By Bret Easton Ellis

Rating: 4/5

Three Word Summary: Yuppie serial killer

Here’s a few things young socialite Patrick Bateman likes to do:

• Describe what clothes people are wearing

• Watch the Patty Winters Show

• Attempt to get reservations at a fancy restaurant called Dorsia

• Work out

• Mock the homeless

• Cocaine

• Rent and return video tapes

• Discus Les Miserables

• Kill people

Yes, that last one stands out a little and is what makes Pat slightly different from the rest of his yuppie New York crowd of friends. He lives a double life as a rich playboy and a reckless serial killer.

There is a fine line between this being a satirical take on life in excess or a horrific slasher tale of the macabre. American Psycho deftly flirts with that line, occasionally falling on one side or the other depending upon your perspective.

Personally, I found it pretty humorous how Ellis discusses Armani suits and overpriced appetizers in almost the same breath as fantasizing about decapitations and sadistic torture.

Taken too seriously, this novel can easily be frightening and grotesque. Taken lightly, it becomes laughable. The great feature of this book is how well it operates as either and both — in the same way that Bateman can live a double lie.

For instance, it could be found tragic and surreal that Bateman doesn’t get caught in his routine and careless murders. This fact becomes funny when the reader considers its sheer absurdity and how he even tries to confess his crimes to vapid friends who fail to register his insane murmurings.

In fact, the absurdity extends to the fact that Bateman can hardly recognize his friends and often forgets their names. To be fair, they do the same to him and limit their conversations with him to mere fashion advice and restaurant suggestions.

There are some passages in this book that are among the most gruesome and unsettling of anything I have ever read. As Bateman’s habit grows steadily out of control, he invents increasingly creative and savage ways to torment his victims. This book is not for readers with a weak stomach.

The real depth of the book comes when Bateman’s interactions with his colleagues at the end calls into question whether or not he ever actually killed anyone. The detailed murders he carried out could have theoretically taken place in his own unhinged mind.

Either way, he truly is a psycho.