"What the fuck!"

That was the first reaction after reading a few pages of a novel from Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho. This novel published back in 1991 vividly details EVERYTHING. By everything, I mean from murder scene, to even the shampoo and the formula that it has. Filled with dark humor, it's a first person novel that is told by a man named Patrick Bateman, a wealthy yuppie (young urban professionals) who enjoys working out, watching video tape, wearing expensive name brand items, and dine in luxurious places. He works on Wall Street at Pierce and Pierce company that his family own. Behind his wealth, success, and masculinity lies the demon that he was able to hide within plain sight or perhaps everyone around him was indifferent because they are all way too alike.

This review contains spoilers.

One thing for sure is that this novel is fictional but even so, the crimes that Bateman did was never really revealed. It got me wondering why and how people don't report these missing people? Even when he was visited by a private investigator, he was calmly escaping from it. The novel is filled with racism, xenophobia, homophobia and it's certainly not a book for a faint heart with the portrayal of his killing and how little he feels remorseful about it.

At one point after randomly killing a child at the zoo, he was mournful because he felt like killing adult were much more satisfying as they have a lot more to lose, full of history, "career" and "network of people" in which he think will cause far greater grief than a mere boy. And It still astounds me that in internet subculture, Patrick Bateman is quite a famous character and people somehow try his morning routine and seemingly glorify as if he's the idol of masculinity. Do they not read the novel? I am not sure about the movie adaptation because I was only seeing fragments of it but damn, one has to be quite sick to idolize a persona such as Patrick Bateman.

Aside from the messed up story, it serves as a good social commentary especially about the display of wealth, fakeness, and socialites life during its time and even still reflects today's society. I think that the writing style itself was intriguing and even for me, it was really hard to let go and the writing reeled me in that I have a ray of hope that Bateman would be punished or get what he deserved for his heinous crime. But that was just all in vain because after it all, the people around him acted as if nothing happened.

If you have only watched the movie, I would suggest reading the book too. It's 400 pages, worth of your time delving into the world of sadistic, masochist, and psychopathic man, Patrik Bateman. The book is also available on Open Library and Archive.org.