2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

Pages: 399 pages

Length: 1 month (November)

Participants: Lulo, Beth, Mansi V

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

is it OK to join this buddy read?

Of course!! I will probably be starting halfway through the month. It's a reread for me and I LOVED it the first time when I just got back into reading so intrigued to see how I find it now as a more experienced reader

I can't wait!

Looking foward to this one!

Started yesterday. I am getting very bored with the detailed descriptions of the clothing and accessories.

ETA: As I've read more of the book, I can understand the use of all that description. It doesn't make it any less tedious.

I have a very strong stomach for most things, but this book is making me almost physically ill. I guess I'll finish since I'm 80% through, but 🤢

There is no way I can say I enjoyed this book. I gave it 2 stars; at least the storyline was interesting although the much of the writing was boring and many part of the story were sickening. I guess the satricial nature of the book just went over my head.
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I looked up some discussion questions for this book. I don't have many answers to these, but I'd love to hear others' thoughts.

1. Is the violence in the novel misogynistic? The men's attitudes towards women are, in general, misogynistic (view spoiler)[ Bateman kills both men and women; we just get a more detailed view of the killing of the women. (hide spoiler)]
2. Why is so much of the novel devoted to the list of commodities? I suppose it's to show a contrast between Bateman's mental focus - on one hand, he's so caught up in the status symbols of life; on the other, he's caught up in his own internal murderous thoughts.
3. Why can nobody tell anyone apart from anybody else? Maybe it's the author's way of telling up that these yuppies are so interchangeable that they can't even tell each other apart?
4. What's with that ending? Seriously, I've got nothing. Other than that Bateman's life just keeps going along, gradually unraveling.
5. To what extent is Bateman an unreliable narrator? (view spoiler)[ Everything? I don't get how he can keep using other people's names and be believed in those identities. How are the missing people never reported? Do none of the other tenants in Owens's apartment building smell the odor of the decaying bodies? So maybe Bateman is unreliable about everything... he never committeed any of the attacks or murders he described; maybe they were all just drug-induced rantings/hallucinations. (hide spoiler)]

Ah sorry it's been a really bad reading month for me and didn't get to finishing it. So for now I'll just share my thoughts from my first time reading it.
I think I was warned beforehand on how gruesome it is and in general I seem to have quite a strong stomach for things. I know a lot of people say they had to take breaks or stop reading altogether, but this was the first book I had read after around a year or two of not reading and I couldn't put it down. I found it engrossing (and I'm not sure what that says about me!) I'm a sucker for dark books and unreliable narrators though.

Now as a more mature reader, I'm interested to see how I'll like it this time, or if I end up hating it because I do think some of the message probably went over my head the first time. I'll share my thoughts when I finish but just not really been in a reading mood recently