Author News
Sequel to Less Than Zero
Bret Easton Ellis’s Imperial Bedrooms
Forthcoming from Knopf
Ellis explores what disillusioned youth looks like 25 years later in this brutal sequel to Less Than Zero. Clay, now a screenwriter, returns at Christmas to an L.A. that looks and operates much as it did 25 years ago. Trent is now a producer and married to Clay’s ex, Blair, while Julian runs an escort service and Rip, Clay’s old dealer, has had so much plastic surgery he’s unrecognizable. While casting a script he’s written, Clay falls for a young, untalented actress named Rain Turner, and his obsession and affair with her powers him through an alcoholic haze that swirls with images of death, mysterious text messages, and cars lurking outside his apartment. The story takes on a creepy noirish bent–with Clay as the frightened detective who doesn’t really want to know anything–as it barrels toward a conclusion that reveals the horror that lies at the center of a tortured soul. Ellis fans will delight in the characters and Ellis’s easy hand in manipulating their fates, and though the novel’s synchronicity with Zero is sublime, this also works as a stellar stand-alone.
–from Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Tags: bret easton ellis, imperial bedrooms
I don’t know. I just don’t.
I’m interested. Very interested
Horrible cover, IMO.
Is the title Bret Easton Ellis?
I agree. The title is not centered on the face. Is it supposed to be over the eyes? Not even close. The tilt doesn’t match the face. It’s really messing me up.
“as it barrels toward a conclusion that reveals the horror that lies at the center of a tortured soul.”
That line makes me want to read every book in the whole world ever before I read this one. Good job, reviewer.
I read this. The first sentence is great. The last sentence is great. The stuff in between is sometimes interesting, but often makes no sense.
I wish that it was
Is this for real, or is this a review of a book that doesn’t and shouldn’t exist?
i got really excited for Imperial Bedrooms as i was re-reading some of Glamorama last night. i really hope the ‘stuff in between’ is more often interesting than not.
I don’t know. I just don’t.
I’m interested. Very interested
Sounds like the publishing industry as it’s been for decades.
I am looking for the ones who care about what’s in between.
I reckon Ellis has a chance with this to not only produce a great book but also retroactively make Less Than Zero better than it is, salvage it from its own tendency toward mawkishness. Based on Lunar Park, which I thought was really amazing, he has the chops. But it’s a big gamble.
Horrible cover, IMO.
Is the title Bret Easton Ellis?
I agree. The title is not centered on the face. Is it supposed to be over the eyes? Not even close. The tilt doesn’t match the face. It’s really messing me up.
“as it barrels toward a conclusion that reveals the horror that lies at the center of a tortured soul.”
That line makes me want to read every book in the whole world ever before I read this one. Good job, reviewer.
very long interview with him in the new vice magazine. they talk about this book a lot.
I read this. The first sentence is great. The last sentence is great. The stuff in between is sometimes interesting, but often makes no sense.
I wish that it was
Is this for real, or is this a review of a book that doesn’t and shouldn’t exist?
i got really excited for Imperial Bedrooms as i was re-reading some of Glamorama last night. i really hope the ‘stuff in between’ is more often interesting than not.
The first 30 pages of Lunar Park is the best writing he has ever done.
Oh it exists. And now it’s a thing that can never un-exist. I have also read this (and everything he’s ever written). It made me make opinions about it.
Sounds like the publishing industry as it’s been for decades.
I am looking for the ones who care about what’s in between.
I reckon Ellis has a chance with this to not only produce a great book but also retroactively make Less Than Zero better than it is, salvage it from its own tendency toward mawkishness. Based on Lunar Park, which I thought was really amazing, he has the chops. But it’s a big gamble.
very long interview with him in the new vice magazine. they talk about this book a lot.
The first 30 pages of Lunar Park is the best writing he has ever done.
Oh it exists. And now it’s a thing that can never un-exist. I have also read this (and everything he’s ever written). It made me make opinions about it.
[…] agree with one HTMLGIANT commenter: the cover to the Less Than Zero sequel, Imperial Bedrooms, is […]
Curious that this book seems to be getting much more attention compared to Coupland’s recently released “sequel” to Generation X (a better book than Less Than Zero, imho), Generation A.
Another shitty Brett Easton Ellis book?!! No way I’m getteing sucked in again.
Curious that this book seems to be getting much more attention compared to Coupland’s recently released “sequel” to Generation X (a better book than Less Than Zero, imho), Generation A.
Another shitty Brett Easton Ellis book?!! No way I’m getteing sucked in again.
To call any book by Ellis a “sequel” is to misunderstand Ellis. Look at his work as a whole, and the phrase “stuff in between” loses value.
To call any book by Ellis a “sequel” is to misunderstand Ellis. Look at his work as a whole, and the phrase “stuff in between” loses value.
I’m slightly over half finished reading IB. David above is right about calling this a sequel, except as an ironic dig at Hollywood. If IB closely relates to another Ellis’ book, it’s Lunar Park with its’ narrator hanging
onto “;reality’ for dear life.
I’m slightly over half finished reading IB. David above is right about calling this a sequel, except as an ironic dig at Hollywood. If IB closely relates to another Ellis’ book, it’s Lunar Park with its’ narrator hanging
onto “;reality’ for dear life.