This book is so hard to rate. I liked it so it should be a 3 star. But I think I could read it again so that bumps it up to a 4. It was really weird and confusing, but in a good way? I don't know.

Rules of Attraction could be considered a New Adult book seeing as the setting is at Camden College in New Hampshire. There are several POV's Lets see if I can get this love web to make sense.

Lets start with Victor, Victor is some guy who goes to Europe. Lauren is in love with Victor. She is pining over Victor. They went out or are going out or she has been dumped but wasn't aware of that fact. Doesn't matter she still sleeps with a bunch of people. Sean is in love with Lauren. Sean is Patrick Bateman from American Psycho's little brother. Sean is a druggie? I don't know cause they are all on coke, or pot or acid, ecstasy... xanax. Whatever they can get. Sean is in love with Lauren. Lauren is only tolerating Sean. Paul is in love with Sean.

Paul is bi and so is Sean. Most of the guys in this book are bisexual. Which is fine by me but that seems like a lot of people being Bi. Maybe a lot of people are but I just don't know any in real life. Lauren is not gay.

All of these people have had sex with each other at least once during this book some more than one time. Lets just say a lot of drunk/drugged out sex has gone on in this book.

There is a few suicide attempts, one that worked. A couple of abortions and more sex and drugs. It's the 80's so there is a lot of Phil Collins, Genesis, Springsteen, etc. I know all of these songs and have sung them at one point in time in the shower.

The book moves fast. It's linear from what I could tell. It's hard to say. Sometimes I felt that the author was talking to me? But maybe it's because the POV is drugged out and drunk. Sometimes it felt like I was reading a telegram. -I smoked a cigarette (stop) He put his shirt on (stop) He left the door open (stop) I cried (stop)

Whatever this book was weird and fast paced for some reason and even though I have no idea what the purpose or point of the book was it was totally entertaining to read. Like really bad gossip. You don't care who it's about just tell me more about these weird people.

If you like the way Bret Easton Ellis writes you are going to like this book. If you like nonsense drug/party/drunk movies and or books you will like this one too. It just is. Like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas just is. They don't make any sense. They don't have a point, but are very fun to read.

Cronologicamente è stato pubblicato nel 1987, due anni dopo Meno di Zero, tuttavia l’ho trovato un lavoro inferiore rispetto al primo libro.

Le regole dell’attrazione ha la stessa identica tematica di Meno di zero, narra sempre dell’alienazione nichilista dei giovani degli anni ’80, della promiscuità sessuale e della dipendenza verso qualsiasi sostanza, ma nella storia non accade mai davvero nulla di che (a parte due eventi che si differenziano dal resto ma comunque non riescono ad avere una risonanza).
In pratica questo libro è formato dalle voci di più personaggi che raccontano una sequela caotica di relazioni amorose senza amore, in un college americano in cui nessuno studia.
La narrazione va avanti in maniera estremamente ripetitiva nel descrivere feste, droghe e sesso, ma sono comunque descrizioni molto superficiali, meccaniche, senza nessun picco emotivo, senza nessun colpo di scena rilevante e anche il lettore arriva a fine lettura senza aver provato assolutamente nulla.
Certo, probabilmente è stato voluto, probabilmente l’autore riesce nuovamente nel suo intento di dipingere talmente bene la vacuità di una generazione perduta che in questo libro anche il lettore si sente allo stesso modo: vacuo, spento e annoiato.

