The Shards – Bret Easton Ellis
Expectation: A based on true events murder mystery set in the privileged world of 1980s Los Angeles teens.
Reality: A hedonistic cat and mouse story that will have you second guessing everything the narrator (a fictionalized version of the author) has told you.
My Take:
I had many preconceived ideas of Bret Easton Ellis prior to tackling my first read of his, “The Shards.” Because I had seen a few of his film adaptations (American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction), I thought his mixture of erotic violence, subversiveness and nihilism would be too dark and frustrating to read.
In true “your reputation precedes you” fashion, I was both right and wrong in my assessment of the author.
“The Shards” was all those things I described above, but it was also an incredibly well-written retro thriller that kept me rather hooked from the introduction to the final chapter reveals.
Of course between those two things was about 600-pages of text, and I alternated between being engrossed and exhausted as I feverishly tore through this mini-epic in a week.
In the end, I waffled between a three-and-a-half and four-star rating, mainly because the bloat, bombast and repetitiveness of the story started to detract from what was working well: exploring the psychosis that plagued our main characters fueled by hedonism without repercussion.
Like many established writers decades into their careers, Ellis doesn’t seem to think he needs an editor, but he most certainly still does. Trimming a few hundred pages from the manuscript would’ve made this less rambling and more gripping.
My final opinion is that “The Shards” is the perfect read for people who enjoy literary horror (like “Reprieve”) and very gay, very violent and very pretentious stories. I am that type of reader to a point, so this pushed my limits given its length. I can’t say it converted me to the cult of Ellis, but I’m not opposed to reading some stories in his back catalog.
Prior to sharing a few likes, dislikes and a theory on the ending, I’ll say that Ellis did a decent job with the narration. He almost structured it like a podcast serial, which made it feel conversational rather than a performance. Since this was a “memoir” it worked well, but the meta-ness of it all was still a bit weird.
Engrossing elements
Autofiction takes a lot of chutzpah, but Ellis balanced it well since he didn’t canonize himself at the expense of others. He was just as tawdry and morally decayed as his classmates.
Whether intended or not, it was reminiscent of a teen slasher film, replete with drug and alcohol abuse, sex, clueless adults and stupid actions that you know will lead to someone’s untimely death. I found this gave the story an accessibility it otherwise wouldn’t have had.
The LA noir vibe was a nice touch. Ellis treated the Beverly Hills aesthetic and consumerism of the 1980s as secondary characters. This also gave him the mechanism to offer hindsight critiques of the era while still reveling in its glamor and excess. Although at times this felt like a prequel to his screenplay for The Canyons.
The Trawler was a legitimately terrifying entity. Ellis held little back in his descriptions of the victims. I read this while my husband was out of town and had to turn on lights before entering various rooms and obsessively ensured doors and windows were locked.
Unlike slasher films of the 1980s, the queer elements here are not coded. Ellis, openly gay, included a lot of sex with the unbridled carnal passion that only existed pre-AIDs epidemic. With that said, non-gay men will probably find the frequency and vivid descriptions of these liaisons off-putting.
Exhausting elements
Not a single character is likable, and almost every action in the novel is deplorable to some extent.
The constant brand, band, film and literature references were fun at first, but then grew tedious.
Even though I’ve never driven around Los Angeles, I feel like I could find my way given the numerous wayfinding descriptions Ellis included in the story.
There were too many plots. In true horror/thriller fashion, you need some red-herrings, but many of these had nothing to do with the core story (who is the Trawler).
“The Shards” ending: A theory [major spoilers]
Immediately after finishing the novel I was disappointed. It felt like all the build up led to a less than satisfying conclusion — Robert never admits he’s the Trawler before falling off the balcony to his death while being teased by Bret.
But then I went back and listened to the previous three chapters — something I rarely do — and with the benefit of hindsight, the genius of what Ellis did was more apparent.
When we learn the Trawler was obsessed with Robert, referring to him as “the God” and one more murder occurred after his death, I’m led to believe that the “cult” responsible for the mayhem was in fact Bret, Debbie and Robert.
They all had some level of obsession with one another. Each was regularly drugged into oblivion. None of them knew how to process emotions normally so they lashed out.
Robert didn’t like that his first LA girlfriend was seeing other people. Debbie was jealous of Bret and Matt. Bret couldn't handle Susan’s relationship with Robert when he loved him. Debbie and Robert hated her father.
While this doesn’t account for every action of the Trawler, it does explain the targeted nature of the murders, animal abductions and violence to other characters. It leads me to believe everything was an act of revenge by unhinged teens who ended up taking things too far.
Or, we could be led to believe everything was true and none of it was. There’s a part of me that also believes this was all Bret simply working out the plot of his first novel (and possible film script).
This could all be completely off base, but I also don’t think it’s entirely implausible either. If you read the novel, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: April 8 – April 15, 2023
Multi-tasking: Not recommended. I had to relisten to several chapters because Ellis slyly included a detail I missed, because I was doing something else while listening.
