American Psycho

By: Bret Easton Ellis

Narrated by: Pablo Schreiber

Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Bret Easton Ellis' book, you'll also get an exclusive Jim Atlas interview that begins when the audiobook ends.

This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.

©1991 Bret Easton Ellis (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Bret Easton Ellis is a very, very good writer [and] American Psycho is a beautifully controlled, careful, important novel....The novelist's function is to keep a running tag on the progress of the culture; and he's done it brilliantly....A seminal book." ( The Washington Post)

"The first novel to come along in years that takes on deep and Dostoyevskian themes....[Ellis] is showing older authors where the hands have come to on the clock....He has forced us to look at intolerable material, and so few novelists try for that anymore." ( Vanity Fair)

"A masterful satire and a ferocious, hilarious, ambitious, inspiring piece of writing, which has large elements of Jane Austen at her vitriolic best. An important book." (Katherine Dunn)

A dive into the mind of a broken man

I went into this book without watching the movie first, and I think that’s the best way to do it. American Psycho is an amazing peice of literature about exploring the deeply disturbing mind of Patrick Bateman with some metaphors and symbolism throughout. It runs a bit long, and the man who voice records is good sometimes, but very monotone for the rest. 10/10.

Real or fantasy? You decide

An introspection of the mind. One of the great narrating style writers of the 80’s can describe what a drone in the reality of the 80’s was like.
Psycho can mean a lot of things. Did Batemen really do these things? You decide, not even the author knows….
Instead I suggest you listen to this gentlemen of the 80’s yearn for empathy in a way only Ellis can describe. Have fun cringing.

Holy hell

narration is great. story is wild. gets a bit tedious on some of the detail but it's a thinker

There’s just an idea of Patrick Bateman

I read the book several years ago after seeing the movie, and wanted to like it more. The film adaptation does a good job of turning a very stream of consciousness book into a tight three act story, but it combines characters and situations to save time and leaves a lot on the table. The narrative tells a much more detailed story about his madness.

I wasn’t crazy about the narrator’s voice, and found the book to be a tedious listen at times. The interview with Bret Easton Ellis is a good way to depressurize after finishing the book.

F###ing Hilarious

Not for the faint of heart. Trigger warnings. Way better than the film. The story is slow at first, but once the blood starts, it doesn't stop.

Whoa!

I’m going to have to listen to some Disney themed books now, lol. It’s a pretty intense story, and the graphic description of some of the crimes is tough to wipe from your mind.
Overall a pretty intense story, not for the faint of heart, proceed with caution ……

Loved the Movie, Adore the Book

As somebody who does read and hasn’t finished a book since middle school, I was HOOKED. The story was captivating while the details were gruesome. The movie did a great job recreating some of the events of the book but man let me tell you, THIS Patrick Bateman is an American Psycho

who is this reader???

the reader clearly doesn't understand the author or the text. it's all wrong. especially after listening to B.E.E. read The Shards or James Van Der Beek reading Lunar Park. all the words he mispronounced just makes it all the more cringe. a real shame that such a Masterpiece is read so horribly.

Darkly Hilarious, Rich & Tasteful Dialogue

Patrick Bateman has no principles, no moral apparatus to guide his decisions. His relations with others are apparently a transaction & this is made comical through phony displays of virtue & unrelenting one-upsmanship.

Great if you like messed up things

I found it to be very hilarious because of the absolutely wild social encounters and interactions Bateman has throughout it. I found myself busting into laughter during several events due to the sheer ridiculousness of it. But he does many terrible things, especially to women, that can be hard to listen to for the faint of heart.