Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho

American Psycho (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis is a razor-sharp satire of 1980s excess—a glossy nightmare that exposes the rot beneath Reagan-era materialism. Set in Manhattan’s elite financial world, the novel follows Patrick Bateman, a 26-year-old Wall Street investment banker who’s rich, handsome, and utterly hollow. By day, he obsesses over designer suits, business cards, and restaurant reservations; by night, he descends into shocking acts of violence that blur the line between reality and hallucination.

Ellis builds Bateman’s voice like a weapon—flat, meticulous, and eerily calm—turning the banality of brand names and status symbols into a kind of horror poetry. The more Bateman catalogues the surface of his world, the more it reveals its void: a society obsessed with image and consumption, where identity itself becomes disposable.

Both reviled and celebrated on release, American Psycho remains one of modern literature’s most controversial works. Beneath its gore and nihilism lies a bleak, darkly funny critique of capitalism, masculinity, and the American dream gone septic. It’s not just a horror story—it’s a mirror held up to a culture that can’t tell the difference between power and psychosis.