Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

139 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Abortion

spherocytosis's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

4.0

swore i would never reread this book, yet here i am… rereading it…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Torture, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Gore, Blood, Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Cursing, Murder, Violence, Animal death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug use, Ableism, Antisemitism, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Classism

Minor: Pedophilia

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.

zoemaeboonz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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

3.75

This book was a hard one to get through; by page 80 I was already considering whether this would be too gory for me to finish reading. I am glad I got through this book though and whilst I would not recommend it to anyone or read it again I do think that it is a good work of fiction. The way in which Ellis portrays a character with such realistic psychopathic qualities and depersonalisation - a very manic sense of mind is really well written. I don’t think I will ever read a novel where such mental illness is portrayed with such unapologetic truth. It is clear that Ellis got his inspiration for most of the very graphic murders from psychopaths such as Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. I found myself actually skimming through some parts or even having to put the book down at points because of how intense these scenes were (most notably the rat one because wtaf). Bateman is not being romanticised in this novel nor is he being portrayed as a likeable character by the author. The way it is written is through this very manic first point of view and in times when Bateman depersonalised from himself we saw the passages being written in third point of view. This book will probably sit with me for a bit and I find myself having to write about it because of this - most notably the amount of Xenophobia and slurs that were in this book was definitely hard to read and the fact that the term ‘yuppie’ was the least derogatory term put in the book says it all. The quote that probably sums up this book for the reader in a way that can make you understand the bigger picture in this novel is probably this: “…and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I am simply not there.”. This is not an easy read because it is not meant to be an easy read; Bateman is a psychopath and a horrible person and all the things written affirm this about the character and who he is. Though I disagree with the back of my book saying it’s ‘one of the greatest novels of our time’ I can agree that it is a good work of literature that I will gracefully never lay eyes on again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Animal death, Cannibalism, Death, Dementia, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Cursing, Dysphoria, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Rape, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Abortion, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Infidelity, Torture, Homophobia, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit

nessages's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Murder, Rape, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Animal death, Cannibalism, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Antisemitism, Homophobia, and Alcohol

madisone'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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Ableism, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Gore, Rape, Drug abuse, Child death, Racism, Violence, Animal death, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Abortion

authorannafaundez's review against another edition

Too much for me once the gore started. Literally felt sick. I was uncomfortable before in a few spots, but just...nope. I'm out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Rape, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, and Torture

kuataapixi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

before anything, this book is a satirical work aimed towards upper class american society; most of the characters are literally written to be bad people.
also, while not on every page, the gore is very graphic and detailed, but technically skippable. (i think this is pretty well known, but it was literally nauseating at one point)

anyways, bret easton ellis’s style of writing for this book is so fascinating. written from the perspective of patrick bateman, a highly unreliable narrator, he makes significant use of stylistic punctuation, and even lack thereof to mimic real thought and speech patterns. individual syllables being italicized, missing spaces, missing end quotes, seemingly endless stream-of-consciousness paragraphs, the form alone is quite enthralling. additionally, the fact that patrick’s violent episodes

rely heavily upon the quantity of violence, not just the quality of violence, is really interesting; though it sounds sarcastic, it almost adds more to the story since it shows how patrick becomes more and more interested in the emotional weight of murder/violence than murder/violence itself. it doesn’t truly matter that, for example, patrick tied up and maced a woman; it matters more that he spent so long describing the torture, showing how violence took up such a massive part of his headspace

.

patrick is, in spite of his high amount of wealth and attractiveness, deeply insecure. patrick attempts to keep a cool, hip persona, attempting to fit in as much as possible. he obsesses over clothing, grooming, music, etc., often going on long winded tangents that make him sound like a walking advertisement. he even almost has a panic attack when

his brother, sean, tells him that all the restaurants patrick is planning on going to aren’t hip anymore

. he even just blatantly lies about his political beliefs to an entire dinner table to seem more socially and politically aware, even though most everyone at that table probably knows that he doesn’t really hold those beliefs.

however, patrick’s wealth and attractiveness are essentially meaningless in a world where everyone is wealthy and attractive. he often confuses various high ranking executives with others, and they talk without either of them being sure of the other one’s identity. in fact,

patrick can’t even confess to his lawyer, carnes, because when patrick finally sees carnes in person, carnes thinks patrick isn’t patrick at all

. there’s no sense of personal identity; everyone is one amorphous figure of money and sex.

in spite of ellis’s amazing dissection of upper class american consumer society, i do think it could be improved by having a person of color as one of the high ranking officials around him. for all the reader knows, all of the people around him are just white; while it further reinforces ellis’s point about the demographics of the richest people in america, that is, most of them are privileged white men with nothing standing in their way, it would have been interesting to see patrick’s reactions and feelings towards seeing a person of color (he hates literally all of them) with the same economic status as him.

though the japanese businessmen are briefly mentioned, they aren’t really given any literary significance. patrick makes racist remarks in his head, but that’s pretty much it.

all in all, i think american psycho is a fascinating book to read. horror? absolutely. but definitely also an amazing piece of satire on how american consumerism has destroyed american society.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Murder, Gore, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Hate crime, and Gun violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Racism, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Transphobia, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Classism, Homophobia, and Sexism