the reading chronicles

Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated, intelligent. He works by day on Wall Street earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. His nights he spends in ways we cannot begin to fathom. He is twenty-six years old and living his own American Dream. [ synopsis from goodreads ]

So. I am just really, really at a loss as to how I feel about this book. Or, rather, how to describe how I feel about this book??

I thought it was so boring.

I get that it was satire. I get that it was a look at the "Wall Street" life and all that jazz. Which lots of murders thrown in. And that was cool at first. But after four hundred pages describing what eVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IS WEARING AT EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF EVERY SINGLE DAY. Wow I was just done. I wanted to beat my head against the wall or throw the book out the window or in the fire place or something. I was just plain and simple bored.

This book just felt too long and too monotonous. And yes, I've read a lot of horror and there were some pretty gruesome murders in this. But after a while even those seemed mundane?? It was like they were just thrown in for something to do. Or like each one was trying to top the last one in the gore factor. After a while I even stopped showing interest in those.

Because I was so bored this was such a hard book for me to get through?? I had to read little bits of it in between reading other things or my mind would wander off to entertain itself. Or I'd fall asleep. And while I was reading the last few pages I dropped cracker crumbs in the middle of the book and didn't even try to get them out. Normally I freaK OUT and try to suck every crumb out of the spine. That pretty much shows how much I hated this book. I didn't even try to get them out. They're still there. And there is where they will stay.

So this was not an enjoyable reading experience for me. I was honestly just glad to be done. I know that some people love this book but it was just an endless stretch of boredom for me. So to each their own? If I'm looking for something in the "mind of a serial killer/strings of horrific murders" category, I'll be turning to my forever favorite Chuck Palahniuk and probably steering far from Ellis. Though I'm still curious about Less Than Zero and I have Rules of Attraction/enjoyed that movie quite a lot. So this probably isn't my last tango with Ellis. Hopefully I'll enjoy the next rounds better? I certainly hope so.

review originally posted on goodreads