"American Psycho" book review

Of all the questions I have after reading this (and there are a lot), the biggest question I have is, how is this a classic and why is it so popular? Yes, the writing is very good, but still...I will never be able to un-read the things I read in this disturbing book.

Patrick Bateman has it all - friends, money, a good job, a girlfriend. But this is only the Patrick Bateman that everyone else sees. The real Patrick Bateman is a murder, a psycho. And the further Patrick falls into his own obsessions and desires, the more out of control he becomes.

First of all, the main character was so annoying! I understand that he (obviously) had mental health issues, but his thought process and his obsession over pop culture and music was annoying, not to mention his emotional instability (what was with all the moments of almost crying over dinner reservations?)

I would say even with these things, I would have been able to somewhat enjoy the book. But what I could not stand was the details of all the kinky sex and then of all the torture. Murder is generally something I enjoy reading about, but the main character's methods of torture were beyond disturbing and actually made me feel sick. The other thing I didn't really understand was Patrick's choice of victims. It made sense to me when he was killing women - it was obviously about dominance and pleasure. But when he went out of that realm to kill men, children, and then even animals? I found it pointless and just unnecessary. Even though the author had some good underlying messages about humans and our self-obsessions, I feel like the author could have portrayed those messages in a little bit of a less disturbing way. I am all for controversy, but I did not enjoy being made sick by this story. One thing I can say is that it will definitely stick with me, just not in a good way.

1.5/5 stars