The Shards is a 2023 novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Ellis' first novel in 13 years, The Shards is told as a mock memior in a manner similar to 2005's Lunar Park.
Set in 1981, seventeen-year-old Bret is a student at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a Mysterious Past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends, even as he becomes a part of their tightly-knit circle. Bret's obsession with Robert is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with the Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them—and Bret in particular—with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence.
In April of 2023, it was announced that HBO would be producing a television series adaptation which Ellis will write and executive produce.
This book contains the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: The end of the novel leaves the answers to a lot of questions open to interpretation:
- Susan sees a wound on Bret's arm that she thinks is the bite mark she left on her attacker. While Bret's actions immediately after this revelation could be seen as confirmation, there is still room for doubt.
- If Bret really did attack Susan and Thom, does that mean he was The Trawler? If so, was Bret unaware of this, or had he been lying to the reader the whole time?
- Who really killed Matt Kellner? At first glance his death would seem to fit The Trawler's M.O., but some details, like the fact that he was the only male victim and received a poster with the same number as one of The Trawler's subsequent victims suggests that it may have been a copycat killer. The police also never consider Matt as one of The Trawler's victims.
- Was there any relationship between The Trawler and the Riders of the Afterlife cult? Between the two of them, who was responsible for the various break-ins, assaults, and murders?
- And many, many more.
- As Himself: Much like his previous novel, Lunar Park, author Bret Easton Ellis - or "Bret Ellis" as he apparently went by in 1981 - is the main character.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: One of the telltale signs that someone is being pursued by the Trawler is that their pets will go missing. After the Trawler kills them, he will use the dead pets as part of displays of his handiwork.
- The Beard:
- Bret dates Debbie Schaeffer mostly to conceal his homosexuality and regularly has sex with other guys behind her back.
- Debbie's father Terry is married and has a daughter, despite the fact that he is a homosexual. His wife is at least somewhat aware of this, as early in the book, she drunkenly tells Bret that her husband is "a faggot."
- Description Porn: Much like another of his protagonists, Bret Ellis is very fond of long lists detailing what people are wearing, listening to, imbibing...
- Gorn: Oh yes.
- Insane Equals Violent: The reason Bret gets worried when he finds out their new friend Robert has been in a mental institution.
- Insistent Terminology: Bret's home is consistently referred to as "the empty house on Mulholland".
- Ironic Echo: "Is my secret safe with you?"
- It Gets Easier: Briefly implied to be the case with the Trawler. It is mentioned that during his first few interactions with police, he seemed to be somewhat remorseful, but that this soon went away.
- Karma Houdini: The Trawler gets away with his crimes scot-free.
- The Killer in Me: If one subscribes to the interpretation that Bret is the Trawler.
- Life Embellished: The book is inspired by Bret Easton Ellis's senior year at the Buckley high school, but diverges significantly from reality when it comes to The Trawler and all the terror surrounding him. And Bret is portrayed as an only child.
- Mad Artist: The Trawler is a horrifying example who mutilates teens and their pets, and then "remakes" them into grotesque chimeras.
- Mind Rape: Part of the Trawler's M.O. is psychological torture. At one point he leaves a cassette tape with audio of him torturing Matt Kellner for Bret, seemingly just to mess with Bret's head.
- Mistaken for Gay: Thom suspects that Robert is gay, despite the fact that Thom's girlfriend Susan turns out to be cheating on him with Robert.
- Parental Abandonment: Most of the novel's characters are rich high school students allowed to take care of themselves. Bret's parents are out of town for the novel's entire plot and rarely even call him (as far as he tells us).
- Stalker without a Crush: The Trawler stalks his victims for several weeks before killing them. He also stalks Robert Mallory, whom he has a twisted obsession with and reveres as a god.
- The Unreveal: While it appears that Robert Mallory is the Trawler, this turns out to be false when another murder happens after Robert's death. We never learn the Trawler's true identity.
- Wham Shot: Near the end of the novel, Bret visits Susan at her house after she gets out of the hospital. They have an honest conversation about the events of the last several months, Bret's sexuality, and their relationship. They wistfully reflect on how their relationship could've gone and it seems like everything is getting neatly wrapped up. Then Susan sees what she thinks is the bite mark she left on her attacker, and everything the reader thought they had figured out gets thrown out the window.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The Trawler preys on teenagers and horrifically tortures and murders them.
- There's also Terry Schaeffer, Debbie's father, who is a pedophile who dangles the possibility of writing a movie script over Bret's head in order to have sex with him.
