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The Shards PDF - Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis • Crime novels and mysteries • 861 Pages
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Book Description
The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis is a gripping psychological thriller and coming-of-age novel set in Los Angeles during the early 1980s. From the acclaimed author of Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms, this dark, atmospheric story blends memory, obsession, and suspense into a haunting exploration of youth and paranoia.
Seventeen-year-old Bret is a senior at an elite private school when a mysterious new student, Robert Mallory, arrives. Charismatic, intelligent, and unnervingly secretive, Robert quickly becomes part of Bret’s social circle—yet something about him feels unsettling. As Bret grows increasingly fascinated with Robert, a serial killer known as “The Trawler” begins targeting teenagers across the city, leaving behind fear, suspicion, and a trail of violence that feels uncomfortably close to Bret’s own world.
As fear intensifies, Bret struggles to separate truth from imagination. His obsession with Robert, combined with his fixation on the murders, fuels a growing sense of paranoia that blurs reality and fantasy. The closer Bret looks, the more difficult it becomes to trust anyone—including himself.
Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author, screenwriter, short-story writer, and director. Ellis was first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style. His novels commonly share recurring characters.
When Ellis was 21, his first novel, the controversial bestseller Less Than Zero (1985) ,was published. His third novel, American Psycho (1991), was his most successful. Upon its release the literary establishment widely condemned it as overly violent and misogynistic. Though many petitions to ban the book saw Ellis dropped by Simon & Schuster, the resounding controversy convinced Alfred A. Knopf to release it as a paperback later that year. Ellis's novels have become increasingly metafictional. Lunar Park (2005), a pseudo-memoir and ghost story, received positive reviews. Imperial Bedrooms (2010), marketed as a sequel to Less Than Zero, continues in this vein.
Four of Ellis's works have been made into films. Less Than Zero was adapted in 1987 as a film of the same name, but the film bore little resemblance to the novel. Mary Harron's adaptation of American Psycho was released in 2000. Roger Avary's adaptation of The Rules of Attraction was released in 2002. The Informers, co-written by Ellis and based on his collection of short stories, was released in 2008. Ellis also wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film The Canyons.
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