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In 1985, at 21 and still a student at Bennington College in Vermont, Bret Easton Ellis published Less Than Zero, about Clay, a rich college student home in Los Angeles for winter break. Six years later Simon & Schuster dropped American Psycho before publication, after protests that included a boycott call from the National Organization for Women; Vintage brought it out in 1991. Its narrator, Patrick Bateman, a Manhattan banker, lists brands, restaurants and grooming products in the same flat voice he uses for his murders. Ellis read The Shards aloud on his podcast before Knopf published it in January 2023, his first novel in twelve years, and the FX series he co-created with Ryan Murphy premiered in August 2026. The ten writers below share his ground: money without meaning, narrators who will not look away, and violence told as calmly as a guest list.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Satire · Wealth and violence · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Bret Easton Ellis, start with Jay McInerney, whose Bright Lights, Big City (1984) appeared a year before Less Than Zero and did for Manhattan what Ellis did for Los Angeles. Joan Didion’s Play It as It Lays (1970) is the earlier Los Angeles novel of short, cool fragments, and Donna Tartt, at Bennington at the same time as Ellis, wrote the dark college novel The Secret History (1992). Further down are the satirists who came before him and two women who write numbness from the other side.
10 authors like Bret Easton Ellis
Where to start if you loved Bret Easton Ellis
If you loved Less Than Zero, read Joan Didion.
Play It as It Lays: Los Angeles freeways, short chapters, a narrator who has stopped feeling.
If you loved American Psycho, read J. G. Ballard.
High-Rise: a luxury building, wealthy residents, and violence nobody reports.
If you loved The Rules of Attraction, read Donna Tartt.
The Secret History: a small Vermont college, privileged students and a murder.
If you want the same decade from the women’s side, read Mary Gaitskill.
Bad Behavior: 1980s New York stories of sex, money and power.
If you want more Bret Easton Ellis, read him in order.
Start with Less Than Zero (1985); read Imperial Bedrooms (2010) after it, and Lunar Park (2005) after American Psycho (1991). The Shards (2023) can be read at any point.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Bret Easton Ellis
Who writes like Bret Easton Ellis?
Jay McInerney, Joan Didion and Donna Tartt are the closest matches. McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City (1984) is the Manhattan novel of the same decade, Didion’s Play It as It Lays (1970) is the earlier Los Angeles novel of cool fragments, and Tartt’s The Secret History (1992) is set at a Vermont college like the one in The Rules of Attraction.
What should I read after American Psycho?
J. G. Ballard’s High-Rise (1975) for luxury that turns savage, and Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) for the same 1980s Wall Street. Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018) gives the same Manhattan numbness a woman narrator.
Is Bret Easton Ellis like Chuck Palahniuk?
In part. American Psycho (1991) and Fight Club (1996) both follow men whose consumer lives end in violence, and both became films in 1999 and 2000. Palahniuk’s satire is louder and more absurd; Ellis keeps a flat, deadpan voice.
Does Bret Easton Ellis have a new book?
His most recent book is The Shards, published by Knopf in January 2023, his first novel in twelve years. A television series of The Shards, co-created by Ellis and Ryan Murphy, premiered on FX and Hulu in August 2026.
Which Bret Easton Ellis book should I read first?
Less Than Zero (1985) is the usual starting point: it is short, it was his debut, and it introduces his voice and his Los Angeles. Read American Psycho (1991) once you know whether the flat, deadpan voice suits you, since it is far more violent.
Is The Secret History like The Rules of Attraction?
Yes, in setting. Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis were students at Bennington College at the same time, and both novels are set at small, privileged New England colleges. Tartt’s book is a murder story with a moral reckoning; Ellis’s is a satire of students who barely notice each other.
Sources
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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