Oh what a wonderful book this was! I devoured it and loved every single minute I spent reading this. Love love love!!

first of all, I wanted to thank Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for gifting me with this ARC. I was a huge fan of Ellis due to American Psycho and it's actually one of my top books/films so I was super excited about this book and the potential it had! Being able to have an ARC of this was super special and an opportunity I loved. And some things I did love about this novel:

1) writing. I LOVE the writing here. There was tension, there was drama, and there were descriptions. such a good book technical-wise.

2) Immersion. There were some scenes where I genuinely held my breath and it was so so surreal at some parts. I felt like I was IN the world of Ellis experiencing high school. The descriptions were great, especially on some of the gorier scenes I feel like the detail was just up Ellis' lane and it was jaw-droppingly detailed. it was insane.

however, I feel like my experience of this read was not as enjoyable as it could've been. In all honesty, I had to put this book down after about 60% or like 400 pages into reading and I didn't have enough in me to finish it. I feel like this was due to a few reasons:

1) I did not love the self-insert perspectives this story had. It was almost in a way very self-indulgent for Ellis to write but not as entertaining for me to read. I feel like there was a lot of detail of everything (which was good in a materialistic critique like American Psycho) but here it just made some scenes feel claustrophobic/ took me out of the actual novel. Ellis also does this kind of "reflection" thing in this book where there are many quotes that goes like "if I'd known what I know now I wouldn't have done [insert thing]" and it was just disorienting at some points.

2) the pace was a little too slow for me, I was not introduced to Robert Mallory until ~page 60 or so, and that in a way was really off-putting to me. for a novel that was compromised a lot on the murders (more on this later), it was strange to put the main ANTAGONIST in so so late. and a lot of the events were really drawn out for me (e.g. party scene, club scene, floats scene) I understand that this added a lot more dimension and room for Ellis to expand on his memories but some were just too long. I feel like if there were more critical cuts of this book it could've been halfed. By the time I stopped reading which was like 60% through we'd only gotten a few murders... like... c'mon! I felt like this book had more lusty sex than it did actual murders.

3) the characters. I honestly did not love some characters. Most of them seemed very one-dimensional. I feel like some of them did not really need to be there, and there ended up being a bunch of little sub plots which weren't necessary, and I just did not enjoy some of the characters. For example, Debbie's parents and Steven were just not a good add into the story for me.

4) this wasn't really the fault of the book itself, but I looked up Robert Mallory's name on Google while reading trying to find any info related to the book, and the first thing that popped up was a tweet from Ellis himself spoiling the whole book (link https://mobile.twitter.com/BretEastonEllis/status/314654151562915842), and I feel like this was just a miss on either agent or publishing's part in this tweet still existing,

Overall I feel like this was just not the best book for me, I definitely did appreciate a lot of aspects in this novel though and I feel that it is something I may return to in the future.

What. A. Ride.

The Shards is my first Bret Easton Ellis novel, and I had some idea what I was getting myself into, but somehow I still find myself in shock with what I just experienced. My head is still spinning even though I put the book down hours ago. To say the very least, this was excellent.

Set in the early 1980's, The Shards follows the main character BRET ELLIS through his tragedy-ridden final year of high school and his unfortunate transition into adulthood. This psychological thriller leaves you constantly questioning, well, everything. I still find myself not fully convinced of anything that occurred. Bret Ellis (the author) is such a mastermind.

This book is disturbing and gruesome and dealt with content matter that I usually shy away from. There were some details that I actively tried not envisioning as I read - I just refused to visualize some of the mutilations that took place. I didn't want them to ever revisit my brain again. Even now, writing this review, I just want to stop. I constantly kept asking myself "Is Bret Easton Ellis okay?? Is he unwell? Should we worry about this man?!" often.

There were times when as I was reading where I was so far into the main character's head that I was terrified by the events that were taking place. I was so worried that my husband kept asking if I was okay. Spoiler: I was not. Ellis has the power to make me so physically uncomfortable that I can't tell if I absolutely hated that feeling or kind of loved (?!) it.

