandwagoning, whiny, narcissistic P.O.S. and I really don't understand how you could come away with any other impression. 

Ellis repeatedly makes the point that Bateman is in love with Donald Trump and will do/say anything Trump does/says (80's NYC remember), including switching up arbitrary opinions. He is a self-proclaimed pedophile, rapist, racist, and necrophiliac.  Additionally he is completely materialistic, lost in a Kafka-esque nightmare ruled by sound systems and skincare products and is totally obsessed with 'having the best thing'. Not to mention his obsession with every single person's outfits throughout the whole book.  I hated him so much i was actually seething half the time. This book is especially terrifying because Bateman is as real as any real-life wall street psychopath, there are so many men like him IRL. 

Some of this book was hilarious actually, the monkey TV thing, the 'kill all yuppies' napkin that struck fear into the heart of poor pathetic patrick, and the 5-men-choosing-where-to-eat thing was hilarious. Additionally, Patrick keeps telling everyone over and over that he's homocidal (if we believe his narration, not sure i do) , but his handsomeness and his wealth overshadow his obvious lack of a soul and social skills. He is the opposite of charming, he is actively unsettling, and yet the environment that he's in completely pushes men like him to the top of social circles. When people tell you who they are, LISTEN!!  Also I personally think that his absolute hatred of women paired with his love of men is evidence of internalized homophobia and that Bateman is in fact, gay. I think is is especially plausible due to the fact that Ellis has said that he based parts of Bateman on himself when he was in a really bad place (Ellis is gay & talked about how he used to sleep with women and hated it, which would translate well to this point in Patrick's character), which seems like a really complex and maybe overlooked aspect of this that the Sigma Males don't want to acknowledge.  Additionally the only character in the whole book that really freaks him out is

Luis, who comes onto him, yet is one of the only characters that escapes his wrath.

Anyway, loved this book. I really couldn't put it down even when the gore was almost too much for me and I wanted to rip Patrick's head off. You can also tell it's good bc of how long this review is. Fuck Patrick, fuck wall street, fuck yuppies, and fuck the guys co-opting Christian Bale's photo for their dumbass Alpha Male grindcore instagram accounts, yall did not pay attention. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Classism, Physical abuse, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

sparky63's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

It was very difficult to read and while likely on purpose, the structuring on some chapters felt like filler

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Classism, Murder, Vomit, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Child death, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Drug use, Gaslighting, Animal death, Blood, Death, Sexual content, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Addiction

pagesforwings's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Get what it was going for but wtf. Just watch the movie 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, Xenophobia, Animal death, Antisemitism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Violence