Publication Order of Less Than Zero Books
| Less Than Zero | 1985 |
| Imperial Bedrooms | 2010 |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| The Rules of Attraction | 1987 |
| American Psycho | 1991 |
| Glamorama | 1998 |
| Lunar Park | 2005 |
| The Shards | 2023 |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
| The Informers | 1994 |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| White | 2019 |
About Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis (born 7 March 1964 in Los Angeles) is an American novelist and screenwriter best known for “Less Than Zero” (1985) and “American Psycho” (1991). His fiction is satirical, describes extreme behaviour in a flat, affectless style, and often carries characters over from one book to the next.
Ellis grew up in Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley and attended the Buckley School before going to Bennington College in Vermont, where he studied music, moved towards writing and met Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem. He completed “Less Than Zero”, about rich and disaffected Los Angeles teenagers, at Bennington. Simon & Schuster published it when he was 21 and still a student, and it sold 50,000 copies in its first year. He was grouped with Jay McInerney in the so-called literary Brat Pack.
“The Rules of Attraction” (1987) is set at Camden College, a fictional New England college based on Bennington. “American Psycho” is narrated by Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street banker and serial killer. Simon & Schuster withdrew from publishing it after protests over its violence and alleged misogyny, and Vintage brought it out instead. The story collection “The Informers” (1994) followed, then “Glamorama” (1998), set among fashion models, and “Lunar Park” (2005), a mock memoir that turns into a ghost story.
“Imperial Bedrooms” (2010) returns to the characters of “Less Than Zero” 25 years later. “White” (2019), a collection of essays on contemporary political culture, was his first non-fiction book. “The Shards” (2023) is a fictionalised memoir of his final year of high school in Los Angeles in 1981, with a serial killer known as the Trawler in the background. He first serialised it in audio on his podcast between 2020 and 2021.
“Less Than Zero” was filmed in 1987, “American Psycho” in 2000 by Mary Harron and “The Rules of Attraction” in 2002 by Roger Avary. Ellis co-wrote the film of “The Informers” and wrote the screenplay for “The Canyons” (2013), directed by Paul Schrader. A television series of “The Shards”, which he created with Ryan Murphy, premiered on FX and Hulu on 5 August 2026. He has hosted “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast” since 2013.