The Shards is a 2023

autofiction In literary criticism, autofiction is a form of fictionalized autobiography. Autofiction combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction. An author may decide to recount their life in the third person, to mod ...

novel by American author

Bret Easton Ellis Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author, screenwriter, short-story writer, and director. Ellis was first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a w ...

, was published on January 17, 2023, by

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

. Ellis's first novel in 13 years, ''The Shards'' is a fictionalized memoir of Ellis's final year of high school in 1981 in Los Angeles. The novel was first serialized by Ellis as an

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

through his podcast on

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a co ...

Publication

''The Shards'' was first serialized as an

read by Ellis through his podcast on

. The audio serial was published in twenty-seven individual installments, released between September 6, 2020, and September 6, 2021. On December 1, 2021, Ellis announced on Instagram that the manuscript of ''The Shards'' had just arrived for him to look over. In May 2022, pre-orders for the book were made available. It was published by

on January 17, 2023.

Reception

Reviewing the audiobook for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' in 2021, Theo Zenou called it Ellis's "weirdest, most interesting work in years" and felt it was "rendered all the more absorbing" by the audiobook format. ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' wrote, "The usual issues with Ellis apply to this bulky novel: The flatness of the characters, the gratuitousness of the violence, the Didion-esque cool that sometimes reads as Olympian smugness. But as the story proceeds, it also becomes easier to admire Ellis' ability to sustain the mood." ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' wrote that the book "feels like two disparate novels—an overly detailed, fictionalized memoir and a high gothic serial killer thriller—that never come together meaningfully or believably."

Melissa Broder Melissa Broder is an author, essayist and poet. Her work includes novels ''The Pisces'' (Penguin Random House 2018) and ''Milk Fed''Simon and Schuster2021), the poetry collection ''Last Sext'' (Tin House 2016), and essay collection ''So Sad Today ...

said in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' that the book "invit sthe reader more profoundly into the emotional realm of the protagonist" than Ellis's earlier works. While the length and looping narrative helped build suspense, "the reader wonders if the book could have been shorter and still achieved the same psychedelic, collage-like effect", she wrote. Broder concluded that "the novel’s climax and denouement ultimately fall flat".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shards, The 2023 American novels Autofiction Alfred A. Knopf books American memoirs American horror novels Fiction set in 1981 Novels by Bret Easton Ellis Novels set in the 1980s Novels set in Los Angeles Audiobooks Novels about serial killers