Today is the eleventh day of the 30-day book challenge, in which I will be writing about a different book or book series every day for 30 days, with each book chosen according to the daily prompt. Today's prompt is: "a book you hated".
This post might be considered cheating.
I'm not saying that I have consciously decided to cheat in writing it, but I feel that it could be seen in that light. The reason for this is that I have actually already written about the book I have chosen for today's prompt, in a rather passionate review I uploaded a little after I read it for the first time back in July 2019.
However, the fact that this book was the first to come to mind when I saw today's challenge, despite the fact that I read it over half a year ago, shows how deeply-embedded my hatred for this book has become, and thus how much it deserves its spot in today's blog post.
In case you haven't guessed by now, the book to which I am referring is none other than American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
I'm not going to give you the usual Goodreads summary for this one, because I think American Psycho's plot can be summed up in fewer words than that. In short, the book is about an insufferable New York yuppie who moonlights as an increasingly-unhinged serial killer (and torturer, and rapist, and animal abuser, and necrophile...).
Given that I already wrote about American Psycho in detail in the aforementioned book review, I'm going to keep this post a bit simpler. If you want to read more of my thoughts on the book after this, I recommend having a look at that review. In the meantime, I would like to present to you:
10 Things I Hate About American Psycho
1. It's gross (TW: description of an especially graphic scene)
Did I ask for a scene that describes, in horrific detail, a woman being eaten from the inside out by a starving, live rat, which was forced inside her by the main character? No. Have I gained anything from this experience? No. No, I have not.
2. It's boring
You would think such a sensational book, even if it were otherwise terrible, would at least keep you reading through a sort of morbid fascination, right? Well, you would be wrong. Ellis's knack for producing boredom significantly outpaces his talent for shock, it would seem.
3. It's repetitive
Possibly the main culprit of its boringness, the book repeats the same events again and again ad nauseum: yuppy business, murder, rape, general violence, random interlude about music or physical objects, repeat. On and on and on.
4. It's too long
Almost 400 pages. There's no reason on this earth why this book had to be that long.
5. It's creepy
So this is something I just learnt about today, but apparently one of the characters in the book was originally created by Ellis's author friend, who in turn based this character on his ex-girlfriend. That wouldn't be so bad, perhaps, if it weren't for the fact that this character more or less solely exists in the novel to be physically abused and slut-shamed by Bateman and his social circle, respectively. Creepy.
6. It's got too much hate crime in it
Yes, yes, I am very familiar with the argument that Ellis wasn't actually advocating for hate crime or whatever and it was all just satire etc., etc., but really. How much violence do we need to see directed towards marginalised communities before it stops making a statement and starts becoming trauma porn?
7. It's misogynistic
Even putting aside the supposedly satirical, repeated violence against women in this novel, am I really meant to defend a novel in which every woman is nothing more than a flat character there to be insulted or abused by the men in the book?
8. It's overrated
Perhaps this one means I'm cheating again, having already written about an overrated book only a few days ago, but I stand by this. I don't think that I would hate American Psycho nearly as much if it wasn't so acclaimed, after all. God knows what everyone sees in it.
9. It's nothing new
Book by a privileged white man, about privileged white men? Check. Gratuitous violence against marginalised people? Check. Surface-level critique of American consumerism (e.g. "money can't make you happy")? Check. Stick all of the above in a hardback and label it "satire" in an attempt to stop anyone from being able to criticise you? Check check. It's nothing that hasn't been done before, or better.
10. It hasn't got enough redeeming qualities to make up for any of the above
Perhaps I could forgive numbers 1-9 if the novel had something - anything - to offer as recompense for enduring these 400 pages of mind-numbingly boring and disturbing violence. Sadly, it does not.
***
I think hate is a rather strong word and not one I'd often use to describe my feelings about a piece of media. I'd even hesitate to use it for American Psycho, but then I clearly feel strongly enough about it that perhaps that term would most accurately describe my sentiments.
Also, I have the comments turned on for this post, so I would like to say that while I welcome people giving me their opinions on this book, even if they are in contrast to my own, please do not do as one man on twitter did and pop up just to tell me that "it's satire". I am well aware it was intended as such, so please find something more useful to say if you feel the need to say anything at all.
Great review
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