The Shards: A novel
A novel of sensational literary and psychological suspense from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged high school friends in a vibrantly fictionalized 1980s Los Angeles as a serial killer strikes across the city
Bret Easton Ellisâs latest masterful novel is 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.
Seventeen-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bretâs obsession with Mallory is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with the Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting themâand Bret in particularâwith grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation. Can he trust his friendsâor his own mindâto make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, he spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between the Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision.
Set against the intensely vivid and nostalgic backdrop of pre-Less Than Zero L.A., The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction, the real and the imagined, that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bretâs life at seventeenâsex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting, and often darkly funny, The Shards is Ellis at his inimitable best.
Bret Easton Ellisâs latest masterful novel is 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.
Seventeen-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bretâs obsession with Mallory is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with the Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting themâand Bret in particularâwith grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation. Can he trust his friendsâor his own mindâto make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, he spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between the Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision.
Set against the intensely vivid and nostalgic backdrop of pre-Less Than Zero L.A., The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction, the real and the imagined, that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bretâs life at seventeenâsex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting, and often darkly funny, The Shards is Ellis at his inimitable best.
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Community Reviews
Crazy! I had no idea the direction this novel would be going in.
Had me thinking about it for days after.
Graphic: Mental illness, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Violence, Drug abuse, Murder, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Animal death, and Blood. Basically ALL THE THINGS.
I ended up giving this book a 3.25 star rating.
I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I loved all the drama and focus on characters, but it was also just...so long? I see what a lot of reviews said about the book needing a lot of cuts. Like there were just scenes where the main character was naming names of streets that he was driving down, and I was like "Well what's the point of this?" I just skipped forward all of those paragraphs and missed nothing. Same with all the sex scenes - I don't mind one or two to establish the character and the place that sex has in this character's life, but I'm not trying to read a whole porno here, y'know? I don't need fifty scenes that sound essentially exactly the same to me.
Although I liked the establishment of these characters as using sex, drugs, and partying to numb themselves, it did get tiring after a while. Most of the characters ended up pretty much having one personality trait like they were filling the roles in a teen high school movie. They were always high and having sex. To the author's credit, I did feel very disconnected as I read, which is what I imagine he wanted to get across that the character's felt, so that translated very well. But the issue with feeling disconnected is that you don't get invested. The only reason I kept reading was because I wanted to know more about the murder stuff - which was ultimately disappointing. I felt like it really sort of withered away after everything and that really did annoy me.
Speaking of annoyances, the main character is SUCH AN ASSHOLE. He thinks that he's just solving this great mystery and he's the smartest, but really, he's an asshole and it's obvious. Ugh I wish he had died at the end of the novel because he 100% deserved it. He can go fuck himself. c:
Basically, this boils down to feeling like the author wanted to write an updated version of The Secret History, but with way less interesting characters, plot, and a meandering storyline that no one wanted to follow all the way through.
I ended up giving this book a 3.25 star rating.
I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I loved all the drama and focus on characters, but it was also just...so long? I see what a lot of reviews said about the book needing a lot of cuts. Like there were just scenes where the main character was naming names of streets that he was driving down, and I was like "Well what's the point of this?" I just skipped forward all of those paragraphs and missed nothing. Same with all the sex scenes - I don't mind one or two to establish the character and the place that sex has in this character's life, but I'm not trying to read a whole porno here, y'know? I don't need fifty scenes that sound essentially exactly the same to me.
Although I liked the establishment of these characters as using sex, drugs, and partying to numb themselves, it did get tiring after a while. Most of the characters ended up pretty much having one personality trait like they were filling the roles in a teen high school movie. They were always high and having sex. To the author's credit, I did feel very disconnected as I read, which is what I imagine he wanted to get across that the character's felt, so that translated very well. But the issue with feeling disconnected is that you don't get invested. The only reason I kept reading was because I wanted to know more about the murder stuff - which was ultimately disappointing. I felt like it really sort of withered away after everything and that really did annoy me.
Speaking of annoyances, the main character is SUCH AN ASSHOLE. He thinks that he's just solving this great mystery and he's the smartest, but really, he's an asshole and it's obvious. Ugh I wish he had died at the end of the novel because he 100% deserved it. He can go fuck himself. c:
Basically, this boils down to feeling like the author wanted to write an updated version of The Secret History, but with way less interesting characters, plot, and a meandering storyline that no one wanted to follow all the way through.
Another classic novel by Bret Easton Ellis that only Bret could tell, literally. The Shards without doubt will and should be yet another of his work adapted for the screen.
The Shards follows young Bret though the freeways and side streets of Los Angeles as he hunts for a quaalude, a newly released movie, and the Trawler. If you've laughed at SNL's The Californians before, get ready to travel down streets you might have never heard of and take a trip on the 101 with his favorite music and references from the time. While sometimes feeling long winded, he's inviting you into the world he knows so well.
I would say spoiler alert, but if you've read any of Brets work they end how they begin, its a moment in time of every day life. You might leave feeling lost or on-edge with every car that passes you. Everyone is a suspect, Bret included.
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