Sunday, March 26, 2023

3.26.2023 - The Shards

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis 

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing Group for gifting me a digital ARC of the new book by Bret Easton Ellis - 3 stars!

It's Los Angeles in the 1980s and a serial killer, named The Trawler, is on the loose.  Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school, when a new student, Robert, arrives.  Robert has a secret and Bret is soon obsessed with him as he becomes part of his close-knit group of friends.  Bret is also obsessed with The Trawler, and sees connections with things happening around him, even though others don't.  

This is a long book - over 600 pages - and while I liked the writing style and the coming-of-age theme, there was too much of everything for me, especially the lurid sexual descriptions and thoughts.  To me, there was too much repetition and description of the time period - every scene is marked with the name brands of clothing, music and movies, cars, hair, etc, as well as description of LA streets and locations.  This one is getting rave reviews so call me the outlier here!

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