to tell 13 yo DD she can't read American Psycho? - also alternatives please. (Content Warning from MNHQ)

[GatherlyGal]

So my (very mature) 13 year old DD has come home from town with American Psycho which she bought in Waterstones. I'm a bit surprised they sold it to her tbh but I suppose it's not their job to police who is buying what.

Anyway at the risk of making it sound even more exciting I've taken it off her and plan to return it. She's very interested in psychopaths so any slightly more appropriate suggestions would be very welcome!

I really like the book and I agree with others it's more the ramblings of someone deranged but that doesn't mean that the grim "rat" scene isn't in the book.

I'd recommend we need to talk about Kevin, a Little Life is very long but not too complicated a read, some of the modern classics, brideshead revisited, no longer at ease, of love and hunger, a Kind Of Loving, London belongs to me... that sort of thing?

This thread is reminding me of how our parents didn't really want us to watch clockwork orange at a sleepover for one of our 12th birthdays but said it's your decision, we watched it and were so confused as to what was supposed to be so awful about it! American psycho is a lot more brutal/gory obviously. Kids are curious and you can't shelter them at 13.

Thanks all and thank you for the recommendations .

We had a chat about how some parts of the book are quite disturbing and a very graphic description of extreme misogynistic behaviour which I found stayed with me and weighed quite heavily on me as an adult.

I told her I am quite aware that me banning something makes it all the more appealing and that if she wants to read it I can't necessarily stop her getting hold of it. She knows I rarely stop her watching or reading things but I think she thought the book was more of a study of the behaviour of a psychopath and his life so I told her it isn't really.

She's got a long reading list now which is good because her reading has stalled a bit probably because she;s outgrown a lot of younger stuff but can't fully understand or enjoy more adult books.

Thanks again for the replies. Parenting a teenager is a challenge and I know that my mum's approach - ban everything and use religion as a means of instilling fear - was not effective.

No, banning things is definitely not the solution - but if you have quite an open relationship I think I would have responded well to being told it probably wasn't right for me at that age and why, rather than being treated like a child. I read a lot of stuff far younger than I should - I had the mum who sent me to the see the play of Trainspotting when I was 12 😂

I read American Psycho when I was 14. I got halfway through and threw up. I then threw it in the back of a cupboard without finishing it. Some of the things I read still haunt me.

Spares , by Michael Marshall Smith has the same theme as Never Let Me Go (written before it too) and is good.

As others have said American Psycho isn't in anyway suitable for a 13 year old. I don't hold with censoring books but that's one I think I would be confiscating TBO. I read it in my twenties and found it thoroughly unpleasant. Very graphic descriptions of physical and sexual towards women that stick in the head long after you've finished reading them. I do get that its a satire on the turbo charged capitalism and the Wolf of Wall Street business culture of the late 80's but still.
Anyway to cheer everyone up here's a song for you.

That book should have a bloody content warning on it. It's seriously grim and yes I know it's satire and I don't think it should be banned - but it's fucking awful and gigantically misogynistic, satire and all.

I think you've handled this really well though - discussing it honestly with her and suggesting alternatives is about the best you can do with 13, and she may well listen to you especially as she seemed to have misunderstood the contents.

God knows I read some unsuitable shite at that age but I didn't seek out books that were known for being actively disturbing, I'd already stumbled on enough of them by accident to know I wouldn't enjoy it.

Some of the adultier books I read around that age that really stayed with me that are on the theme of 'The Human Condition': Brideshead Revisited, Jane Eyre, A Tale of Two Cities, Catch-22, DH Lawrence. I also read a load of scifi and Martin Amis that was on my parents' shelves but I wouldn't recommend it!

And some really good grown up reads that I think 13 is ok for but are definitely more adult themes with some shagging and violence: Outlander, any Hilary Mantel, The Girl with All the Gifts (gory mind you), Audrey Niffenegger, Ian Rankin (either the straight novels or the scifi).

I don't believe in preventing young teenagers from reading adult books, they are in the process of becoming adults, but I think you've done well to steer her clear of this one.

Handmaid's Tale and Only Ever Yours are more books she might appreciate. Only Ever Yours was originally marketed as a young adult book, but I found some parts of it quite shocking.

I think you've handled it very well. I've read thousands of books in my life but that's the only one I've ever binned, because I didn't want to pass it on to anyone else. I didn't even finish it, because I found it was either dull or trying too hard to shock in alternate chapters.

When I was 13, I discovered classic sci-fi - HG Wells, John Wyndham, George Orwell, Jules Verne etc. Those books still stand up today and it's been interesting reading them back as an adult to spot references and allegories that went over my head as a teenager

I wish I hadn't read the book in my 20's. I found it thoroughly unpleasant and disturbing.

It's not about 'policing book choices', it's about being a responsible, caring parent.

I'd let her read it personally and be very proud of her for it!

Why?

Bonfire of the Vanities?

I think you handled it well - the problem with making a big deal out of something is exactly that it becomes a big deal

I guess I would want her to know plenty of adults did not finish it as it was rather dull in places and nowhere near as good as it looks - this gives her an excuse to stop reading it without losing face.

I remember reading a book of my Dads that was positively pornographic- although not violent - when I was about 10. Most of it went over my head and it didn't do me any harm.

Fuck me. I've never read it
I just read the rat scene

As a grown adult I can say it's so bad it's laughable but at 13

This has been in my "to read" pile for ages, tried once or twice but couldn't get into the writing style. Bloody glad now after reading this thread!

Brighton Rock. I was 13 when I first read it.
Carrie by Stephen King more supernatural than psychopath.

How about "the young poisoner's handbook" to watch?
It's based on a true crime, but not too disturbing ( black humour)

Brighton Rock is a good choice. The main characters aren't much older than her. The violence is present but not described in detail. The horrible sex scene isn't glamourised or romanticised and isn't too graphic.

I remember Shirley Conran books being highly prized when I was a young teen. Lace has some awful sex in it, but there's also a lot of good stuff about female friendship in it, and some really good characters.

Girl, Interrupted is another hard-hitting but not mind-fucking book which appeals to teen girls.

Plath's 'Bell Jar' is a brilliant, angsty novel written from the POV of an alienated teen girl. I also liked Prozac Nation back in tbe day x