The Shards

I genuinely do not know where to start with this review, so forgive me in advance if this is a little all over the place.

I picked up this book on a whim after watching a Youtube video that said they got so invested into the story that just looking at the book would pull them back in, that it clouded their mind so much it took weeks to get back into reading other books because they were stuck in this world that Bret Easton Ellis has created and I can say that, without a doubt, this review of it is spot on. It throws you completely into one time and place and it holds you hostage there.

To me, at least, this book was absolutely enthralling. It is undoubtedly the most enjoyable book I have ever read, and I am shocked it is not more popular! 

I found it started off rather slow, but not in a way that annoyed me, but rather it took the time to get me into the world and into Bret's (the character version) mind. The amount of exposition, while it was not all necessary, created such a vivid visual experience while reading this book I could not help but get invested. I found the humour and wit to be perfectly entwined in the story, and I love how Ellis poked fun at his own upbringing, with our main characters all being rich private school students in Los Angeles. It felt so effortless, which created a timeless feel to it, and I cannot stress enough how much it got me invested in the story. 

Despite the book being horror, I actually found it to be more of a mystery novel with horror aspects woven into it. Or maybe I have a skewed perception of what a horror novel is. Either way, I did not find myself getting scared reading, but rather I found myself asking lots of questions and when the tension began to build up I would find myself physically reacting— my heart was pounding, I was shaking and I was tearing up. I could feel it deep in my stomach, the anxiety. It was such a strange experience I did not expect a book to bring me such a visceral, physical reaction to reading it, and yet I found myself feeling it so often whilst reading, especially once I got to the latter half of it.

A common complaint I have seen is that it drags at points, and that there is too much explaining, both of which I feel immensely add a positive effect to the reading experience. While yes, Ellis describes (quite literally) every single detail, it creates such a vivid image that you cannot help but be sucked in. The points in which I felt a lull, I believe they were very strategically placed and timed to make the tension rise, and so the action had an even bigger impact than if it had been bam bam bam. 

One thing that did put me off initially was the amount of sexual scenes, however I did find a lot of the reasoning behind Bret's (the character) sexual actions to portray a rather interesting exploration of sexuality and sexual repression that existed in the 1980s, especially for characters that inhabit a rather small minded community. I love how Bret's bisexuality was explored, and how his relationships with other boys were portrayed. I also found it fascinating how his relationship with Terry was explored, and as someone who has been in a similar sexually exploitative relationship, thought Bret's reaction and feelings toward it were very realistic for a victim in denial. 

Every character felt real, every conversation felt genuine, and I truly believe this book is a masterpiece. It is everything I did not know I wanted in a book. I am a sucker for an unreliable narrator, and by the time you finish the book and see how the events unfold, the realisation that your perception of it has been skewed by Bret's own actions and beliefs becomes quite sobering as you're dropped into the reality of it. 

The book concludes with a rather ambiguous ending, and while at first I felt a little let down by it, ultimately I realised it was a good idea. You aren't supposed to have all of the answers, and instead, you are supposed to be left with the bleak feelings that come with nostalgia. The feeling was palpable, the longing of wanting to go back, the regret of how things ended, the loneliness of never having friendships like what you once had again. It was just perfect. 

This book for me exceeds a five star rating, and it makes all my other five star reads feel like three stars by comparison. I could happily be left on a deserted island with just this book to read for the rest of my life; there is so much to explore, so much to learn and understand about these characters, I could reread it again tomorrow and find the same amount of enjoyment and satisfaction from the experience. When I die, let me reincarnate as this book. It would still not be enough for me.

Has the same apathetic, 'numbness as a feeling' vibe that Less Than Zero had which I find strangely enjoyable. The ending fell a little flat though the book was filled with suspenseful scenes providing a liberal amount of shock value.