I found myself doing quite a bit of research as I read this book. I couldn't believe that Bret Easton Ellis created this story that was so closely modeled after his real life. The main character's name, the high school he attended, the novels the character writes, I mean, the main character's NAME - all of these are the same as Bret's actual life. He blends the real with the unreal magnificently. It's spooky.

The unreliable narrator is so well-developed that you can't help but to get sucked into this novel. I felt as if I was losing my sanity. The paranoia and fear oozed out of the pages. The last half of the book was so gripping, I found myself dragging my Kindle everywhere I went in hopes that I could finally get some relief by putting it down for good.

I had heard that Ellis can provide long-winded details, but I hadn't realized the extent and frequency at which this would occur. At times, it was a bit boring reading about every single street the main character drives down and every single song and all of the items of clothing that everyone wore. However, it did create an atmosphere that made everything seem so real; it felt too detailed to be fiction. And yet, when you find yourself reading a 600+ page book, you can't help but wonder if some more editing could have taken place.

If you don't like hearing about excessive teenage drug use, detailed non-romance filled sex scenes, gruesome deaths of people and animals, and can't stand 80's music, you may not want to pick this book up. But, if you love being immersed in a world that feels so palpably real it almost hurts, then this is totally worth the read.

Definitely the higher end of a 4 star rating for me. Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Publishing Group for the advance reading copy.

A dreary and tedious novel about overwrought and overprivileged teenagers in 1981 Los Angeles mixed with a gratuitously unpleasant serial killer plot, but evoking an undeniably creepy sense of time and place.

In this metafiction, Bret Ellis, the character, is alone in an empty house while his parents are on a lengthy cruise, though his mother has left him some Valium. He’s a senior at a fancy private school and Robert Mallory, a new student, is the catalyst for what little plot there is. The Trawler, an ineptly named serial killer, is on the loose and it appears he may have killed one of Bret’s classmates and be stalking some others, including Bret.

Most of the teens seem oblivious to the horror that’s going on around them. They’re numbly immersed in themselves, and none of the sex, drugs, alcohol, and parties seem to lift that vacancy. The novel gradually (very very gradually) builds to a bloodsoaked, dramatic and not entirely realistic-feeling climax and then there’s a little stinger of an ambiguous twist.

But, you’re wondering, how can this fill 600 pages? Well Bret the writer has a couple of little tricks up his sleeve. First, everything is very specific and hyperdetailed: You want to know which restaurants were in the Sherman Oaks Galleria food court - Bret can list those. What about how you get from Buckley School to Century City - Bret can navigate you there, turn by turn. What about all the songs that were played at a party - here’s the playlist. The second trick is foreshadowing - there is so much of this that it feels like we live the plot at least twice and often more.

Ah, you say, what about the atmosphere that Bret conjures up, the madeleine-esque experience of being young and rich In Los Angeles in October and November of 1981? And, to be fair, he does a good, if rather repetitive, job of that. The teens are beautiful, flawless, and apparently live in a world with only minimal contact with their parents and other adults. Even their teachers seem largely irrelevant as the students skip classes and whole days of school as, of course, getting into college 40 years ago was a whole lot simpler than it is today.

Bret the writer also shows the flipside of that privilege. The teens are without direction, alienated, and detached. Only Bret the character seems to have any feelings, though he spends a lot of time and effort trying to tamp them down with drugs and a positive attitude. He’s coming to terms with his homosexuality, though is still trying to convince himself that he’s bisexual, and is realizing that the adults he knows share his peers’ alienation but just keep a better face on it.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a BEE novel, I dipped out after his second one, 1987’s The Rules of Attraction. The Shards maintains the detachment of Less than Zero but has added in some pretty nasty stuff (I haven't read American Psycho but I imagine that has some pretty nasty stuff in it) and a lot of bloat while becoming thematically a little more sophisticated. I’m sure fans of BEE will love that they have 600 pages to get submerged in but it wasn't my thing at all.

Thanks to Knopf and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Many people have heard about or read American Psycho, arguably Bret Easton Ellis’ most intriguing novel, for its exploration of 1980s yuppiness and all that it entails: the façade required to fit in, the resulting emotional numbness, and the goriness of outwardly expressed rage-induced-psychosis.

