I've read a lot of books in my life, but surprisingly I had never picked up one by Bret Easton Ellis, or seen any adaptations. There was no distinct reason for this, I just have a ton of books to read, and a ton of shows to watch. All I knew up to the point of The Shards was that FX was putting out a series, and for other works I knew of American Psycho (which is currently almost ready for me at the library to pick up, and the movie in my list on Prime to watch). The commercials/ads for The Shards series looked intriguing, so I looked into getting the book at the library, and made it a goal to read the text before watching the show (as is my preferred method if I can).
The book itself is just over 600 pages (hardcover). Part fiction, part non-fiction. It's slow. It's drawn out. There is a lot of buildup, then an occurrence, then back to drawn out for very long periods of time. Thrown in there is also a lot of sexually explicit teenage material, between themselves, and with adults. Within the ebbs and flows of the novel, is a murder mystery that in and of itself is very intriguing. A serial killer hellbent on taking lives of the wealthy, spoiled children of Los Angeles, in vile and gruesome ways. My gripe is that much of the book was unnecessary. It could have been easily skimmed down to 300 or 350 pages and been a much more taught thriller without so much fluff. I did enjoy the eventual ending though, it was satisfying, yet leaves you really guessing.
Once I had finished, I caught up on the show and then watched it in real time each week for the latter half of the nine-episode adaptation. I say nine begrudgingly, you'll see why, read on. The show starts out following the source material nicely. Even down to exact dialogue, scenes, places, and cars being driven. It showed that Ellis definitely had a hand in the show. It did continue to some extent throughout, while other liberties were thrown in to make it more intriguing. Death scenes were very well done, disturbing to say the least, and really brought the text to screen nicely. Tense moments between characters were well done. By the end, you really wanted to hate pretty much everyone, from the excessive adults to the spoiled rotten teenagers, which for me made it a good show in that regard.
My gripes though come in the episodes and not wrapping it up. Nine episodes, where two episodes are half episodes, in only an attempt to obviously draw things out was annoying. Especially when the show just kind of ends on a cliffhanger, and you realize "well great, they did this to try and get a second season". The problem is, what if it isn't picked up? Then you've just ruined the whole thing, when you could have easily had a ten-episode show, all full-length episodes, and wrapped it all up in a blood-soaked bow. And in my mind, it's going to be a far stretch to have enough material to do a second season, without going well beyond the source material, or really drawing it out as the book often did.
Overall, was I disappointed? In some ways, both book and show, yes. Is it worth having read and watched it? I'm not kicking myself for doing either, but I also wouldn't rush out and tell people to read the book or watch the show. I'd give both a C if I was to rate them.
Written by Kyle Lybeck
The book itself is just over 600 pages (hardcover). Part fiction, part non-fiction. It's slow. It's drawn out. There is a lot of buildup, then an occurrence, then back to drawn out for very long periods of time. Thrown in there is also a lot of sexually explicit teenage material, between themselves, and with adults. Within the ebbs and flows of the novel, is a murder mystery that in and of itself is very intriguing. A serial killer hellbent on taking lives of the wealthy, spoiled children of Los Angeles, in vile and gruesome ways. My gripe is that much of the book was unnecessary. It could have been easily skimmed down to 300 or 350 pages and been a much more taught thriller without so much fluff. I did enjoy the eventual ending though, it was satisfying, yet leaves you really guessing.Once I had finished, I caught up on the show and then watched it in real time each week for the latter half of the nine-episode adaptation. I say nine begrudgingly, you'll see why, read on. The show starts out following the source material nicely. Even down to exact dialogue, scenes, places, and cars being driven. It showed that Ellis definitely had a hand in the show. It did continue to some extent throughout, while other liberties were thrown in to make it more intriguing. Death scenes were very well done, disturbing to say the least, and really brought the text to screen nicely. Tense moments between characters were well done. By the end, you really wanted to hate pretty much everyone, from the excessive adults to the spoiled rotten teenagers, which for me made it a good show in that regard.
My gripes though come in the episodes and not wrapping it up. Nine episodes, where two episodes are half episodes, in only an attempt to obviously draw things out was annoying. Especially when the show just kind of ends on a cliffhanger, and you realize "well great, they did this to try and get a second season". The problem is, what if it isn't picked up? Then you've just ruined the whole thing, when you could have easily had a ten-episode show, all full-length episodes, and wrapped it all up in a blood-soaked bow. And in my mind, it's going to be a far stretch to have enough material to do a second season, without going well beyond the source material, or really drawing it out as the book often did.
Overall, was I disappointed? In some ways, both book and show, yes. Is it worth having read and watched it? I'm not kicking myself for doing either, but I also wouldn't rush out and tell people to read the book or watch the show. I'd give both a C if I was to rate them.
Written by Kyle Lybeck
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