Anno még a szomszéd srác adta ide a filmet, hogy nézzem meg. Persze, hogy megragadt bennem a történet, még ha a kivitelezés épp nem is volt a legjobb. (Tökre bírtam valamiért az egyik Tomandandy soundtrack-et, meg később arra is rájöttem, hogy a csaj a kádban az a Warpaint nevű rohadtul jó bandában gitárol). Aztán évekkel később arra is rájöttem, hogy hoppá ebből meg van könyv, és akkor találkoztam először Ellis nevével. Én meg mikor mikor már eléggé könyvbuzi lettem, beszereztem egy saját példányt és némi keserűséggel szembesültem azzal, hogy a könyv és film azért nem teljesen egyezik. Tetszett a könyv már akkor is, bár a homofób énem azért olykor tiltakozott ellene, mégis megragadt bennem, talán jobban mint a film. Tudtam, hogy újraolvasom majd, így örültem mint majom a…, na szóval annak, hogy van egy saját példányom a könyvből, mert hát akkoriban nem volt épp a legbeszerezhetőbb könyv, és nekem volt egy. Sőt nem csak volt, hanem van is egy példányom, amit most szépen újra is olvastam, és az a helyzet, hogy rohadtul jó volt. Rég kapott már el, ilyen kellemesen borongósan depresszív hangulat olvasás közben, (talán utoljára a Művésztelep Kerouctól lehetett olyan), és rohadjak meg, hogy ezerszer jobb, mint az iszonyatosan kult Amerikai Psycho. Amúgy a sztori meg eléggé egyszerű: pár egyetemista (vagy fősulis, akármi) szemszögéből megismerkedünk a céltalansággal, a kuresz és drogpartykkal, a szittyós szerdával meg a világvége bulival, és minden szarral, amit ezek az épp, hogy csak felnőttek elkövettek egymás, és maguk ellen. Röviden ennyi, na meg Rock'n'Roll

was really surprised by how much this book worked for me. i don’t always love multiple povs but i loved being a voyeur to all the different conflicting versions of the same events, each person remembering the version they wanted to believe out of self preservation and the truth probably being somewhere off the page. we tell ourselves stories in order to live etcetera etcetera

other random things that i had fun with:
- the 80s college experience of it all (and being reminded for the 1000th time how the gen z experience is so much more sanitized - not that i envy these characters’ lives at all but i do think gen z as a generation should probably be having more sex)
- the upperclassmens’ digs at the fratty / reagan / weight room / greed is good type freshmen boys, fun to read in a book written contemporaneously
- the american psycho tie-in with the one chapter from patrick bateman’s pov & imagining christian bale reciting it
- the quick references to the group of classics kids in the secret history bc BEE and donna tartt were friends at bennington

First published in 1987, Ellis' sophomore effort is a postmodern novel of manners illustrating the lives of rich college students at a mock version of the author's alma mater, Bennington School (Donna Tartt also attended this institution and used it in The Secret History). Sure, the text has the satirical elements that are typical for Ellis, but this is by no means an American Psycho - rather, the text explores the psyche of young people haunted by their childhoods and parental baggage (divorce, mental and physical illness, dysfunctional bonds and communication), which leads to a sense of purposelessness and disaffection, a void they try to fill with parties, sex and drugs: Less Than Zero, but with less of a punch.

The novel frequently changes its POV, mainly oscillating between the three main characters, and relies heavily on dialogue, with a lot of it just exposing exchanges of words without reaching common ground. One of the protagonists is Lauren, an artistically-minded senior who misses her boyfriend who left to travel Europe. Lauren has sex with several students and ends up in a love triangle with Sean and Paul. Sean is the brother of THE Patrick Bateman, so the main character of American Psycho, he is very into drugs and believes he loves Lauren - and maybe he also sleeps with beautiful Paul. The latter is bisexual and upholds that he hooks up with both Lauren and Sean. And there is also a cast of minor characters, among them Clay from Less Than Zero who of course modulates his signature line: "People are afraid to merge on campus after midnight". Well played, Clay.

I have to say though that while I generally love Ellis, this one starts out very slow and only picks up speed around the halfway point, and then gets some serious drive. There are also some lengths, and while the dialogue is meant to convey emotional emptiness, it still has to captivate - which it doesn't do throughout. The evocation of atmosphere is expertly done though, especially through the music references and description of people, and flashy sentences like "But what else is there to do at college except drink beer or slash your wrists?" (Lauren) give it the typical pop lit feel that would inspire a whole literary movement in Germany (Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre, Christian Kracht, Moritz von Uslar...).

