If you liked
Books like American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho is Bret Easton Ellis's ice-cold satire of 1980s Wall Street, narrated by a banker whose obsession with business cards and skincare curdles into something monstrous, and you are never quite sure how much is real. If you want more transgressive, unreliable, morally airless fiction, read on.
The shortlist
What to read next
The Secret Historyby Donna Tartt
“The Secret History by Donna Tartt 1992 review. A new student at a Vermont college is drawn into an exclusive Greek-studies seminar and the murder that the small clique conceals. The novel that defined the dark-academia register before it had a name.”
Blood Meridianby Cormac McCarthy
“Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy 1985 review. A nameless teenager joins a band of Indian-hunters along the Texas-Mexico border in 1849. The most violent American novel of the late twentieth century and the rare McCarthy book that demands the prose attention it requires.”
No Country for Old Menby Cormac McCarthy
“No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy 2005 review. A Texas welder finds a satchel of cash at a drug-deal massacre, and the man who comes for it does not stop. Late McCarthy in his cleanest thriller mode.”
The Plotby Jean Hanff Korelitz
“The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 2021 review. A failed novelist steals a dead student's masterwork-plot and publishes it as his own. The canonical contemporary literary thriller about plagiarism and authorship.”
Yellowfaceby R. F. Kuang
“Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 2023 review. A struggling white novelist witnesses the accidental death of her successful Asian-American novelist friend and steals her unfinished manuscript. Kuang's contemporary satirical novel about race and publishing.”
Bad Bloodby John Carreyrou
“Bad Blood by John Carreyrou 2018 review. The Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes blood-testing fraud. Carreyrou's investigative account built from his Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporting.”
FAQ
Common questions about American Psycho read-alikes
- I want a beautiful book about people talking themselves into evil.
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt is the pick: cultured students who commit murder and rationalize it, narrated from inside the rationalizing. It is the literary, campus-set cousin to Patrick Bateman's cold interior monologue.
- I want more American violence rendered without flinching.
- Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men, both by Cormac McCarthy, stare at violence the way Ellis does, though McCarthy finds myth and dread where Ellis finds satire. Both refuse to look away.
- I want the unreliable narrator who knows exactly what they did.
- The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz and Yellowface by R. F. Kuang are both narrated by people rationalizing an ugly act, in the publishing world rather than on Wall Street. Sharp, uncomfortable, hard to put down.
- I want the true story of real financial monsters.
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou documents the Theranos fraud, the nonfiction version of a charismatic figure with no floor under them. If American Psycho's Wall Street was the draw, this is the reporting that rhymes.
The original