3.25 stars It is the 1980s and Patrick Bateman works on Wall Street. He is engaged and has a group of friends. What no ones knows about him is that he brutally murders people. It was ok, but I thought a lot of it was kind of boring. I mostly wasn't interested in the interactions of a bunch of rich yuppies. Yes, it's violent, at times. I did like all the music references, though the food and fashion bored me (and there was a lot of that!).

American Psycho could be the most mainstream misunderstood and polarizing novel of the last thirty years. What do you get when you have a satire that completely encapsulates the feelings of a certain setting and time? People get offended. This book is all that you have heard about and more. Those talks of the gratuitous violence and explicit hedonism you hear about are true. But what I think people found the most shocking and a quality I found the most redeeming is the style. It is so effortless and eerie that the severity of the events in the book will make even the most desensitized reader squirm. This books power is its ability to make the reader re-asses and re-consider society. Patrick Bateman is an original sociopath. He takes you on a literary pop ride that is not for the faint of heart. This book has the potential to and should haunt you. The essence of American Psycho to me is best summed up by this quote from Bret Easton Ellis, "My work is really about a culture that pisses me off, and a world that we live in that values all the wrong things." Check out my first published work Defenseless

Twisted, and strictly for a mature audience that isn’t squeamish. Social commentary through the strangest eyes. Must read.

I have finally, finally finished reading this book, bless my heart for trying and making it through. I understand this is some cultural book that is supposed to dissect the less than virtuous life of being obsessed with brand name designer goods and the anonymity of having the best of "things" around you. And i'm sure there is more to it, but i fail to get it. I hated the main character, Patrick Bateman. Hated him passionately. I fell asleep trying to read the descriptions of what everyone was wearing... "Evelyn and i are by far the best-dressed couple. I'm wearing a lamb's wool topcoat, a wool jacket with wool flannel trousers, a cotton shirt, a cashmere V-neck sweater and a silk tie, all from Armani. Evelyn's wearing a cotton blouse by Dolce & Gabbana, suede shoes by Yves Saint Laurent, a stenciled calf skirt by Adrienne Landau with a suede belt by Jill Stuart, Calvin Klein tights, Venetian-glass earrings by Frances Patiky Stein..." I endured this book...that's it!

When a book sticks with you, you know it is powerful. It may not be entertaining, and it may be downright disturbing, but if you can't get it out of your head it is most certainly great, and that is my experience with American Psycho. For me, it's greatness comes down to the music. Bret Easton Ellis did something miraculous within Patrick Bateman's killings: he destroyed the music of Huey Lewis and the News, Genesis and Whitney Houston. Before every nasty killing, Bateman goes on a diatribe about the music of one of these eighties' faves, then listens to the music while killing, making it the soundtrack of habitrails and bloodshed. I can't listen to any of these singers without visions of Patrick Bateman's killings flooding into my consciousness. Granted, losing some of these singers is worse than the loss of others, but it has been over a decade since I last read American Psycho and the gory music video Ellis conjured in my mind is as strong as ever. I can barely reference the images of the real videos of I Want a New Drug or If This Is It, but I can see a voracious rat about to eat a woman to death through her reproductive organs with stunning and disgusting clarity. It is not a pretty book, and the squeamish should stay away, but for anyone who seeks to be overwhelmed by images they will never forget, American Psycho is one of the greatest books ever written. And I haven't even bothered mentioning the political and social depth of Ellis' masterwork.

Well, as you can tell from my picture and name, I am a huge Christian Bale fan. Christian Bale played "Patrick Bateman" in the 2001 Film Adaptation of this novel, so I figured: Hey, what the hell? When the book starts off, we meet Patrick Bateman and his self absorbed, label-obsessed, success-driven friends. As we explore deeper into these "Yuppie" (Young Urban Professional) personalities, we learn more about Patrick, and ultimately, by the end of the book, we definitely have gotten to know the real Yuppie lifestyle. This book is great. The way he interacts with other people, the way he thinks, his twisted mind frame, and the way his culture works makes him a very three-dimensional character. Personally, I had to skip over a few of the more "gruesome" paragraphs, but ultimately, the way the book operates makes for an interesting read for a higher thinker. It's not all about the murder. This is not some slasher novel. This is about why he murders, the way he murders, the pyschology behind the real Patrick Bateman the one behind the mask of Sanity that we see when he's with his "posse." This book is definitely not for the squeamish. Laced with explicit sex scenes, gruesome murders, tortures, and at one point crucifixion, this may have some of the younger readers putting the book down forever without fully finishing it. If you can stomach that kind of thing, and are looking for a book that will make you think, this is definitely my pick. 4/5

Oh my God! Guys! Dudes! I just read an interview with Bret Easton Ellis (author) and he said Bateman never really killed anyone, it was all thoughts he had and drawings. He said if you were to run into Patrick, all that'd happen is he'd have violent thoughts and draw some gruesome pictures about you. Oh my God, the age-old question I've seen people argueing over for hours is finally answered! Who knows better than the author, Pat never killed anyone. Dudes, I can't believe he didn't actually kill those people. <:( Still an awesome book though :P ;)

Bret Easton Ellis is an amazing writer, letting you know he kills people before we even see him killing anyone. For the first 100 pages he hints toward it until you finally know for sure he's a murderer even though we haven't seen him kill. Read a few pages of some of the sex/murder/torture scenes and you will be hooked into this book. I showed a torture scene to a few of my friends and they were all interested in it and a few of them even got the book. It sticks in your mind and you keep wondering about it and you never want it to end. Bret Easton Ellis, you are a master with the pen and I wish you'd write more books like this. See the movie too, it's very entertaining.

In my opinion, as an English major, this is easily one of the five best satires ever written. At its most basic level, it is a slam against superficiality, consumerism, and materialism. It also amounts to the single most devastating slam against pornography that I have ever read in literature or journalism. A towering accomplishment.

One word: Genius