This book, while long, zipped by. I love B.E.E. and this was no different.
The LA mall rat energy of this, the messy sexy dynamics, AND a serial killer on the loose... What more could you ask for?

I enjoyed this novel, as with everything Ellis writes, it can be polarizing. I grew up in the 80's so the novel was relatable, well somewhat, I was not rich, and the only drugs I had were dirt weed and cheap speed haha. At the end of the day, I will always read a Ellis novel or from his buddy and my favorite author Donna Tartt!

I tried really hard to find a nicer way to say this, but, honestly, I really truly did not like this book.

1. For the amount of plot, it could have been 400 pages shorter honestly. The length of this book was wholly unnecessary when basically nothing happened.
2. The MC was absolutely insufferable. I can't remember the last time I read a story about such a self-important, pathetic MC. We get it, you're horny and you like to go lift weights. Why are we supposed to care?
3. The prose is just... ugh. Overwritten and overblown. If an author wrote a book and then gave it to chatgpt to make it sound more pretentious, that still wouldn't come out as pretentious and wanna be intellectual as this book. I'm not saying Ellis did this, mind you; it's just the vibe I got from this book.
4. The whole book is set up like a big shocking story but I found nothing about it shocking and everything about it just boring. The book was just one big story about uninteresting white boys with what I wouldn't call undertones so much as barely veiled red pill mysogyny.
5. The Madonna/whore thing is so overdone. Can we just.. not? Please? The way our MC talked about and treated her was disgusting from the get-go.

I will honestly say I don't think I would have if it hadn't been an ARC. Hands down the worst book I read this year. I would give it negative stars if I could.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I was immediately sucked into this book. I know some may say that at almost 600 pages it's indulgent. But I was with Ellis 100% of the ride. Perhaps it's because I was just a year older than "Bret" in the story in 1981, and the music references all rang true. I gladly spent pages wandering around LA and Beverly Hills in a stoned, drunken, but functional stupor like our leading characters.
This novel was less nihilistic than his earlier works. And I especially loved the meta-ness of the story: did it really happen? If not, did some of it happen? I worried that after all these pages that the ending was going to be disappointing, but he managed to stick the landing in a satisfactory AND nebulous way. I would love to hear what all these characters are doing 40 years later. And that's the sign of a good book!

Reading The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis was a compelling and intense experience. Set in a fictionalized 1980s Los Angeles, this novel combines elements of psychological suspense and literary fiction, weaving a story that is both nostalgic and deeply unsettling.

The novel follows seventeen-year-old Bret, a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school, whose life is thrown into chaos with the arrival of a new student, Robert Mallory. Mallory’s mysterious past and charismatic presence soon intertwine with Bret’s life in ways that are both fascinating and disturbing. At the same time, a serial killer known as the Trawler begins to target teenagers in the city, heightening the tension and paranoia throughout the story.

Ellis masterfully explores themes of obsession, jealousy, and the loss of innocence. His ability to blend fact and fiction creates a narrative that feels both personal and universal, drawing readers into the emotional fabric of the protagonist’s life. The novel’s vivid portrayal of pre-Less Than Zero Los Angeles adds to its atmospheric intensity.

I am a huge -- some might say massive -- Bret Easton Ellis fan, so when I got approved for this book I think I actually squealed aloud with delight. This is a lengthy read, clocking in at over 600 pages, and I savored every moment of it.

I first discovered Ellis with his seminal tome on the 80s teenage LA experience, Less than Zero. This book was so influential to me as a kid. No one really understands suburban alienation and teenage loneliness like Bret. (And maybe David Lynch.) So I was thrilled to see that The Shards revisited this time and place, but from (fictionalized) Bret's point of view while writing the book, when a serial killer is on the loose in Los Angeles.

Like all Ellis novels, the book is weird, hilarious, and totally immersive, The mood is creepy and wild, scary and tender, smart and serious, whimsical and unserious. Everything you could want in a book about teenagers in Los Angeles and the real but not real life of a young Bret Easton
Ellis.

Though I took my sweet time reading this book I was very sad when it was over.

This book is not for everyone, just as Bret is not for everyone, but if you're a Bret fan, or an 80s aficionado with a wicked sense of humor and heart, you'll enjoy this as much as I did.

So difficult to give this one a fair star rating. I enjoyed it but I don't know who I'd recommend it to. It is a long book but little is wasted. It's just what you expect from Ellis.

I finished this 24 hours ago and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. It was everything I was hoping it would be—gay as fuck, eerie, chewy, brutal, and sexy. And the vibes were immaculate, as the kids say.

The Shards dresses itself in the bespoke suit of auto-fiction, and once the novel fully reveals itself you’ll realize you just tore through 400 pages, and then the last 200 pages hit like a hammer wielded by a speed freak. Forgive my messy analogy, but it’s apt.

This is probably not a book that’s going to turn someone into an Ellis fan. It’s much the same as his other novels (the ones I’ve read)—pretty people with ugly problems. Sex. Drugs. Murder. New Wave. Put it right into my veins.

