History Creator / BretEastonEllis

--> -- '''Rantasmo, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McJAOuIY0D4 on the author]]'''

* ''The Shards (2023)

Alongside the controversy of his books, Ellis is a fairly public figure, whose Twitter account and public quotes skirt the edges of misogyny and misanthropy. In short, Ellis is a terrific writer who isn't all right in the head.

[[http://podcastone.com/program?action=viewProgram&programID=592 Bret's podcast]] on [=PodcastOne=].com, which updates every Monday.

->"''The whole point of [Ellis's books] is 'Look how terrible these people are. Don't do the things these people do. [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing Don't be like these rich, cool, sexy people.]]'''"

* ''White'' (2019) (His first Non-Fiction book)

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Entirely deliberate on Bret Easton Ellis's part. All his works focus on the shallowness and emptiness of these deliberately unlikable, completely unsympathetic and borderline sociopathic rich people who engage in self-destructive behavior such as drug and alcohol usage, constant sex, and in worse cases, ''murder''. This is all to drive home the message Easton Ellis puts in his stories, the message being that we should NOT be anything like these so-called "Cool" people who are rich and successful because all they do is engage in debauchery to fill up the emptiness inside them. %%Invoked

--> -- '''Rantasmo, [[https://channelawesome.com/bret-easton-ellis-needs-more-gay/ on the author]]'''

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: "The Secrets of Summer" in ''The Informers'': vampires here can (and do) eat raw meat or drink animal blood-- and when they consume the blood of drug users they get the effects whether they want them or not.

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* ''White'' (2019)

Brent Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is a Los Angeles-born writer who rose to fame in TheEighties as one of the "Literary Brat Pack"-- and probably the most successful of this group. Works include:

--> -- '''Rantasmo, [[http://chezapocalypse.com/episodes/bret-easton-ellis-needs-more-gay// on the author]]'''

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/breteastonellis_5369.jpg]]

->"''The whole point of [Bret Easton Ellis's books] is 'Look how terrible these people are. Don't do the things these people do. [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing Don't be like these rich, cool, sexy people.]]'''"

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/breteastonellis_5369.jpg]]

Los Angeles-born writer who rose to fame in TheEighties as one of the "Literary Brat Pack"-- and probably the most successful of this group. Works include:

* BlackComedy: As pitch black as it gets. All of his books, no matter how violent or full of {{Squick}}, contain at least three laugh out loud moments and lots of sly dialogue.
* BlackAndGrayMorality
* CrapsackWorld: In his works, pretty much everybody is completely shallow and selfish, and they're usually too dense to notice how empty and meaningless their lives are.
* TheEighties: and how (though ''Literature/{{Glamorama}}'', ''Literature/LunarPark'' and ''Imperial Bedrooms'' are set later)
* {{Gossipy Hens}}: Put any two of his characters in a room together and it's a sure bet they'll start talking about a third.

* HookersAndBlow: And sometimes just blow. And pot. And heroin. And animal tranquilizers.
* UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity: primary settings for his novels.
* NoGoingSteady, occasionally with a dash of LoveTriangle / LoveDodecahedron
* PopularIsDumb: Both perspective and secondary characters in his novels tend to be well connected and have wide social circles... and be shown in dialogue and narration to be offensively, scarily illiterate about anything going on in the real world (usually PlayedForLaughs).

* TheVerse: Characters from previous novels show up in later works, and Patrick Bateman actually debuted (with a somewhat different personality) in ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction''.
** And that's really just the tip of the iceberg. Usually at least two or three other characters from previous novels appear in any given book.

* AsHimself: ''Literature/LunarPark'' is narrated in first person by Bret Easton Ellis, the successful writer of ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' and other novels. At the beginning, it sounds autobiographical, but then completely descends to fiction.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: ''Literature/LessThanZero'', ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' and ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction''. The opening of ''Imperial Bedrooms'' (the sequel to ''Less Than Zero'') gets very [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis meta]] with this, and has the characters commenting on how little the film of ''Less Than Zero'' had to do with their experiences.
* GainaxEnding: Almost all of his books have this, but most especially in ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' and ''Literature/{{Glamorama}}''.
* {{Gorn}}: In all the books to some extent, but reaches an apex in ''Literature/AmericanPsycho''.

* {{Homage}}:
** ''Imperial Bedrooms'' was an extended one to classic hard-boiled detective fiction, in the Creator/RaymondChandler[=/=]Creator/JamesMCain tradition.
** ''Literature/LunarPark'' is largely a Creator/StephenKing pastiche, especially ''Literature/TheShining''.

* LifeEmbellished: ''Lunar Park''.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: ''Literature/LessThanZero'' and ''Imperial Bedrooms'' are both named for ElvisCostello songs.

* PostModernism: His books started to feature more and more postmodern elements from ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' onwards, with ''Literature/LunarPark'' the most striking example.
* NoEnding: ''The Rules of Attraction,'' ''Literature/AmericanPsycho''.
** ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction'', in fact, ends ''mid-sentence''.

* OneHourWorkWeek: Main characters in his stories are often described as holding some kind of occupation or important responsibility but never seen engaging in anything related to that activity. For instance, all the main characters in ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction'' are college students living on campus in the middle a school semester, but no one apparently attends any courses; many main characters in ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' have cushy office jobs on Wall Street but don't seem to do any kind of business work.
* ParentalObliviousness: ''Literature/LessThanZero'', ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction''.

* TheRashomon: Paul and Sean tell conflicting, contradictory accounts of their relationship in ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction''.
* RecursiveCanon: ''Lunar Park'' (Patrick Bateman exists and so does the novel ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'').
* SeinfeldianConversation: All of his books have long drawn out conversations about shallow topics, with the Business Card scene from the book and movie of ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' being the most famous.
* SelfPlagiarism: A couple of passages from ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction'' show up almost exactly word-for-word in ''Literature/AmericanPsycho''-- and ''Attraction'' may have taken them from ''Literature/LessThanZero''.
* ThereAreNoAdults: ''Literature/LessThanZero,'' ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction''
* UnreliableNarrator: Several, but primarily [[Literature/AmericanPsycho Patrick Bateman.]]

* WriteWhoYouKnow:
** Has said that his abusive father was the basis for Patrick Bateman as well as the father in ''Glamorama''.
** He's also been on the receiving end, as Bunny Corcoran from ''Literature/TheSecretHistory'', written by his college friend Donna Tartt, is heavily based on him.

* ''Literature/LessThanZero'' (1985)
* ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction'' (1987)
* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' (1991)

* ''Literature/{{Glamorama}}'' (1998)
* ''Literature/LunarPark'' (2005)

!!This author's works provide examples of:

** Has said that his abusive father was the basis for Patrick Bateman as well as the father in ''Glomorama''.

* WriteWhoYouKnow: Has said that his abusive father was the basis for Patrick Bateman as well as the father in ''Glamorama''.