Wow, that was the only book I've read where I had to stop in the middle of gore descriptions and look out a window for a while before I could continue. Sorry, I have no recommendations for others like it.
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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yeah, honestly I see no reason to read American Psycho, it's one of the few books I regretted reading
EDIT: not to mention the author comes across as, at best neutral, and at worst an apologist for right-wing politics, and there is also this:
Responding to Dan Savage's It Gets Better campaign, aimed at preventing suicide among LGBT youth, Ellis tweeted, "Not to bum everyone out, but can we get a reality check here? It gets worse."
from Wikipedia ...
What was the point of American Psycho as a satire if you're going to take neutral stances on people like Trump you were supposedly satirizing ... it makes the book ring as hollow and inauthentic, as pretending to be satire ... satire is typically written by moralists to make a point, and if we reveal the author comes across not as a moralist but as even annoyed by critics of the politics and culture he was supposedly satirizing, it calls a lot into question about the book, at least for me.
Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk. I was reading a ton of transgressive fiction around the same time I read American Psycho. A Clockwork Orange is another good one, and someone already mentioned Lolita.
My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews is worth considering, as it's standalone (and one of the few books she actually wrote before death) and I remember it being bleaker than Flowers In The Attic.
The Other by Thomas Tryon
The Good Son by Yu-Jeong Jeong
Horns by Joe Hill
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
It depends which feeling you seek. I first read American Psycho and many years later Lolita. I had similar vibes: unreliable narrator, a man who thinks he stands above all, justifies his actions etc but is one 100% awful an all levels. Long passages of “nothingness” numbing you and you might just slip over the real horrors, cause they are hidden between the lines before they become real actions. If I had to choose one, I would pick Lolita in terms of: which book made you feel worse. I like both books a lot, not that I seek to read them again anytime soon, but I also “enjoy” the strong emotions they cause. I love to hate the person they describe. I am open to any suggestions too.
Maybe Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
I can recommend Glamorama, by the same author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glamorama
It's disturbing, but not in the same way.
Most of the other novels by the same author is what I came here to say. Bret Easton Ellis has a style.
If you enjoy reading outlandish chunks of text and crazy manners whilst wondering - “how’d they ever get this published?” then I’d recommend Bad Wisdom (aka Lighthouse At The Top Of The World) by Bill Drummond & Mark Manning and also Naked Lunch by William (S) Burroughs.