Who has read American Psycho ? I need you...<spoilers>

[ComeWhineWithMe]

I really want to read this book but is it really terrible? I am a bit scared to read the zoo bit.

horrible and women hating

use it for wrapping used tampons

I have read it and found it a little disturbing! Read it in my teens though/early 20's and it did make me feel slightly dirty, in a similar way to Hannibal. The 2 books that I have mixed feelings about as they made me really think about things that I thought I would switch off about like most other books. I had a similar reaction to 7even too, it is in that sort of bracket I think (if only for me!)

I have to admit too that I found the writing style to be at time confusing because of the content but have mainly washed my memory of it! (Although there is one scene involving him at his flat that is still sitting there...)

i kinda hoped it would unfold or improve.it didn't

i read it when i was 20, it didn't bother me that much to be honest. just read it and make your own mind up

I couldn't even finish it.

I couldn't read it now, I'd me in a mental hospital. That and Irvine Welsh, as someone else said. I wish I could erase that from my memory. Also the film 'Wolf Creek', and one episode of the Sopranos which I saw when I'd just had dd and has haunted me ever since/

Wolf Creek

the thread about fur coats haunts me much more than a made up book

In my flat sharing days a flat mate was once reading it. I got up one morning to find his copy in the kitchen bin. He said it was too awful to finish and so grim he didn't want anyone else to read it either - hence the bin. And he was probably the most broadminded person I've ever known. Needless to say I've never read it myself.

i read it when i was in my early 20#'s and while i found it pretty disturbing it isn't something that has stayed with me iyswim?

not sure i would want to read it again now.

glamorama is pretty grim too

I hated that book. I hated it even more because of the total cop-out ending
WARNING - am about to write a spoiler....
I mean, c'mon '...and it turned out it was all a dream' I remember writing something similar in an essay aged 7 and my English teacher had me for it then, quite rightly.

Mysogynistic, unpleasant, shallow... No, I wouldn't bother. There are so many good books to read, and limited time to read them all before we die. 'American Psycho' didn't disturb me, but it's four hoursthat I could have spent reading Something Less Boring Instead.

I read it in my early 20's and found it disturbing. A number of the scenes stayed with me for a while. What I took from it was the shift in perspective on the values contained in the book. The interesting thing for me about the book is not the depiction of the violence but the way that it made me feel about the devaluation of human life. It's not a comfortable read.

I'm with dotty2's flatmate and other posters - the only book I have ever binned. Disgusting. Agree with becstarlitsea - the ending is no excuse. The intent if it is to depict disintegration is no excuse either. It is totally vile.

is this the one that begins with him ripping a tramps head off etc? over rated imo

It is the most horrible thin I've ever read and pretty boring in parts too. After I read it (I was a student and living in a dodgy part of Newcastle) I slept with a knife under my pillow for weeks.

If you want to read some BEE Less than Zero is a much better book.

I don't think you can compare it to a horror novel or a graphic thriller.
It is superbly written and I agree with Mattellie that it needs to be read after Less than Zero and Rules of attraction, or at least having them in mind.
I even liked the open ending.

It is disturbing, very disturbing (I def wouldn't be able to read it again), but it is a great book (and I also loved how he even put a character from a Jay McInenary novel)

Beautifully written, gripping and harrowing.

And the only book I've wished I hadn't read. The ending made me feel like I'd wasted my horror and disgust.

Hated it, hated thenimages that stayed with me and felt it actually was a poorly written book on terms of characterization/plot etc etc with a cop out ending.

The only thing he seemed to take care in writing was the violence. Sick.

It?s interesting, although there is a line in the middle of an earlier scene in the book saying ?but since this is all a dream anyway?? the book most certainly does not end in this way but deliberately leaves it as open to interpretation.

The film, however, does end in this way so I can?t help wondering whether some people are misremembering the book because the film is fresher in their minds. The book is much more subtle and ambiguous than the film.

Yes, I agree Mattellie

I read it when I was a teenager - it certainly didn't stay with me as I barely remember it. Gross out descriptions don't really bother me too much.

The stuff that gets to me is when there's more of a backstory to the victims - James Herbert is very good at this. I read the first two Rats books when I was a kid and a lot of them stayed with me, still freak me out now. But that's what I want from a horror novel really - I re-read the Rats books a few times.

Sorry, haven't read all the posts as began to get freaked out again.

I was working with two men when I read it and we all started it together. The men LOVED it and I was completely horrified by the content. Admitted this was about 15 or so years ago but I disposed of my copy in the bin (first and only time I have done this with a book) and would not consider reading it again. Women-hating claptrap dressed up as fiction. Foul.

I read it in my early twenties, appreciated the literariness of it and have clearly forgotten most of it having now read the above posts. I think it is one of the must reads but in a detached, analytical sort of way rather than snuggling down for a cosy winter evening of reading. TBH I have found others to be worse esp Irvine Welsh.

i think it ranks alongside vernon god little as the biggest load of rubbish i have ever read

Really graphic descriptions of female torture.

It is an important book but the misogyny is difficult to stomach. Brett easton ellis actually admitted he went too far with the torture scenes. But ultimately I feel it is an important book, the violence dissolves into oblivion, like the designer clothes and the souless characters. It has been very influencial. His prose is beautiful. Not for the faint of heart though.