Set in 1981 Los Angeles, Ellis revisits these themes in his autofiction, The Shards, marrying them with the young, floundering characters reminiscent of Less Than Zero. Throughout The Shards, Ellis, who at this time is simply known as Bret Ellis, is a senior at Buckley prep school, a burgeoning author working on Less Than Zero, and the quintessential loner who begrudgingly tags along with the popular clique. Think Winona Ryder in Heathers.

While Bret details his daily life, taking the reader from the end of summer through mid-November, we quickly learn that a serial killer known as the Trawler has been terrorizing the L.A. area since 1980. Yet nobody seems to care, except for Bret.

Enter new student, Robert Mallory, whom Bret pinpoints as a potential suspect almost immediately. When strange occurrences start happening to his friends, Bret, and the writer within, cannot help but connect the dots that implicate Robert in these gruesome attacks.

As a Bret Easton Ellis fan, who has read most of his catalog and fangirled over Lindsay Lohan’s revival in The Canyons, I was ecstatic to learn about the publication of The Shards. I honestly had not heard much about the author in years and was unaware of his podcast. After discussing favorite authors with a fellow bookworm, I performed a good ole’ Google search and discovered The Shards set to publish in January 2023. I couldn’t believe it! It surely was a sign, divine intervention if you will, that I had to get my hands on this book.

The Shards is a pretty long read, and not for the faint of heart. At over 600 pages, the story unfolds slowly, and spares no detail in the descriptions of Bret’s sex life, fantasies, drug use, and the horrific murders plaguing the area.

Ellis is a master at crafting the “vibes” and setting the scene for his characters. Slyly breaking down that “fourth wall” and speaking on his own writing style in The Shards, Bret explains:

"…it didn’t matter to me what the characters did. They existed, and I just wanted to convey a mood, immerse a reader into a particular atmosphere that was built from carefully selected details. What did the young people do? This suggested there was a plot, a story that was going to resolve itself. "

Ultimately, Ellis achieves exactly this, creating an atmosphere that feels ripe with nostalgia, even to someone born in the late-80s, and personally unfamiliar with the pop culture of Bret’s time.

Speaking to the overall plot, Bret ultimately reveals the purpose of The Shards in the following paragraph:

"Susan had always been fond of chiding me about additional details I’d lace a story with, as well as what I concealed, and she’d often interrupt and explain to the listeners that it didn’t really happen in quite that way, Bret’s exaggerating. But I was a storyteller and I liked decorating an otherwise mundane incident that maybe contained one or two facts that made it initially interesting to be retold in the first place, but not really, by adding a detail or two that elevated the story into something legitimately interesting to the listener and gave it humor or surprise or shock, and this came naturally to me."

And much like in American Psycho, this becomes the central question begging the reader: How reliable is our narrator?

All-in-all, readers will positively lose themselves in the signature voice and style true to Bret Easton Ellis’ other works. Accompanied by a heavy dose of sex, drugs, and synthpop that riddle the atmosphere of 1980s Los Angeles, The Shards is a must-read for Bret Easton Ellis fans and those looking to immerse themselves in the mind of a brilliant author.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions and reviews are my own.

Audiobook/Book Review

The Shards
Bret Easton Ellis
Pub date: January 17, 2023
Read by: Bret Easton Ellis
Duration: Too long

I was really excited to get a copy of The Shards, the first book by Ellis in over a decade. I’m sad to say it just didn’t work for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed Less Thank Zero, Lunar Park, and American Psycho but this felt like gratuitus sex filler with little to no sensical plot. I have no idea where half the red herrings were going or why any of Bret’s 80’s sexual exploits – in detail – needed to be included. I’m all for a little spice but I was looking forward to a thriller with Eastons classic albeit weird, flare.

I really wish this would’ve worked for me but sadly, it didn’t.

My thanks to Knopf for this gifted copy.

This is an intense and propulsive story about fear and obsession. And I thought it was phenomenal!

This is a hefty read. I wasn’t expecting that. And through this whole story we are in the head of the author. With this incredibly unique mix of fact and fiction, I was on the edge of my seat throughout.

Our author/protagonist takes us through early 80s LA with a serial killer on the loose and an obsession with a new student in their high school. This kind of twisted obsessive unknown element is catnip for me and this book demonstrates it perfectly.

