After the first hundred pages, you can see why certain women’s groups called for it to be banned. Its description of sexual violence, torture and murder leaves nothing to the imagination. We are inside the head of Patrick Bateman and he doesn’t get squeamish easily. However, what perhaps enraged the novel’s moral detractors more than the content is the tone, which is not always cold, but sometimes flippant, and sometimes even comic. There are certain images Ellis conjures up involving decapitated body parts that can only be intended as very, very black humour.

What I initially found surprising is just how few pages are devoted to wanton killing. Those that decried this novel would have you believe it’s non-stop snuff from first page to last, but there can’t be more than twenty gore-sodden pages in the entire novel. However, as those blood-free first one hundred pages reveal, there’s more to being a psycho than killing people.

Patrick Bateman is an insufferable yuppie, a right-wing rich white kid with far too much money and nothing of real value to spend it on. The first hundred pages drown you in brand names and pop culture, sucking you into its depiction of 1980s New York in such a way you, too, will start noticing what people are wearing when they enter the room – just like Patrick. He lives in a world where wealth has emancipated him from his responsibilities as a human being. It’s a world where moral values are subjective consumables, just like the latest Givenchy tie or Ralph Lauren shirt. Patrick has so much money he can pick and choose his identity.

And therein lies the crux of this novel. To go further would be to spoil the novel’s denouement, which those who have seen the film will already know. Suffice to say, as the novel tumbles out of control towards its conclusion, Patrick stops being this crazy murderer we can hold at arm’s length, but someone we should all be able to relate to.

The novel is well-written in simple, chilly prose, manipulative like a murder mystery and disorientating in its somewhat picaresque approach. In fact, I’ll only say it’s over-rated in the same way that Ellis’ earlier novels, “Less Than Zero” and “Rules Of Attraction” are under-rated. It is not the greatest novel of the 1990s, and I felt it was too constructed despite its episodic nature to feel totally real – unlike both his earlier novels. It is, however, an important novel by a powerful writer (surely such a clichéd phrase these days it’s the kind of book Patrick himself would pick up).

Set in yuppiefied, late 80s New York, American Psycho tells the story of Patrick Bateman, financial wheeler dealer, designer label freak, gym addict and women charmer. Bateman is also a serial killer with no sense of self, morality or empathy. The novel perfectly depicts a society where eating in the right restaurant, wearing the right clothes and earning the maximum amount of money has replaced any genuine human emotions and relationships. In Bateman's world, your closest friends can't remember your name, the biggest disaster is being seen in the wrong restaurant and its perfectly okay to kill and tortue whoever you like to get what you want.

For someone who grew up in the 80s (like myself), the novel brilliantly recreates the music, culture and dodgy values of the time. It is frequently very funny in a (very) black way and is a very clever satire. Potential readers should be warned, however, that some of the scenes and language in the book are very explicit and disturbing. By following the thought processes and motivations of Bateman, readers are privy to some horrific and shocking images and descriptions. I am a huge fan of horror fiction, but rank this book as the most disturbing I have read - not least because it isn't a horror novel .

If you have a strong stomach, a sense of humour, can remember the 80s and enjoy a brilliantly and cleverly written novel, I highly recommend American Psycho.