Rating: 
Summary: Ellis phoned in this effort
Review: As I read "The Informers", I thought I had mistakenly picked up a really bad copy of a "Beverly Hills 90210" script. This is vapid, humorless writing. Bret Easton Ellis CAN write, he just forgot how when he began this "novel".
Rating:
Summary: this is his worst by far
Review: this book is so pointless, so stupid, so vapid, that it defies one's spending money on it. I love Bret Ellis, but this is an insult, obviously a bunch of cutout narrative packaged together and called a "novel." It's not a novel. It's nothing. Save yourself the trouble read Less Than Zero or Rules Of Attraction and then stop while you're ahead
Rating: 
Summary: A history of American frustration
Review: It's an interesting book. Even if it seems copied out of a cult young Italian author: Roberto J. Sartorelli. The title is : "Portrait of the artist as a young fly fisher"It's something you guys should really read!!!
Rating:
Summary: I lost my time
Review: I've just read this book by Bret Easton Ellis and I wonder how come he's so well considered in the new wave of American literature. It was the first book I've read of him but I don't think I'm gonna get over it. The only thing that was in my mind was the adjective "impossible" because I did not find any of the stories possible or some kind of reality. Does this world exist somewhere in the world? I don't think so. In the Italian version -the one I read - the cover said it was a mixture of horror and comedy well combined together. In fact, I think the editor lost some paper and I lost my time
Rating: 
Summary: A wasteland of wonder
Review: Once again Ellis delves into the empty minds of America's L.A. Jet-set youth, and with a more mature perspective. Ellis not only recaptures the nilhism of a DeSadian society where one has nothing to look forward to, nowhere to go, no individualism and no heros, but deconstructs the former characters by revealing the process of moral degeneracy. In one chapter Ellis introduces an East-coast teenager, with dreams and a bright future, into the L.A. "wasteland" only to chip away the moral soul piece by piece. In "Less Than Zero", Ellis aims at the 80's teenager coming of age into a thankless adult world, and in "The Informers", Ellis raises the question "what can one expect from the children of parents with no self-worth or moral conscience?" There is no future, only repetition.Ellis' poignant portrayal of timelessness" reflects the demise of a withering modern-day culture. Time isn't measured in days, hours, or seconds, but in movie lengths, car rides, radio songs and drug induced reveries. This metaphor conveys his comprehension of how time has been displaced by the media and pop-culture. The mature touch in Ellis' novel "The Informers" lies beneath the superficial coats where a glimmer of humanistic consciousness is revealed in the last chapter of Ellis' novel. It's this sliver of hope that sparks in the heart of the young girl who desires to be loved. Ellis closes with the conclusion that hope can exist even in a moral wasteland. This is what puts Ellis in a caliber all his own as a serious writer of the human soul.
Rating:
Summary: I read it a few years ago, but it's often in my thoughts.
Review: This book so influenced my own book: the tone, the attitude, the ennui - I've stolen it all. I only wish I could convey such dead-on loucheness and decadence so effortlessly. One scene, with a father and son on vacation together in Hawaii, haunts me still. I don't blame my valium addiction on Bret - that would be immature - but he certainly played a part (and, of course, this would all make a lot more sense if I hadn't just taken a Vicodin). And, may I add, that I absolutely love the cover of the paperback edition? It really captures the privelege, and, yes, the emptiness, the boredom that often comes when one is blessed with very good hair. A stunning acheivement (said without irony).
Rating:
Summary: F. Scott Fitzgerald for the 90's
Review: This book gets three stars for the writing, which is competent, and one more for the subject matter. Ellis's career is based on chronicling the moral defects of the wealthy West Coast, in the same way F. Scott Fitzgerald did on the East Coast. In a series of interconnected first-person monologues, Ellis puts us inside the minds of various SoCal types, and explains a little of how they can be so . . . well, SoCal. Some might want to think that Ellis is exaggerating for effect, but he isn't. Sad but true, this is an accurate and well-written piece of social reportage, and anyone who is interested in the bizarre forms humanity takes in the distinctive environment of Southern California will find this book worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasure to watch an author mature
Review: In The Informers, Bret Easton Ellis continues with his stream of dark consciousness style, plunging deeper into our American wasteland. There is not a plot to speak of. This book is an expose, a strung out journal. No linear story exists. Not a single pleasant thing happens to any of the characters, with the exception of Anne, who does manage to meet a boy, but of course he winds up getting slaughtered by vampires. Even the vampires suffer, vomiting into toilets after discovering their victims blood was rich with heroin. Ellis ended his haunting American Psycho with the alarming, "This is not an exit," but The Informers offers perhaps even less redemption for its sorted cast. Loveless and stark, with no epitaph to speak of. Ellis does manage to evolve and branch into what for him is new literary territory. In The Rules of Attraction and American Psycho we are introduced to Sean and Patrick Bateman. The young spoiled, exceeding wealthy, ubiquitously jaded brothers who form the crux of Ellis's dusky landscapes. Sean even has a cameo of sorts in The Informers. But Patrick and Sean are young like Ellis is. They are men like Ellis. Strong like Ellis. In The Informers Ellis introduces us to something different; Their families. The mothers and the fathers, the sisters and brothers. Ellis's portrait is now complete. Here is the why behind the hedonism, the violence, and the senseless moral ambiguity of it all. This is where the monsters come from. Here we find the roots, jaundiced and sickly, but roots never the less. Ellis has managed to mature and enlarge his shadowy world, without sacrificing any of the unholy brimfire that continues to be so fresh a voice for his eager readers.
Rating:
Summary: The Informers is disconnected and basically nothing new.
Review: I was not entirely disappointed with The Informers. Perhaps this is because I did not expect too much. Nevertheless, I was still underwhelmed. Ellis has talent as reflected through his use of language and his expertly crafted characterizations. What he lacks, however, is an ability to develop new and original ways of using these characters to tell a story that has a point. Also, what of these people in this time and age? Did they learn anything? Are they even alive? He doesn't really make me care.
Rating: 
Summary: Better Than You May Have Heard
Review: The first book I read by Mr. Ellis was "The Rules of Attraction" and I couldn't believe how unlikable his characters were and how casual they were about sex and drugs and failing school. Well, you can imagine how surprised I was to read this one, which is a collection of vig nettes about horrible, morally-devoid rich and beautiful people in L.A. For some reason, though, it was a relatively easy read, and I kept going back to it, fascinated with how natural the characters spoke about things that would absolutely blow my mind to experience in my own boring life. These characters don't really have worries, and if they do, they're nothing compared to the average person's worries. Somehow, this book ends up making you feel both bummed and enlightened. Probably, for me any way, because you're sorry that there are walking corpses in L.A. who don't care about anything and are affected by nothing, but the enlightenment exists because I can al! so take solace in the fact that I'm not one of them. Mr. Ellis is my favorite author, and I liked the book, but it is definitely not your average reader's cup of tea.
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