Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Estilhaços

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Estilhaços by Bret Easton Ellis

33 reviews

daredeviling's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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.

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carnbostrikesagain's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is far too long. You could cut 100 pages and it'd be exactly the same. Other than that it's really good. Disturbing in all the best ways. The trawler story is by far the most interesting part of the story. The weird stilted dynamics of the characters are interesting and kept me engaged. The tone is the best part, really capturing the disturbed blasé word they live in.

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amberinbookland's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense

4.5

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ireneac's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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missfox051's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a corker! This is undoubtedly one of the best books I have read and I read a lot. Not as disturbing as American Psycho but has moments of gut wrenching horror. Very very good.

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