Bret Easton Ellis is back in rare form with his first novel in thirteen years.

The Shards is dark and twisted auto-fictional, metafictional, horror/thriller mixed with a bit of coming-of-age novel. If you're already a fan of BEE, you're going to enjoy this one. It's the perfect blend of Lunar Park's metaverse/alternate reality and American Psycho's gruesome serial killer horror, set in Los Angeles in the 80s with a high school senior cast starring Bret himself.

It's 1981, the setting is Buckley School (a real life prep school located in LA attended by the likes of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Bret Easton Ellis). Bret is a 17 year old aspiring writer who is part of an elite clique of high school seniors comprised of Thom, the popular jock, Susan, the class president with natural beauty - both of whom Bret is secretly in love, and Debbie, Bret's uber rich girlfriend. Their senior year is filled with parties, drugs, and lots of sex. Things seem to be going great for the crew. That is until a serial killer begins to strike in Los Angeles and people they know are being murdered. The murders all seem to align with the arrival of a handsome and mysterious new student, Robert.

The interesting thing about this book is that it contains a lot of real life tidbits in it (The Trawler was a real serial killer in LA, Buckley School is real, fictional Bret and real life Bret seem to go hand and hand), making it hard for the reader to determine fact from fiction adding to the mind-bending effect of the book.

The Shards may not be for everyone as it is extremely dense and very slow burn with blocks of descriptions of Bret's everyday life at Buckley and cruising the streets of LA - but this is necessary to set up the atmosphere, as the scenery is a character of its own. However, I was entranced with the setting at the characters, and once the mystery started unraveling, I was in for a wild ride! My jaw was dropped for 20 pages straight.

This is how you write a thriller! Dare I say a masterpiece? Dare I say better than American Psycho? This would make an amazing movie. I will be haunted by The Shards and it's characters for a very long time.

⚠️Content warnings: graphic sexual content, animal abuse, graphic descriptions violence, etc.

Thank you Netgalley and Knopf for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5237353071
Instagram Review: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnkqYSCyOT-/?igshid=OGQ2MjdiOTE=

I've been a fan of BEE since American Psycho, and quickly read his whole catalogue after seeing that movie, so I was super excited to learn he had a new book coming out following his distinct style, and am thankful to Knopf for the ARC.

Overall, Ellis paints a wicked, gritty, edgy tale with dark undertones that we have come to love from him, with a twist of the true crime fictional genre.. Dark and disturbing and not for the faint of heart, but it has twists of dark humor. From obsession, jealousy, and fear, the emotions run high with intensity.

Much of what adds to the highly descriptive prose is the author's commitment to immersing us in early 1980s Hollywood privileged teens - the clothes, the music, the movies - definitely a strength of BEE's and he does not disappoint in delivering here. The author's vivid descriptions, nostalgic backdrop, and details of time and place make the book shine!

I shared this review on my TikTok, https://www.tiktok.com/@goth_book_nerd?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc, knowing that this will quickly become a hit with the dark academia/true crime/thriller crowd, and surely this will rocket to a top of 2023 list.

This is my first Ellis novel, although I was seriously obsessed with the Less Than Zero movie when I was a teenager. Back then, I didn't even know it was based on a novel, I just knew it was salacious and dark (to my 15 year-old self). I couldn't help but picture some of the same kinds of settings while reading The Shards, and although I'm a bit younger than Ellis, I still got a huge sense of the 1981 LA scene portrayed in this book.
There is a lot of sex, thinking about sex, and then more sex. I kind of skimmed those parts. But the palpable feeling of dread that Ellis sets up for the reader with the home invasions, etc. reminded me of reading I'll Be Gone in The Dark by Michelle McNamara, and that book scared the crap out of me!
I continually wondered if some of this really happened, because it felt so real and the first person perspective made it feel even more like an autobiography rather than auto-fiction.
I do feel like this ran a bit long and the repeated descriptions of where Bret was driving and all the streets and highways were lost on me. However, some of the place descriptions prompted me to google images of those places back in 1981, such as the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Overall, the book was creepy, self-indulgent, salacious, and dark, just like I felt like Less Than Zero was back when I was a teen.

