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Cover of The Shards

Fiction · 2023 · R

The Shards

by Bret Easton Ellis

A fictionalized teenage Bret Ellis senses a serial killer circling his 1981 LA prep-school friend group.

A novel of sensational literary and psychological suspense from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged high school friends in a vibrantly fictionalized 1980s Los Angeles as a serial killer strikes across the city Bret Easton Ellis’s latest masterful novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set in a vibrantly fictionalized Los Angeles in 1981 as a serial killer begins targeting teenagers throughout the city. Seventeen-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep scho

For17+GenreFictionLength320 pagesRead time~8.5 hours

This analysis was generated by AI from publicly available reader reviews, literary criticism, and book discussions. It has not been verified by a BookLens community reviewer and may contain errors. Be the first to verify →

Content snapshot

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

Very heavy

Sporadic but shocking, gruesome, and over-the-top violence includes gore, torture, and animal cruelty/death tied to the serial killer plot

Language

A lot

Frequent strong language throughout

Sexual Content

Very heavy

Explicit sexual content is extensive, including detailed sex scenes and a scene where an adult takes sexual advantage of the teenage narrator; some reviewers found the volume of explicit content excessive

Substance Use

A lot

Extensive drug and alcohol use among the teenage characters

Emotional Intensity

A lot

Addiction, body horror, stalking, and toxic relationships pervade the narrative's paranoid atmosphere

What this book is about

Narrated by a character named Bret in his final year at an elite Los Angeles prep school in 1981, the novel blends autofiction with a slow-building thriller as a new student's arrival coincides with a series of gruesome murders attributed to a serial killer called the Trawler. Ellis returns to his signature blend of privileged excess and creeping dread.

Notes for sensitive readers

Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.

Extensive graphic sexual content, including an adult/minor encounter

Graphic gore and torture tied to a serial killer plot

Heavy teen drug and alcohol use

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