Rating: 
Summary: As Good Now as When I First Read It
Review: I first bought this book at a used bookstore when I was in 8th grade and it completely changed my life. Up until then, I'd been reading the standard young-adult fare required for school and this was my first foray into anything slightly unusual.At first glance, Less Than Zero seems to be more of a travelogue on Los Angeles for the rich and fabulous during the 80's. There is almost no plot to speak of, and the characters exist in an seemingly emotionless vacuum of privilege, drugs, and casual sex. Everyone is more concerned with clothes, cars, and being tan than anything else, and the flippant, 1st-person, present-tense style backs up this assumption. However, a deeper reading proves there's much more lurking below the surface. This is a very well-constructed novel, sparse and economical in the use of words. It is a deceptively easy read, yet immensely satisfying. I have read this book at least a dozen times since I first purchased it, and now own my 6th copy--I keep loaning it to people who refuse to give it back! This is, in my opinion, by far Bret Easton Ellis' finest work.
Rating: 
Summary: His best that I've read
Review: It's been a while since I've read this book, but it remains the most memorable of Ellis' work that I've come across. From the first page, which rants about merging in LA traffic, you are caught up in the world of the main character, Clay. The general feeling of ennui is well presented and consistent enough to be believable. This is, for lack of a better description, an honest disturbance of the truth.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: Sure I got it and everything, but the fact that not much happens was a turn off. I definetly think it's worth reading, but if the book had been longer it would have been boring. Ellis definetly can establish mood and the utter hopelessness of his characters are what kept me reading. I will probably pick up more book from this author.
Rating:
Summary: California Dreamin' - not!
Review: Bret Easton Ellis is a master of depicting the vast emptiness that can come with too much privilege and not enough soul. I've also read "American Psycho" and "Glamorama", and there is definitely a common thread running through all three novels. People are searching for fulfillment in all the wrong places, and are digging themselves into deeper holes of despair. One of the darkest satirists out there, Ellis injects humor here and there, but his stories are mostly about people you really wouldn't want to know. His female characters are cardboard cut-outs, and the guys are emotionally unreachable. This early work doesn't contain much of Ellis' trademark over-the-top violence and sex, so if you are looking for an early version of "American Psycho", you'll be disappointed. A very interesting read, it is, as Ellis creates a cold, gray, empty world filled with characters who have lost their spiritual selves as well as their souls.
Rating:
Summary: If you didnt like it you probably didn't Get it
Review: I have found that all of the negative reviews of Less Than Zero are by people who thought it was a "waste of time". First of all it only takes a few hours to read this book. Secondly, wow did you guys miss the point. I must reiterate the point made by Jared from MA: Ellis is a satirist. Wow big news. Also I am sick to death of people spouting out that this is "The Catcher in the Rye for the MTV generation". How cliche. I doubt that that is what Ellis was aiming for. My opinion, agree or disagree, is that Ellis is one of the few writers who can accuratly satirize our hypocritical society. His style gives you a sense of vague misery and hedonism and ultimately no one cares. No one is supposed to. Stop to appreciate Ellis' unique style which sucks you in to his somber, disjointed, hazy world.
Rating:
Summary: Less than Zero: a study in desperation
Review: Bret Easton Ellis is probably one of the most moral writers I have ever read - not to mention, a master satirist and stylist. Less Than Zero read likes a MTV video: quick, jumpy sentences written in an adolescent's view of style. I've read The Catcher in the Rye and was extremely put off by Holden Caulfield but not Ellis' Clay, Blair, and Julian. Catcher in the Rye was a book about an alienated character; Less than Zero is about an alienated world. Clay, Blair, Julian, Rip, Spin, and the rest of the crew are voids - black holes-sucking everything into the maw of their despair. When Julian hustles himself for money, I felt uncomfortable and ashamed. Here is a guy who had everything but threw it all away because he couldn't find anything fulfilling in comfort. It sounds cliched but never has a cliche been more exposed for the truth it holds. A brilliant work written by a brilliant writer.
Rating:
Summary: Less than human...
Review: "American Psycho" was the first Bret Easton Ellis book I ever read (back in 94), and only years later did I turn back the clock and read this, his first and best novel. Chronicaling the exploits of Clay, a freshman college student who comes back to hometown L.A. for the Summer, as he bounces around clubs, parties and beach homes, "Less Than Zero" portrays the rich kids of society as amazingly cold, uncaring and unscrupulous and while they have it all, they couldn't care and in the end both them and the reader are left with a major dose of melancholy. I love the way the book is written. It sort of bombards you with more and more information (mostly incidental) and then just suddenly stops cold, jarring you as your read it. It also has a pseudo stream of consciousness feel that kinda matches the drug use of the characters. I cannot say that I relate to the attitudes of many people in this book, yet in a way it all seems pretty familiar, particularly the whole summer flashed by feeling, and the scattered memories that remain. This book is a bit like a "Catcher in the Rye" for the 80s, although doesn't rate quite as highly as that particular book as it doesn't really have any kind of message attached to it. After reading this, I read "Rules of Attraction" the next progression for the kind of characters found here,as they go on to college for more meaningless relationships and cold and easy living. Then having read that I reread "American Psycho" and it was ten times better than the first time, as it really seemed like the logical next step as these same kind of cold and indulgent characters get into the workforce. I retirate "Less Than Zero" is the BEST thing that Ellis has done, but read this, then "Rules of Attraction" and then "American Psycho" and you really see the flow in his work.
Rating:
Summary: Quickest Read of My Life
Review: Never in my life have i read a novel at such a clip. This book is too good to put down! It was assigned to me for my english class, and i read it thrice in the time we spent studying it. That is the first and the last time i ever read a school assigned book to completing, save Harper Lee's cliche' "favorite book". This is my favorite book, hands down. Plus, you have to love a book that mentions Elvis Costello's "Trust" poster.
Rating:
Summary: Did Patrick Bateman grow up amongst these youngsters?
Review: Consider this the forerunner to American Psycho, while reading I imagined Patrick Bateman growing up in an environment such as the one described in this novel. The 200 or so pages are just dripping with cynicism... There obviously is less than a plot, but the words that Ellis has managed to spit onto the paper made me really depressed and there are not a great many books out there who have managed to get me depressed. What Ellis is trying to get across to his readers in all of his novels is the emptiness of mass consumption society. Wether you like this novel or not, one thing becomes very clear: Ellis isn't too fond of American popculture...
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Like the Movie
Review: I read this book, because I really enjoy the movie Less Than Zero. For the longest time I didn't even know the movie was based on a book. Call me naive, I know. I enjoyed the book very much once I realized that the movie had nothing in common with it but the main characters' names and lots and lots of drugs.
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