So American, so teenage boy

** spoiler alert ** I love Bret Easton Ellis. His novels have such a unique vibe and energy to them, and I fell in love with his bleak yet colourful storytelling ever since reading The Rules of Attraction in a single night. The Shards is a fictionalized, first person, retelling of the time when high schooler Bret Easton Ellis is coming of age and figuring out his sexuality, a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set in a vibrantly fictionalized Los Angeles in 1981 as a serial killer begins targeting teenagers throughout the city. The novel is prefaced by a sweetly sincere (or is it?) thank you note from the notorious author. The story proper begins with Bret Easton Ellis looking metafictionally back across time at the defining events that befell him and his friends in the autumn of 1981, during their final year in high school. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author, and that instantly gave the story a closer sense of intimacy. I love the idea of fictionalized or exaggerated memoirs, simply because it’s interesting trying to decipher what was real and to what extent. I always wonder which glimmers of truth would shine through and what the author slips into the narrative. I always imagine people featured in fictionalized stories reading for their characters and discovering how the author truly feels about them and their time together. Despite growing up in such different environments, I felt connected with Bret when he spoke about the hidden world of growing up as a queer teenager in a time where you couldn’t safely be out and be yourself. Bret’s prose and his storytelling skills are powerful and immersive, even when there’s not much going on in the story, he has me in his grip. Bret’s secret non-relationship with a loner classmate felt impactful just because the dynamic was beat for beat the same to another toxic relationship I had in my youth. This story was very good and depicting the social mind games that go along with socializing with moody teenagers in a high school social scene. The passages where Bret discuss the power that being 17 in queer scenes has, and how the shift in attention from older queer men is both intoxicating and dangerous, hit home. Bret verbalized things about the queer experience that I hadn’t even thought to put into words. “And I just stood there in the fading afternoon light, realizing at seventeen that I was already staring into my past - that the past had a meaning that would always define you. I remember this being one of my first moments nearing adulthood, when I realized how powerful memory was or at least it was the first time it hurt the most. And there was nothing I could do about the pain of the past, it just settled over me.” The fictionalized murders that appear in the novel were an interesting choice, but it does give the story an urgency and quiet danger that I’m sure was felt in the author’s adolescence. The entire plot with Matt, Bret’s casual hookup and vague friend, felt heartbreaking, and even though that plot thread ends dramatically, I’m sure there was a certain metaphor to that story and the author was using this story to exorcise how he felt about that adolescent relationship and it’s ending. This book made me realize how tumultuous adolescence is for everybody, even if their lives seem vastly different to your own. I think that time in our lives feels so heavy because we’re all trying to figure ourselves out while navigating social mind games and feeling everything so intensely for the first time. I loved the honesty of how Bret’s privileged circle thought nothing of racism/homophobia/xenophobia because it was 1981 and the world was just different back then. So often do people tell themselves that they’d never engage in bigotry when looking towards the past, but the reality is that whatever the mainstream social norms dictate will be what people inherently follow and adapt their lives to. Most people will look the other way when given the option. I liked Bret’s honesty about his past self and the world back then, as many writers would have simply tried to rewrite history to make their past selves seem more likeable. The pacing in certain parts sometimes meandered, but it always felt intriguing with Bret’s excellent prose and narrative voice. There were certain parts that made me uncomfortable due to a character using another character’s mental health history as proof they’re dangerous, but that’s just a personal reaction as that subject hits close to home, the moments fit the narrative and setting. I loved how Bret’s character played off of Robert and how the two seemed to play mind games with each other before Bret tries to expose him. The way Bret could have easily been implicated in the murders and taken the fall for them was an intriguing plot thread. I was surprised at how dark and visceral the murders were, especially since we don’t see an attack until the end and only see the aftermath after the fact prior to this. Ellis is a true literary craftsman, and the novel’s imagery is lush and gorgeous. Fans of his earlier fiction will enjoy many of his signature strokes: murder, music, cocaine, Valium, obscene wealth, an unraveling narrator, brand names, palm trees, blood, stalkers, dogs, cults, disaffected teenagers, negligent parents. That being said, The Shards has an earnest vulnerability that his previous works have lacked. The novel is almost 600 pages long, and the narration loops back on itself in a way that not only builds suspense, but also creates a visceral sensation of the slowness of time for a 17-year-old who feels trapped in a life that is not his own. And yet, the length and repetitions can be so taxing that the reader wonders if the book could have been shorter and still achieved the same psychedelic, collage-like effect. This book is unique in that although the plot itself and pacing aren’t my favourite, the skill in the craftsmanship of the writing carried this entire novel. Even though this novel deals with a mix of real events and fictional, these characters and this story felt real in a way that felt significant. This is a novel that simultaneously occupies a few different spaces. Parts of it reads like a crime novel and others like a very dark, sexualized, drug-infused coming-of-age story. But there is also a lot of humor, a deep, scathing look at privilege, and a very personal exploration of the things that haunt us, the way distrust affects us, and how sex, growing up, jealousy, fear, and obsession can shape the life of someone at the cusp of their teenage years. Similarly, the story delves deep into what Bret sees as the performance of everyday life; the way everything is a narrative, a "pantomime," a "script." Lastly, and perhaps more noticeable than anything else, The Shards is a very personal work of metafiction in which Bret Easton Ellis shares not only a name with his narrator but also a novel (Less Than Zero), a plethora of identity markers and obsessions, and a school. On the surface, The Shards is a relatively simple story about an obsessive young man learning to navigate the interstitial space between being a teenager and adulthood. However, it's also much more; this is a novel about obsession, the masks everyone wears as they go through life, and how isolation exacerbates paranoia. I think Bret Easton Ellis did what he wanted to do with this novel successfully. I think the vagueness of the narrative reveals the meaning behind the title and the novel. I think certain characters are “shards” of the author’s personality, and there were different killers behind different murders and attacks. I think that the whole point of the novel is that Robert doesn't exist. Like Robert says in their first interaction: "When you talk to me you're really talking to yourself, dude". While I don’t think the novel recounts literal events, I think the author used the setting and narrative to examine the different pieces of himself and his identity. I think readers shouldn’t get too caught up in the true identity of the killer, as I think that this story is meant to be more than that. Though it is fun to speculate, I’m more interested in what the author was trying to process with this novel, and I like that I’ll probably never know the full truth of things. There are many details in this novel and I’m sure it’ll be just as impactful (if not more) upon a reread. Bret Easton Ellis' first novel in more than a decade is worth the wait, and I can’t wait to see what he does next. “Our odds looked good: we were young and alive and strong and nothing could hurt us, and there wasn't anything clouding this perception, a fable about our place in the world, and we ignored the intrusive notions of fate and horror and hideous death that might kidnap us from the golden dome of adolescence we resided under.”

Kinda obsessed with this, and it convinced me that Bret Easton Ellis might actually be worth reading. It has everything I could ever want: a delusional narrator, the collapse of a friend group, is about a murder but isn’t /about/ the murder. Could not put it down and could not anticipate what came next.

Really liked this one. I’ve read all from Ellis and this one is the best so far I think. It’s the 80’s, it’s Californian bratty kids, drugs, expensive cars and bloody horror.