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis was a quirky, very atmospheric, pseudo-autofiction novel laden with horrific murders, debauchery, paranoia and psychological terrors. The blurb made me picked this title up hoping that I might love it. Unfortunately the book just didn't work for me overall.

I did love the writing in general. Some parts were very lyrical and the descriptions were so vivid and brought to life the feel, color and atmosphere of the years the story was set in. The characters were interesting and multifaceted however I did have a hard time forming any attachment to any of them making it harder for me to actually feel the impact of the events that occurred in the book.

The book had a lot of promise but the first few chapters dragged on for me. The first person style didn't help either. There was a lot of drugs, sex and more sex and sex. Did I mention there was a lot of sex? While I appreciate the inclusion of those - they overshadowed the other elements of the story and did felt repetitive. The pacing picked up a bit later on but still I felt the whole 600 pages plus pass by quite slowly and generally felt bored.

The Shards is not a bad book per se but more of something that really just didn't work for me. I'd still recommend the book for people looking for a dark metafiction with a coming of age aspect, with a sprinkling of nostalgia, melodrama, sex and a nifty dose of gruesome murders, serial killer and murder mystery.

This would be 3 stars out of 5 stars for me.

This book is full of lust, longing, drugs, expensive cars, ennui, and a solid soundtrack. Although I'm a bit younger than the author, for me this nails so much of the pop culture of 1981, and perhaps, specifically, the pop culture of monied Los Angeles in 1981.

We follow the fictional Bret (inspired largely by the author, the actual Bret) beginning with Labor Day weekend before his senior year of high school and through the first two months of that school year: This involves lots of taking drugs, going to movies, meeting up with friends, going to school, hooking up, writing, going to parties, going to the mall, and driving around. Meanwhile, a serial killer referred to as "The Trawler" begins a violent and sadistic attack on young people across the valley. At first this is an item in the newspaper, but over time, it begins to hit much closer to home. And, as the narrator catches the new kid at school in a lie almost immediately upon meeting him, he knows he has something to hide. Could he be The Trawler?

This book pushed me beyond my comfort zone. I don't consume horror anything: books, movies, anything, but I had read and heard interviews with Bret Easton Ellis and had always wanted to read Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction, so when I had an opportunity to read this advance, I did. There is enough foreshadowing early on in the novel that we know something terrible is going to happen, we even know some of the gruesome details, and this should have been enough to stop me from continuing. And yet. The plot is compelling, seductive. The characters---maybe we don't actually care about them so much, but we are curious enough to see them through.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for this thriller.

Wow. So this was really graphic but I did expect that going in. There were parts I almost couldn't read. But so good! Took me a while to get into it but once I did I couldn't put it down!

In my opinion, The Shards is the best book Ellis has written! It’s not for the faint hearted and is on the longer side, but once you’re invested that commitment is rewarded with an absolute page turner that thrusts you back into the 1980’s LA and you really do get a sense of what life could have been like for that privileged youth culture living with the prospect of a serial killer.

Drugs, sex and violence. The Shards is full of all three.

The semi-auto-biographical fictional blend works really well with the Trawler serial killer story line, Bret and his friends. You really get a sense of terror and doom which lurks just around the next page. And those pages are filled with graphic sexual scenes and violence but this shouldn’t come as a surprise to those familiar with Ellis’ work.

Those who like True Crime stuff on Netflix will probably really enjoy this novel too as you feel so close to the action throughout.

The last third of The Shards goes at neck breaking pace as all the strands of the story collide. Really immersive and more of an experience than I was expecting…

I needed a few days to reflect when I finished this book. Ellis has returned to form with The Shards and I really hope we get another novel from him soon!

This book marks a triumphant return to form for Bret Easton Ellis. He vividly evokes the time and place with his trademark frankness. Despite the sometime difficult subject matter, I could not put this book down.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me read this novel early, I am extremely grateful for this opportunity!
I enjoyed this book very, very much. I knew I would love from the first paragraph. I have been a fan of Bret Easton Ellis for years and have been reading his books at a far too young age, and I was very excited and intrigued when I heard he was returning to fiction. The story was incredibly gripping, if slightly repetitive. Much more earnest and sincere than his other novels, you really get a sense of just how personal this is to him. Funny, sexy, and sad. I'll be thinking about this one for a very long time. I think this might be Bret Easton Ellis' best work.

