Challenge Corner discussion

A sensational new novel from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms that tracks a group of privileged Los Angeles high school friends as a serial killer strikes across the city.

Bret Easton Ellis's masterful new novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set in a vibrantly fictionalized Los Angeles in 1981 as a serial killer begins targeting teenagers throughout the city.

17-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret's obsession with Mallory is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling pre-occupation with The Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them--and Bret in particular--with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation. Can he trust his friends--or his own mind--to make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, he spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between The Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision.

Set against the intensely vivid and nostalgic backdrop of pre-Less Than Zero LA, The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction, the real and the imagined, that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret's life at 17-sex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting and often darkly funny, The Shards is Ellis at his inimitable best.

Vicki and I plan to start this 11/1

5 chapters / 119 pages

oooh man, I flipped this one to audio because this one is long

(view spoiler)[ wow, this author is wordy! Jeez lol

sloooow start. I'm not sure if the new guy is really the guy doing anything but Bret seems to think so.

I like that the author is reading the book. and good lord we hear a lot about how much this kid thinks about sex. Ugh.

these kids are just okay- seem too rich to really have any idea how the world works

the vandalism to the statue was gross though (hide spoiler)]

restarting, listening to the first 100 pages over again - on audio

Okay, got through the first 5 chapters again - feel the same as my first update! lol

10 chapters

and I am just not enjoying this one
(view spoiler)[ his detailed sex adventures wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't nearly 100% of the whole book.

I'm not finding much about the mystery or the serial killer other than that one off argument about him moving stuff around, following Matt and calling him incessantly - something our mc denies

the money and wealth these kids have is pretty staggering too. Having to move - did he say his mom's jaguar - in order to get his friend's car in. lol It's wild, the money they seem to have and throw around.

otherwise, I don't feel drawn into a story here or even like this main character. He's just so . . .typical gross teenage boy and I just find it so Icky to read his POV.

his poor girlfriend too. He's awful to her. (hide spoiler)]

15 chapters / 320 pages

(view spoiler)[
wow, his lies - I don't know how he's keeping them all straight
It's interesting that his lies from the whole summer are catching up a bit because now people wonder if HE's the one that did the killings or that he's more angry/violent than he really is. . .

I'm glad he did show a bit of emotion about losing Matt and that he's cracking a bit. and I'm glad this section was completely about sex

we've finally gotten a bit into the eerie feeling of someone watching him - getting the sense that the killer is watching him. Is it Robert or is he just jumping to conclusions?

I wouldn't say I'm enjoying this but I'm glad the story is moving along the line of the killings.
the description of the tortured animal was completely awful

this is so long because we're getting blow by blow of the friends fighting over things like homecoming queen and him moving his mom's Jag so other cars can park. He could have cut so much of this out and this might have been more engaging.

(hide spoiler)]

25 chapters / 82%

I'm still not really liking this
(view spoiler)[ Bret's obsession with Robert - it does seems a bit focused. I wonder if he only thinks it's Robert because he's built everything around for it TO be Robert. I don't know if there's really a lot of evidence - just Bret's ideas

and his sexual escapades are made even more gross by the fact he's a teenager. ugh. (hide spoiler)]

I'm done

(view spoiler)[ I'm so glad I'm done
that was just awful
the animal mutilations, the additional sex scenes - it was all just yuck.

and now we know it wasn't Robert - but did Bret attack Susan? I mean, he had the bite mark . . . and yet, someone else claimed it.

Ugh, I don't think this worked as a mystery - way too many pages between mystery plot points (hide spoiler)]

Starting it now. Based on your comments, I'm starting it on audio.

Through Ch. 5

(view spoiler)[UGH just gross. If I wanted to read about sexual conduct in such details, I would have looked for an erotica book which to me this is! I honestly don't know what to say about this. There were times here and there where I thought it was going to finally get down to a good mystery/serial killer story but I am not liking it. (hide spoiler)]

Through Ch. 10

(view spoiler)[What the hell? MORE and MORE sex...in detail! Details I'd rather not have read. Funny that I was saying the same thing to myself today. I could handle the reading "if it wasn't nearly 100% of the whole book." I seriously wondered why it's not listed as erotica or porn but I thought maybe it was but I didn't catch it. We're having our house's mainline water pipes (all our water pipes) "repiped" so today I have been gone all day. I drove to parking lots, went to a restaurant for breakfast and one for a late lunch/early dinner just to stay away from the MESS all over my house! So I wasn't able to make comments but did some voice recognition on my phone notes so I could try to discuss this. I DON'T LIKE THE NARRATOR. I thought having the author narrate it might be good but to me he is very flat. I have to feel emotion from a book and so far that hasn't happened at all. I feel like the reader/narrator/author is or at least sounds detached. I would DNF if not for this BR for our challenge(s). (hide spoiler)]

Through Ch. 25

(view spoiler)[I feel like he was focused on Robert for sure. I think you're spot on and what I want to say now is this: I have almost nothing to say because I don't want to talk about SEX SEX SEX!!! I seriously don't think this is MPG Mystery! Tagged perhaps or secondarily but not main genre. And, yeah, the sexual nature of these boys being just teens seemed way over the top. I hope things haven't truly gotten as bad as this book explores it. (hide spoiler)]

Finished - A rarity just happened...I totally agree with your 1-star and I am also only giving it 1 because I wanted to DNF! That's honestly only the 3rd book I've ever felt like that before. I pushed through it for our HOB challenge...otherwise it was good bye! Close the book and never think about it again!

(view spoiler)[Trisha, how on earth do they call this mystery? I mean, sure there were murders and I guess "mystery" but when I want a good mystery it's definitely not this! I had to look at the tags and only 2 people tagged it erotica. I'm glad you agree with me (or I agree with you) but you know mystery is one of my top genres and I would STOP reading them if they were mostly like this book. And even though another person confessed to attacking Susan, I still think Bret did. He has it in him to do that! (hide spoiler)]

oh man!! I'm so sorry you didn't like this one. I agree, not a mystery. It was not the main plot at all. . .

It’s okay. You never know. I wish we both had at least liked it but I really didn’t at all!