Customer Reviews

Stalking Bret Easton Ellis: A Novel in Two Parts

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Just because the book is titled "Stalking Bret Easton Ellis" does not give the authors carte blanche to blatantly plagiarize his style.

"I'm hungover on the red-eye back to L.A...I buzz the stewardess and ask her to bring me some more red, she says they're out. Sighing, I lean back in the oversized leather seat, musing...how first class isn't what it used to be. I flip down my new Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses and stare out the window, anxious for some Xanax. I daydream about the last time I was in L.A. something, Christmas, maybe, a party with Zeigler..."

This reads like a passage lifted from "Less Than Zero" only without the believability. When BEE writes about the ennui of youth, drugs, sex, and decadence it has an authenticity to it, like the writer has lived and seen it. This novel just reads like an 18 year old thought BEE wrote some really cool stuff and they're just trying to modernize it (i.e. replacing Way Farer sunglasses with D&G). The plagiarism of BEE's style is made more flagrant and egregious by the copious use of song lyrics and footnotes which expound on trivia about that song/artist. If you're interested in this novel, please do yourself a favor and skip this cheap imitation and read Less Than Zero instead.

Although the authors attempted to "stalk" Bret's style, they missed by a landslide. This was honestly the biggest waste of $1.00 I've ever spent. The writing is below average, and the storyline is discombobulated and uninteresting. Save yourself the horror. I couldn't bear to finish reading it.

There have been a lot of Bret Easton Ellis novel rip-offs, especially in the past 5 years, but this one has to be the most blatant. The authors of this novel have a knack for imitating and have essentially re-written Ellis' first two novels -- same locations, themes, apathetic drug-fueled with trust funds, characters, dark staccato writing style -- and have just updated the pop culture references to modern times. I cannot believe someone would be spineless and egotistical enough to publish a carbon copy of somebody else's work with their own name on it. Wow, I'm sure these two authors have an amazing career ahead of them, considering they just made it public that neither of them have any original thought, nor have the talent or ability to contribute anything new.

If you are considering reading this, why not just read an actual Ellis novel? This book just takes a piss on any self-respecting, earnest writer. Please don't waste your money and support this mockery of a novel.

When I bought this book, I was under the impression that it was a B.E.E. biography. Not the case. Some weak story vaguely referencing the great author.

I began this book assuming it would be a blatant rip off of an Ellis novel, what a pleasant surprise. This relatively short book has quite a bit of meat to it and very few dull moments (if any). There are certain aspects that remind one of Ellis (haiku like sections titled by the name of the character narrating, for instance) but for the most part I found it to be an entirely different animal altogether. I also get the feeling that the authors have witnessed some of these situations, producing some pretty believable passages. This book is short enough to read in one or two sittings and keep your attention the entire time.

Having read all of BEE's books, I really enjoyed this novel. Very entertaining, with dialogue and frequent references to popular culture that are comparable to Easton Ellis's work. I hope these women keep writing because, clearly, they are talented. And I'm ready for Imperial Bedrooms.

It's a perfectly acceptable imitation of Ellis. I dunno, it was worth reading, but there's a lot of cliche in it. It's fine for a quick read I guess.

As a fan of Bret Easton Ellis, I was excited to see someone's take on his style. I didn't know someone would blatantly cut and paste most of his ideas and plot lines. The inter weaving of characters of the book were a messy, pathetic attempt to draw together an Ellis world. I could see his characters in every single one of these young, trying too hard to be hip, over indulgent youths. Wow, you all have trust funds and coke problems, what a surprise?! Also, there were too many characters jumping around to even get emotionally involved with any of them. I didn't really care about the kids getting raped or overdosing, there was nothing tragic or lost about them, just selfish, poorly written, unevolved characters acting out in the most cliché ways. Daddy issue girls having sex with older men, drunk mothers creating drug addict daughters, and boys who got very little attention from Dad acting out in violent and psychotic ways. What a stretch. It was a waste of my $1.00, if I wanted a bad knock off of fan fiction I would have read a tweens blog about Twilight. Save your money, save your time, don't read this book!

While the illustrious Ms. Weiss and her colleague Ms. Wallace have written a book which, true to its name, stalks carefully in the footsteps of Ellis, it is far from redundant or a blatant copy of any of his works. Rather, they've merely borrowed his sardonic and often dark narrative style while crafting a story that is uniquely their own. "Stalking Bret Easton Ellis" takes the reader on a cynical journey through modern college life and the spoiled and amoral denizens who dwell therein. This book, more than any other I've read, accurately portrays how easily it is for even the most staunch individualist to get swept up in a sea of conformity, or eventually drown in misanthropic irony. Though not a masterpiece, this book nevertheless makes a fitting companion to any of Ellis' work and a must-read for anyone not wishing to become yet another soulless coed wandering through the once hallowed halls of academia. Moreover, for the bargain price of a mere $0.99 you're unlikely to find a better read this year. This book, more than any you're liable to find on a summer reading list, will prepare you for the real world of higher education.

Stalking Bret Easton Ellis is not a novel in the traditional sense; it is a series of sketches, loosely tied together, of the lives of young men and women that simultaneously take advantage of and are trapped by their lives of excess and self-indulgence. The book frequently switches between bewildering and frenetic narrative to introspective, self-loathing exposition in ways that mirror the characters' roller-coaster lives.

For me, this was hard to read at times but was definitely thought-provoking enough to pursue to its conclusion, which, consistent with the rest of the book, doesn't quite tie the threads of the story back together and left me wanting more. Definitely an interesting deconstruction of the archetypal novel.