The Shards: A novelNEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • 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 “A thrilling page turner from Ellis, who revisits the world that made him a literary star with a stylish scary new story that doesn't disappoint.” –Town & Country Bret Easton Ellis’s masterful new 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 school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret’s obsession with Mallory 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. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation. Can he trust his friends—or his own mind—to make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, he spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between the Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision. Set against the intensely vivid and nostalgic backdrop of pre-Less Than Zero L.A., The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction, the real and the imagined, that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret’s life at seventeen—sex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting, and often darkly funny, The Shards is Ellis at his inimitable best. |
Contents
| 17 | |
Section 2 | 35 |
Section 3 | 53 |
Section 4 | 74 |
Section 5 | 97 |
Section 6 | 118 |
Section 7 | 150 |
Section 8 | 167 |
Section 18 | 367 |
Section 19 | 386 |
Section 20 | 402 |
Section 21 | 409 |
Section 22 | 423 |
Section 23 | 435 |
Section 24 | 454 |
Section 25 | 482 |
Section 9 | 186 |
Section 10 | 199 |
Section 11 | 221 |
Section 12 | 246 |
Section 13 | 265 |
Section 14 | 285 |
Section 15 | 307 |
Section 16 | 323 |
Section 17 | 355 |
Section 26 | 490 |
Section 27 | 511 |
Section 28 | 526 |
Section 29 | 538 |
Section 30 | 550 |
Section 31 | 566 |
Section 32 | 597 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abigail afternoon asked bedroom Benedict Canyon Beverly Glen Beverly Hills Beverly Hills Hotel Bret Buckley called Century City Croft Debbie Schaffer Debbie's door drove empty everything eyes face felt float friends front fucking girls glanced glass Go-Go's going guys hallway hand happened head heard home invasions house on Mulholland Jeff Taylor Joan Didion kitchen knew Latchford light lightly living room looked lunch Matt Kellner Matt's moved movie never night nodded noticed okay Palm Canyon Palm Springs parking lot party paused playing Porsche pulled Quaalude quietly realized remember Robert Mallory Ryan Vaughn seemed senior Shingy shrugged smiled someone sound stared started Steven stood stopped suddenly Susan Reynolds talking tell Terry Schaffer thing Thom and Susan Thom Wright Thom's thought told took Trawler trying turned Valium Ventura Boulevard voice waiting walked wanted watched week weekend Yeah