It's not my favorite from Bret Easton Ellis but still worth reading. My biggest complaint is the length. It seems be repetitive at times and takes too long to get to the actual terrorism part. ( )

It took me longer than I care to admit to actually read this book, considering how much I loved American Psycho. Sadly, this was not the case with this book.
First of all, I was very confused about what this book was actually about? I see certain similar trends between this and American Psycho – the obsession with materialistic details, the way of talking about celebrities and pop culture. I also loved how Patrick Bateman and his little brother Sean both feature briefly in this novel. But for most of the first 250 pages or so of the novel I was very confused about what was actually happening.
And then it really kicked off.
Glamorama is about a young model named Victor Ward (his real name is Victor Johnson) who is trying to make it big in the world using his good looks and acting skills. Most of the first part of the novel is Victor having multiple affairs while trying to keep a relationship afloat, and opening a swanky new club in New York while avoiding the tabloid press and a certain story that could get him into a lot of trouble. It’s during this first part of the novel that we learn about F Palakon, a man who has reached out to Victor and wants to hire him to find someone; this someone happens to be an ex-classmate of Victor when he attended university, and has last been spotted in London. Victor obliges, happy to get away from the drama that his life is headed towards, only for his life to go all kinds of pear-shaped when he actually goes on this mission.
From the beginning of the novel there are hints that what Victor is experiencing is weird, or that he might not actually be the real Victor. Remember how in American Psycho there was this theme about how none of the characters remember what any of the other characters look like or who they are coz they’re too self-absorbed to care? There’s a hint of that in this novel, only here people keep telling victor that they last spoke to him in a certain city or at a certain club, but he insists that he was never at those events, even though nobody believes him. As the novel progresses, this part becomes more and more prominent.
Victor ends up embroiled in a terrorist cell that are planting bombs across many major European cities and landmarks and just causing chaos. There doesn’t seem to be an actual aim to the whole thing beyond just causing chaos – on trains, near museums, on airplanes, threatening major government officials from all over the world by killing their offspring. The whole thing is incredibly violent and Victor ends up in the middle of it, being constantly fed with drugs to keep him quiet and compliant and being coerced into situations he has no idea how to get out of. And try as he might, it seems that his tormentors and roommates (as they are one and the same) seem to be always one step ahead of him.
The last few hundred pages of the book speed by and are a really interesting character study as we see Victor slowly start to lose his grip on reality but also become more aware of the situation around him. He tries so hard to get out of it and to have a normal life, to right the wrongs that his new companions have done and to try and save as many people as possible, but deep down there’s not a lot that he can do and he knows it. It’s only towards the end of the novel that you start to truly question everything – was Victor Ward actually Victor Johnson? Are they one and the same person, or was this Victor Ward a different person made to believe he was Victor Johnson?
I loved the confusion of it, but only as the book came to a conclusion and I started to piece things together for myself. This book isn’t for the light hearted or those looking for something easy to read; you need to go into it with a mind that is ready to be confused and ready to have to piece things together and do some actual work while you’re reading. There are no answers or easily given solutions at the end, but Bret Easton Ellis gives you ample opportunity to theorize and speculate for yourself what was really happening all along.
I give this book a solid 3.5/5 as a final rating. Once I’ve digested it a bit more and figured out more of what it’s about, I’ll probably appreciate it a bit more. But for now, all I can say is that American Psycho was better. ( )

It was good but I have no idea what I just read. ( )

Ganska så intressant historia som Bret Easton Ellis dolt i en symfoni av ytlighet, knark och sex. Hittar man förbi den råa och kontroversiella berättarstilen blir man belönad. ( )

That was disturbing in a hilarious, horrible, insane way. ( )