This book is incredible. Infinitely quotable, alternately devastating and hilarious, a perfect satire in its insulting (+ totally gratuitous) and insightful nature. "The better you look, the more you see" is the perfect motto for my generation's media-obsessed lifestyle, and Vincent the perfect poster boy for the shallow, image-obsessed demographic promoted by People and VH1.

This is by far my favorite Ellis novel; I'd recommend it to anyone, especially as an alternative to American Psycho. ( )

Great book! It started out as a superficial celebrity culture satire. Victor Ward, a model slash actor who is about as dumb as they come is up to his very empty head in club openings, girlfriend w/ mistress on the side, and trying to impress people he doesn't know. Seen in many places where he hasn't actually been first gave me the impression that this happens all the time in his weird celebrity world. But the undertone grows steadily more sinister and though Victor senses that something is amiss, he is too dumb to articulate his worries to others.
Victor does everything he can to stay beautiful for appearances is all that matters in his universe. But a strange request sends him across the Atlantic to rescue an old girlfriend who is caught up in an international terrorist group. And then things get ugly. Mighty ugly. This shocking upheaval sends Victor spiraling in many ways and his already feeble mind begins to dissociate by pretending that everything that is happening is actually a stage set. Who can blame him?
This nihilistic, comic horrorfest was pretty cool once things began to come together. I will definitely be reading more works by Bret Easton Ellis. ( )

More of the yuppie creepfest that was [American Psycho] and [Lunar Park], this time with a sublimely vacuous model staggering into a strange intrigue with flashes of morbid violence. The hallucinatory brandscape of Victor Ward's unsteady world hides the same brutality in its hyper-manicured environment as those other two books; I'm not sure if this is the only vibe Ellis does, but it is equally unsettling in each of the three, and given a great foil in Victor, who spouts some of the best nonsense ever on his way through a slowly unfolding drama.

I don't know what deep importance is going on in BEE's writing that might be lost on me, but I appreciate his weird horror and his humor, too. This one took a while but it was worth it.

tedious book that I didn't finish about a young man whose attempted modelling, acting, singing career is funded by his father's trust fund. Describes the lives of the rich an famous he moves with in great detail. ( )

Whereas I found ‘American Psycho’ an easy and absorbing read, I found this much harder work. Although rewarding in the end it took a while to get into. The part on the cruise ship became confusing for me and I was uncertain at times when we were focusing on a real plot or not. I enjoyed the concept of the camera crew, always having your life in the spot life etc but then I felt it lost something. If you don’t reflect too much and try to analyse as you are reading it then this is a great read. I found myself trying to link characters together and once all the pieces of the jigsaw started to fall into place it was as if one of them wasn’t quite right and you had to start all over again. However, it is a clever thriller and you never know which character to trust. Your ideas are continually blown to pieces as another piece of the puzzle is unravelled.

I loved the chapters going down in number, like a countdown. But a countdown to what exactly? A new script, a new scene, a new conspiracy? Both clever and intriguing to read this novel rather surprisingly sucked me in and even though at times I didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on, I was in the full long journey. It’s difficult to work out Victor with his change of surnames – can we change our identity so easily and become someone different? Or is it something new to hide behind, to prevent us from having to reveal what lurks underneath the skin? Bret Easton Ellis takes celebrity culture and slowly picks away at it to let us see what exactly goes on behind the images we see on screen and in print.

I’ve had this book lounging on my shelves for quite a few years now, (6 to be exact) and I finally decided it needed to be read. I wish I’d read it sooner! Although not quite five stars for me, I’d happily recommend this novel and I certainly look forward to reading the other Ellis novel I own – The Rules of Attraction. It’s a clever book and it’s one that needs time devoting to it. You can’t pick this up and then put it one side whilst you read another. It’ll keep reminding you that it needs to be read! Devote some time to it and you will be rewarded with an intelligent and interesting masterpiece. ( )