April saw me reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis for satire. It has now been a few months (well nearly 5), since I read it and I am still scarred by it, although the first wave of nausea has well worn off!
So American Psycho was a ride. A nice little ride except the bike was on fire and I was on fire and the whole world was on fire.. I’m fine. Really. đ€Ż
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
3.5 out of 5
Published in 2011, by Picador
You can order a copy from Amazon, Waterstones
Blurb: Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and works on Wall Street; he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to a head-on collision with Americaâs greatest dream â and its worst nightmare â AmericanPsycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront.
American Psycho is one of the most controversial and talked-about novels of all time â a multimillion-copy bestseller hailed as a modern classic.
My thoughts: I don’t really care for content warning, generally. Jenna (@jennastopreading) was discussing this topic in her Instagram stories and honestly there really couldn’t have been a better time for it. (Go check out her post about trigger warnings – here)
American Psycho, out of all the books I’ve read, ever, should come with content warning on the first page of the book.
I’ve seen the film, I know Bateman is completely messed up in his head and I should’ve expected this đ© to go down as it did. I love the film but it was much harder reading it.
Trigger warnings American Psycho should come with:
– abuse
– torture
– murder
– super graphic and detailed sex scenes (including.. ahem, dead bodies) – very graphic gore content
– drugs
– cannibalism đ·
– you name it, it’s there.
I had to switch to an audio book as my eyeballs just couldn’t deal with the… plot. Thank heavens I rushed past some of the parts in 2x speed.
Easton Ellis did manage to get a few chuckles out of me though, so not all satire was lost on me. It just got overshadowed by runny eyeballs, cut up “beavers” and a sh*t ton of porn. *exhales deeply*
I hated it, but I loved it. Am I OK?! Honestly I have no idea who I’d recommend this to.
Read it, don’t read it. Remember you have been warned.
What book has made you feel squeamish? Let’s chat!
