What readers say
4.5/5 ⭐️ highly controversial, highly offensive, yet somehow still very very good. this book is vulgar, it is gory, it is rude. it is made to offend and make you feel uncomfortable. ellis did a wonderful job with that. patrick bateman is a twenty six year old wall street investment banker. he wears armani suits, he can do 2500 pushups, he drinks evian water, he knows the proper way to wear a cuff link. his personality is based on what he is wearing, where he has a dinner reservation and his skincare routine. oh, and the girls he murders. he lives a very boring life. people mistake him for other wall street yuppies. he doesn’t correct them. he has a girlfriend, she has a boyfriend, he has other girlfriends. everyone is having an affair with everyone else. their lifestyle is glamorous- the hottest clubs, zagat rated restaurants, barney’s shopping sprees, cocaine in public bathrooms. i think the drug use is what leads to bateman’s psychotic break. it starts off slow, but gradually picks up towards the end of the book. reality blurs from fiction. everyone is so involved in their own lives, so obsessed with themselves, truest forms of narcissists- that they don’t realize what is actually going on. what is real, what is not? that is the question of the novel, the infamous question of the movie. patrick bateman is a serial killer, his intrusive thoughts win, he is struggling with his innermost feelings throughout the entire novel. he is a person, he has been for as long as he can remember. a nepo baby from a rich family, working just to “fit in”- not because he needs the money. I loved the book, nearly as much as i loved the movie. the gory parts did make me cringe. the detail in the descriptions was a little off putting, nauseating. despite the disgust, the book was funny. i was actually laughing out loud for the majority of the novel. bateman’s internal dialogue is raunchy and hysterical. this was one of the funniest books i’ve ever read.