Title: American Psycho
Author: Bret Easton Ellis
Link: https://www.amazon.com/American-Psycho-Vintage-Contemporaries-Easton-ebook/dp/B003O86QBW/
Summary
The modern classic, the basis of a Broadway musical, and major motion picture from Lion’s Gate Films starring Christian Bale, Chloe Sevigny, Jared Leto, and Reese Witherspoon, and directed by Mary Harron.
In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.
My review
3/5 Stars
So, I’m not sure how I feel about this book.
On the one hand, the author did a wonderful job of creating the character Pat Bateman and portraying real mental illness in the form of psychosis and violent tendencies. Pat was such a believable character/villain that it was hard to distinguish between his fantasies and the real crimes that he committed. While the unreliable narration made it confusing, this is also what made it such a compelling read.
However, I am at a loss for the ending. For everything that Pat had done, or believed he had done, I thought there would be some kind of ending with a bang, but instead it was very vague and I’m still confused as to exactly how much had just been in Pat’s head.
If you’re a fan of horror and psychological books, this one is a classic for a reason though I don’t recommend it to readers who prefer a clear cut ending because this one is up to reader interpretation and will leave you scratching your head.
Author Kayla Krantz 