Bret Easton Ellis Books, From ‘The Shards’ to ‘American Psycho,’ Definitively Ranked

In Ryan Murphy’s The Shards, now streaming on Hulu, disaffected 1980s L.A. teenagers (played by the likes of Igby Rigney, Homer Gere and Kaia Gerber) deal with the simultaneous arrivals of an unsettling and attractive new student and a neighborhood serial killer. The show is adapted from the 2023 novel of the same name by American writer Bret Easton Ellis, who also executive produced.Ellis’ most famous (and infamous) work is American Psycho, a controversial cult hit on publication in 1991, adapted nine years later into a cult film starring Christian Bale. Don’t sleep on the rest of his work, though. Violent and visceral though much of it is, it blends fiction thoroughly and artfully with fact (plus, there’s roughly one mention of GQ per book—thanks, Bret). Here’s our rundown, from worst to best.8. Imperial Bedrooms (2010)With eight fiction books to choose from, can any of them be called a “deep cut”? We’re going to anyway. Deep cut Imperial Bedrooms is Ellis’ 2010 sequel to his debut, Less Than Zero, revisiting its cast as they experience middle age. Protagonist Clay returns to LA to work on an adaptation of his novel, and reintegrates with his old friends. It was easier to make excuses for these characters in the first book, when their youth lent them some amount of pity and poignancy. But they’re all adults now, Clay has gone from precocious social observer to passive bystander, and the studied bleakness of the setting can look flat in the wrong light. It’s still a witty, noirish read, especially if you liked its predecessor, but there are better Ellises to reach for first.7. The Informers (1994)Ellis’ only short story collection, The Informers, comprises 13 pieces, each from a different character’s perspective. Most of them are connected to each other, loosely or otherwise, and some to the wider universe of Ellis’ books. You could look at it as a sort of microcosm of his novels as a whole, as its stories vary in levels of violence, realism and general strangeness, from dating drama to murder. Without the expansive and hyperreal worlds of the novels, though, it’s harder to find footing, and not all of the stories feel as solid as the others. And that’s without even mentioning the vampires.6. Lunar Park (2005)By some metrics, Lunar Park is the weirdest of Ellis’ novels. (By others, it’s not even close.) Published in 2005, it starts off as a pseudo-memoir in which the protagonist, also a writer called Bret Easton Ellis, is in the early stages of literary success, caught up in the debauchery and disillusionment of fame. So far, so Ellis. Then, we veer sharply into fiction, as novel-Bret finds himself a married father of two in suburbia, with his house haunted by a possessed toy, and his life haunted by characters from real-Bret’s previous work. (You won’t look at a Furby the same way ever again.) Undercutting the whole nightmare is the metafictional collision of both Brets as they cope with personal loss and public triumph, yielding one of the more moving novels on the list.5. American Psycho (1991)Surprise! It’s definitely the most famous of Ellis’ works, but American Psycho has ended up in the middle of the pack here. Patrick Bateman is a Wall Street banker in late-’80s New York, obsessed with social climbing and his regimented grooming routine. His acts of violence and his tenuous mental state both worsen throughout the narrative, which is broken up by a handful of neo-modernist chapters discussing ’80s music, in which the blandness is just as unnerving as all the axe-murder stuff. The novel’s 1991 release was cancelled before it had begun after the initial publisher was spooked by the outraged, pearl-clutching media response to rumours of its extreme, violent themes, and when it did make it onto shelves, reviews were mixed. In some countries, it’s still sold shrink-wrapped to protect the graphic—really, seriously graphic—contents. But at its gruesome heart, the novel is a smart critique of the horrors of capitalism and consumerism.4. The Rules of Attraction (1987)Not a prequel or sequel but a flirty sideways glance at Less Than Zero, with three of its side characters brought to the fore in a hedonistic love triangle. Protagonists Lauren, Paul and Sean are at the same university as Clay, and move from party to party and relationship configuration to relationship configuration – both real and imagined. Like The Informers, each chapter is told by a different character, and the messiness of their social and personal lives forms a gossipy, intoxicated knot that the novel pulls tighter rather than unravels. And if you’re keeping track of crossovers (someone has to), there are several to be found with Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, as both books are set in fictionalized versions of Bennington College, Vermont, where Ellis and Tartt were contemporaries. It’s a family affair in-universe, too: Sean is Sean Bateman, the brother of American Psycho’s Patrick. Its candor and multi-faceted viewpoints make it a particularly juicy read.3. Glamorama (1998)Before America’s Next Top Model and Zoolander, there was Glamorama. If that’s not enough to sell it: it’s a thriller set in the world of celebrity and fashion, and filled with all the bonkers stuff that suggests. Model slash actors! Bomb threats! Bribery! The QE2 cruise liner, for some reason! Littered in between are brand name-drops and cameos, coming faster than you can google “what is Jennifer Connelly doing now?” Ellis has called it “the book that matters the most,” after spending longer writing it than any of his previous work. It's the plottiest of the books, too, with hyperbole and high drama forming the backdrop to Ellis’ commentary on consumerism.2. The Shards (2023)Ellis’ latest novel—the one the new series is based on—has a memoirish setup similar to Lunar Park, except instead of adulthood, fictional Bret is in his last year of high school, attracted by a mysterious new student. And instead of haunting, we’ve got stalking: a home-invader-slash-murderer called the Trawler is lurking in the neighborhood. The crime aspect gives the story more pacing, and the creeping horror is brought into sharper focus by a sick ’80s soundtrack and sporadic cameos from the likes of actress Nicolette Sheridan. So the novel sits in a dreamy, liminal space, even dreamier and more liminal than its predecessors. Did any of that actually happen to Ellis? Has he totally made it up? Is it a secret third thing? The answer, of course, is that it’s all of the above.1. Less Than Zero (1985)OK, yes, we’re pretty sure Ellis saved the best for first. Written when he was only 19 and still a student at Bennington, Less Than Zero is a bleak but finely drawn portrait of 1980s young adulthood: the grit and ennui of a group who are socially elite but morally corrupt. Its main character is Clay, who is jaded by his friends’ and family’s own jadedness, observing them from an apathetic distance as they both inflict and experience brutality. This nihilistic eye, combined with a Joan Didion–inspired sparsity of language and directness of delivery, creates a mirror of the period it’s set in that somehow still applies today. The visceral, traumatic events are in an uncomfortably closer reach than those of American Psycho, more easily pictured in our own lives, and therefore infinitely more disturbing. In a good way—we promise.This story originally appeared in British GQ.