“I felt a profound disconnection for the first time that lightly touched everything I can into contact with.”

Bret Easton Ellis is not everyone’s cup to tea. Maybe he’s more like a tumbler of ice cold vodka with a shot of Jagermeister? He has a particular talent for making the void and the horrific seem so appealing, and I think this is the balance you find in The Shards. A mix of a paranoid blur between a possible reality and fiction plus horror that seems as though it is not real, yet it is, or is it? This is a long book to get through in terms of page count, but it seems to swim by so languidly you may not even notice.
Bret is a popular high school teenager who is conflicted on who he is, what he wants and what he is expected to be and do. This is all amidst some terrible crimes being committed, and a potential serial killer on the loose. Bret is constantly playing the right character for each scene, supported by recreational drugs and alcohol. He is alone, he is lonely, yet he paints the perfect model of fitting in with a certain amount of discontent. Bret is also not the most reliable narrator. Bret is telling us a few stories within the story of his like, and his own story is almost like a work of fiction in itself. It is almost like there are several stories running parallel with each other, sometimes intersection, sometimes they transcend each other. This book is not for the squeamish or gun-shy: there is horror, there is drug taking, there is sex, and it all within the soundtrack of the 1980s. I must applaud the references to early Icehouse (a seminal Australian band) – this book has a playlist I definitely would have on high rotation.
For those new to Bret Easton Ellis, you might find his style of writing different. A mix of short sharp sentences, others long and unhurried, flowing for lines like a single paragraph. You are almost in control of guessing ahead based on the shallowness of the characters he creates. Like Bret, you almost get swallowed up in the façade of the LA scene of the 1980s.

“You all just protect each other.”
“Protect each other?” I asked. “From what?”
“Reality.”

The Shards is Bret Easton Ellis's finest book to date. It's an absolue page turner and one that literally feels like you are being thrown into a time machine to 1981. It has al the BEE elemenst of life in Beverly Hills, rich rinds, and what's hot and not. I've always looked forward to a new novel from Bret and didn't know if if this would be as good as his previous novels. It's a pseudo-auto biographical novel about a character names Bret and his friends in 1981 with a backdrop of a serial killer calld the Trawler. What transpires over 600 pages literally leaves you breathless. It's not a novel for the faint of heart. It's very graphic sexually as well as violence. This should not stop you from picking up this book. It's one of those books that once you finish reading it you literally need a break to recover from it. Then all you want to do is tell people to read it. It's only January of 2023 but I bet this book will be on many best of 2023 lists! Thank you to #knopf and #netgalley for the read.

I haven't quite finished the book yet but what I have read I really enjoy! This is my first Bret Easton Ellis book and it's pushing me to finally read American Psycho! I love the tone he sets in this book it's just a little repetitive but the vibe is very intriguing

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis is a captivating murderous coming of age story, meta in the placement of Ellis, or a version of him, back in his fictionalized privileged adolescence (duly acknowledged) 1981 LA. This is what Chasing the Boogeyman wanted to be (but for me was such a big miss... but hey you liked that book then really check this one out!). For me the story is largely symbolic of the chaotic set of transitions that mark the later adolescent years: the thrusting forward of identity exploration, moving away from the safety nets/lack of accountability of adolescence (that some have anyway), and what happens when you perhaps don't know/lose control of what you thought were friendships/relationships. I loved the drops of early 80s pop culture (mostly music and movies), it added to the mood well and the drops of lyrics and the setting of clubs (and drugs) added to the sense of disorientation that Ellis and his friends were headed towards.

I was truly captivated by the mood Ellis generated with his storytelling, a sense of ominous dread, the wonderment of adolescents realizing that being an adult isn't the same as playing at being grown up. The story takes it time to set the stage, a lot of meta reflection on how this book came to be, building up of who the characters were before the lives were disrupted by Robert Mallory and lots of notes about sexuality and privileged exploration of the boundaries of LA life. The story continuously shifts and builds into a story about darkness and teenage obsession and rage.