A study in ambiguity that could have been cut in half. I very much enjoy Ellis' prose style, but this was indulgent and a study in an author who has surpassed the point of an editor having the courage to actually edit him down.

I loved the atmosphere and the pacing of this book. The tension built by creating such an immersive reading experience led to an overall enjoyable reading experience. Loved the dark queerness of this book.

I have seen his movies, but not read his books. This was a fairly long story but capturing. Because I’m a Gen Xer, many of the happenings in the story struck so much relevance in my life, both past and present. As I kept reading, the story had a kind of a demented John Hughes film feel. It was a bit hard for me to get out of the autobiographical mindset at first as this is where he leads the readers. This most definitely would/could be a movie - and one I would watch. I would recommend, especially to those who grew up in the 80s.

As a child of the 1980s and as someone who attended an upper class high school in Southern California in the 1980s, I can say this is an absolutely superb, albeit somewhat exaggerated, depiction of that time and place.

Bret Easton Ellis is an author that I have read over the years and has made an impact on me and my reading life. American Psycho is one of my favorites of his and I felt this book was a tad reminiscent of how I felt when I read that one.

Ellis definitely has a way of writing every day things, places, experiences, and characters in a way that it at times exhaustively descriptive. But overall his writing is prolific, timely, relevant, and just slightly weird (which I love).

This book didn't disappoint - it is LOOOONG like most of his books and I always fight with loving his long descriptive prose but also wishing he would edit out 100 pages so I can get through his books faster.

This was a fun, pulpy, slow but weirdly propulsive novel by one of the greats! I will continue to read whatever he writes!

Reading this was an experience. Sometimes good, but more often exhausting.
A group of wealthy teenagers become obsessed with a serial killer, who moves closer and closer to their friend group, after a new boy starts at their school.
There is a lot of drugs, even more sex, and maybe 200 more pages than necessary.
However, did I want to stop reading it? No. I was invested enough.

The Shards is an auto fiction, following Bret as a high school senior when a mysterious new student shows up and becomes part of his inner circle of friends. Around the same time, Bret becomes obsessed with The Trawler, a serial killer who seems to be drawing ever closer to him and his friends.

I wanted to like The Shards. I’ve liked Ellis’ previous work. It had all the things I should like. But, I just didn’t. I couldn’t even finish it. Once I got through 50 pages and realized that was only ten percent of the book, I just couldn’t force myself to keep going. Those 50 pages took me a week to get through, and it felt like I had done nothing but struggle to read all day every day just to get that far.

Other people seem to have loved this, and all the power to them! If you’ve liked Ellis’ other work, you may also love this one! I don’t want to discourage anyone from giving it a shot, but The Shards dragged like no other book for me. The writing felt dry, the characters felt one-dimensional, the hints we got at murder and mystery felt few and far between and even when they were there, I didn’t really care. Nothing was catching my interest with this book. This was disappointing after liking his other work, and after having waited so long to get a new book from Ellis, but not everything can work for every person.

This book was not for me mostly because I lived through the 80s. They were my highschool years and I have zero nostalgia for them.

I've also never really been drawn to rich kids doing 'bad' things, whether it's to pull on our empathy or to punch up.
The writing is good. Ellis is a good writer. The characters are exactly what he set out to do, I'm certain. The Shards is a success in every way that Ellis likely wanted it to be. Unfortunately, it didn't hit me right (or at the right time). That being said, I can already feel it lingering in the back of my head. I can see myself picking this up for a re-read ten years from now and, maybe, having a different view.
But right now, it left me cold.

Detailed. Very cinematic. Classically BEE, and an interesting mix of American Psycho and Less Than Zero. I think it could've been edited down though to take out some of the repetition that's killing the tension.

I read "Less Than Zero" in the 1980's and also enjoyed the movie, since I was about the same age as the characters at the time. "American Psycho" just blew me away as I read it while working in NYC in the 1990's. I think "The Shards" is the most readable out of all 3 works - it combines the best, most disturbing parts of the previous books to create a setting and narrative which are addictive.
It is a long book, but I couldn't stop thinking about it when I wasn't reading it - like being drawn to a horrific accident, but you can't look away.
The author's technique of using himself as a fictional protagonist was very interesting, it read like a convincing memoir, but with an unreliable narrator - was Bret's obsession with Robert Mallory as the Trawler accurate, or was Bret himself acting out these unbelievably graphic scenarios?
Highly recommended, but not for the faint of heart. May have some triggers for graphic violence and animals.

Like everything else by Ellis, I devoured this book! Definitely for fans of his previous works, and hopefully will find a new batch of converts. Can't wait to read whatever he does next.

Thanks so much to the publisher for the e-galley.

Agree with many reviewers that this is the best by Ellis in some time, but fortunately or unfortunately I first heard this as weekly episodes in Ellis's podcast and... ot worked much better that way. The things that could be forgiven in the audio (because it was presented as weekly chapters/drafts and as a work in progress and in flux) are not as easily overlooked here. The rambling and unnecessary sections that one felt certain would be revised/excised from the novel itself are still there; and in print they stand out even more. Nevertheless, this was one good (and severe) edit away from being excellent. But who would Ellis actually trust or listen to?