The Shards really shows how Ellis has grown. Will I still read his whole backlist? You bet.

bruuhhhhh i hated this book. also i wanted to read this book before i realised how much i hated bret easton ellis and i read it knowing that i hate him so. idk. (also oh my god the fact that on the copy i have his name is quadruple the size of the title. like its not like hes sitting there like a supervillain saying 'yes.... make my name bigger than the title so that when u show the book to anyone when they ask what youre reading they all have a moment of confusion'. but still. what a massive cunt)

i like. expected this book to?? be good?????? im disappointed in donna tartt honestly (also dont think i didnt catch all the little similarities between this and the secret history)

anyway, the characters were incredibly unlikeable. especially like. they just kept changing their majors and going on about how much they hated college and i was like WHY... WHY ARE YOU AT UNI. u do not have to be there!!! dumbasses! (i read this book in the last few weeks of high school and im so excited to go to university next year and love going there and learning lol. and i guess i'll probably reread it after ive been at uni for a few years, but i doubt my opinion will change too much). & their thoughts didnt line up with their actions & they were just so fucking mean and bitchy.

this book was so FUCKING pretentious like... shut up! and just bc ur characters call other prententious doesnt mean the book isnt pretentious as fuck. some of the lines had me cringingggg ew

the prose was like. yeugh. like it was trying to be beat prose (like and the hippos were boiled in their tanks kind of style) but it just didnt go far enough, and as a result it felt gross and uncomfortable but not gross and uncomfortable enough that it worked.

ALSO the weird grammar things that would have worked (but still would have been pretentious) if they were just... fucking repeated oh my god. like the speaking without speech marks or the J: [line that the character said] only happened once or twice and it would have worked as a style if they had just happened more. as a result it was just a very messy book. it was just incredible inconsistent.

i gave this book two stars bc lowkey there were some funny moments. also the whole thing of Sean is obsessed with Paul who is obsessed with Lauren who is obsessed with Victor, but no one gives a shit about the person who is obsessed with them, and there were these 3 or 4 chapters where this was illustrated perfectly, one after the other, and that actually made an impression on me and i thought it was good. and about halfway throught the book i got this awful feeling that i liked it. and i mean, i did finish it. (but no for real this book sucks and people who like it are lame)

Patrick bateman’s brother goes to college with other semi-horrible people who struggle to find love, their next fix and…well they don’t really care about much else. Great satirical commentary on the vapid nature of early adulthood.

This was my introduction into the world of Bret Easton Ellis, and I fell hopelessly in love.
I couldn't believe that someone could put together a written work, which not only emanates the characters hyper-sexed-over-zealous-self-conscious-unaware-searching-for-love-not-knowing sadness, but uses language to reinforce its themes. It would seem confusing, but at my first read, it was what I was feeling at that moment (minus the drugs, those came later). Rules of Attraction, at its base, is a novel about communication and the inefficiency of words. It is also a meditation on reality, what is it to who? A theme that pops up in Easton Ellis's later works.
As Lillian has reminded me, it does start and end mid-sentence, only in the brillance of Easton Ellis's mind should a slice-of-life story cut in like any other voyeur, "mid-action" (just as simple as listening in on a phone conversation or looking through your neighboor's window). Easton Ellis makes the reader a voyeur, and yes, it made me feel dirty as it should, but a good dirty.

the actual writing was good. the constantly switching povs made it hard to follow and it didnt really flow that well

worst 20 pages i’ve ever read, goodbye!

I've never seen anyone as delulu as the characters in this book.

& so I thought that after college this would be less impressionable & a tad less impressive. Boy was I wrong. I am still completely enraptured by this novel in which characters DON’T change (breaking 1 of the main cardinal rules of all literature—to make protagonists experience change—Ellis is intrepid). The details in this are perfect and absolutely hilarious--80's encapsulated brilliantly. You end up rooting for the sleaziest of antagonists—nobody in Camden deserves redemption and most actions taken are wholly despicable. Yet—THIS IS college. The confusion, the sex, drugs, alcohol, suicide attempts, abortions, socials… it's all recorded here. I don’t think another writer has influenced me as much in the art of immorality (this includes [up]Chuck Palahniuk & even the Marquis de Sade)—in his use of effective, rapid, stylish, unforgettable prose.

A guilty pleasure that's not all too guilty--despite the explicit content & undercurrent of melancholia. An absolutely essential novel.