---
product_id: 3623416
title: "The Rules of Attraction"
price: "A$30"
currency: AUD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/3623416-the-rules-of-attraction
store_origin: AU
region: Australia
---

# Multi-perspective narrative Cult 80s college satire Raw, unapologetic themes The Rules of Attraction

**Price:** A$30
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 📖 Unlock the scandalous secrets of 80s youth — where love is messy and rebellion is stylish!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Rules of Attraction
- **How much does it cost?** A$30 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.au](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/3623416-the-rules-of-attraction)

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- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
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## Key Features

- • **Cult Classic Status:** Join thousands who’ve embraced this provocative, genre-defining novel with a 4.0-star rating.
- • **Dark Humor & Satire:** Bret Easton Ellis masterfully blends biting wit with poignant social commentary.
- • **Triangular Tensions:** Experience the tangled love lives of Sean, Lauren, and Paul through sharp, shifting viewpoints.
- • **Iconic 80s Campus Drama:** Dive into the decadent Reagan-era liberal arts scene where every party is a story.
- • **Unfiltered Emotional Depth:** Explore the raw, unvarnished realities of youth, lust, and apathy in a morally complex world.

## Overview

The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis is a darkly humorous and incisive novel set in a small New England liberal arts college during the 1980s. Told through the intertwined perspectives of three disaffected students caught in a complex romantic triangle, the book explores themes of lust, apathy, and moral ambiguity against the backdrop of Reagan-era excess. Praised for its sharp satire and raw emotional honesty, it remains a cult classic with strong appeal to readers fascinated by coming-of-age stories and social critique.

## Description

Set at a small, affluent liberal-arts college in New England at the height of the Reagan 80s, The Rules of Attraction is a startlingly funny, kaleidoscopic novel about three students with no plans for the future--or even the present--who become entangled in a curious romantic triangle. Bret Easton Ellis trains his incisive gaze on the kids at self-consciously bohemian Camden College and treats their sexual posturings and agonies with a mixture of acrid hilarity and compassion while exposing the moral vacuum at the center of their lives. Lauren changes boyfriends every time she changes majors and still pines for Victor who split for Europe months ago and she might or might not be writing anonymous love letter to ambivalent, hard-drinking Sean, a hopeless romantic who only has eyes for Lauren, even if he ends up in bed with half the campus, and Paul, Lauren's ex, forthrightly bisexual and whose passion masks a shrewd pragmatism. They waste time getting wasted, race from Thirsty Thursday Happy Hours to Dressed To Get Screwed parties to drinks at The Edge of the World or The Graveyard. The Rules of Attraction is a poignant, hilarious take on the death of romance. Note: FIRST PAGE OF TEXT STARTS IN MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE, THIS IS THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSE TO BE & INTENTIONALLY STARTS ON PAGE 13

Review: Great , Quick read! - Saw the movie first , and will say they are both equally as good. While the novel takes place in the 80’s I find Ellis to be one of my favorite authors and great finding a gay author i can relate with !
Review: Absorbing satire of college life in the 80's - Wow. After having read 'The Rules of Attraction' by Brett Easton Ellis, that word popped into my mind. I have never read anything like this novel. The characters are hardly likable, pretentious and lost. Sean (the brother of Patrick Bateman from 'American Psycho') is hedonistic, apathetic, and coasting through college with drugs as his loyal companion. He's promiscuous, but in love (or at least he thinks he is) with Lauren. Lauren is a girl who can't make her mind up about a major & the affections of her boyfriend Victor, currently backpacking through Europe. Paul completes this triangle. Once the boyfriend of Lauren, he has his eyes set on Sean. The novel chronicles the fall term of 1985 at Camden College: a pseudo-Bohemian, liberal arts college on the East Coast. The novel contains other assorted characters meant to function as playthings for the three main characters. Instead of chapters, we read point of views from Sean, Lauren, and Paul leaving us with unprotected entry into their thoughts. Different P.O.V.s leave some questions unanswered like to what degree are these relationships imaginative or truly real? Ellis has written a funny and shocking story about the "death of romance" and the beginnings of lust and apathy. The story is raw and unflinchng leaving the reader to make its own decisions about what the point of this book may be. In my opinion... It raises questions about not just these select groups of college students, but also about America during the Reagan 80's. Ellis is a moralist, in an indirect way holding up a portrait of ourselves and a decadent 80's America, demanding us to look at it, accept it, and either laugh at its nostalgia and history or cry for its moral vacancy.

## Features

- Bret Easton Ellis, The Rules of Attraction, paperback

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #51,542 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #145 in Dark Humor #414 in Fiction Satire #819 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.0 out of 5 stars 1,262 Reviews |

## Images

![The Rules of Attraction - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71jYvBtIE6L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great , Quick read!
*by D***C on March 22, 2026*

Saw the movie first , and will say they are both equally as good. While the novel takes place in the 80’s I find Ellis to be one of my favorite authors and great finding a gay author i can relate with !

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Absorbing satire of college life in the 80's
*by R***S on October 29, 2002*

Wow. After having read 'The Rules of Attraction' by Brett Easton Ellis, that word popped into my mind. I have never read anything like this novel. The characters are hardly likable, pretentious and lost. Sean (the brother of Patrick Bateman from 'American Psycho') is hedonistic, apathetic, and coasting through college with drugs as his loyal companion. He's promiscuous, but in love (or at least he thinks he is) with Lauren. Lauren is a girl who can't make her mind up about a major & the affections of her boyfriend Victor, currently backpacking through Europe. Paul completes this triangle. Once the boyfriend of Lauren, he has his eyes set on Sean. The novel chronicles the fall term of 1985 at Camden College: a pseudo-Bohemian, liberal arts college on the East Coast. The novel contains other assorted characters meant to function as playthings for the three main characters. Instead of chapters, we read point of views from Sean, Lauren, and Paul leaving us with unprotected entry into their thoughts. Different P.O.V.s leave some questions unanswered like to what degree are these relationships imaginative or truly real? Ellis has written a funny and shocking story about the "death of romance" and the beginnings of lust and apathy. The story is raw and unflinchng leaving the reader to make its own decisions about what the point of this book may be. In my opinion... It raises questions about not just these select groups of college students, but also about America during the Reagan 80's. Ellis is a moralist, in an indirect way holding up a portrait of ourselves and a decadent 80's America, demanding us to look at it, accept it, and either laugh at its nostalgia and history or cry for its moral vacancy.

### ⭐⭐⭐ A grey area.
*by J***A on July 29, 2014*

I stumbled upon Bret Easton Ellis's work after watching the movie adaptation American Psycho. It is my favourite movie of all time, and one of the only movies I can watch over and over. I was curious about the book, so I purchased it. Ellis has a very unique style of writing, one that took me some getting used to. The only way I can think to describe it is... Nora Roberts on meth. Bad metaphor, I know. I was drawn to how surreal he created his characters and the world they live in, something that appears to be normal on the surface but beneath is warped. After reading American Psycho I was curious about his other works, so I decided to purchase this novel. Again, I experienced the surreal in the seemingly normal setting -- this time at an arts college with three different main characters. I won't get into the plot, because I will probably spoil it. Basically, this book is about three college students who become entangled. Rather than being a typical novel with a plot, setting, characters, introduction, body and conclusion, it plays out like a journal written by a college (or rather three) student/s wired on meth. If you are hoping for character growth and happy endings, then you will be disappointed. The characters are depressing and completely void of emotion, which could be put down to the constant drug abuse. They are also extremely delusional, which could also be put down to that. If you were looking for a heart-felt, emotional journey where the characters overcome obstacles then you would be extremely disappointed with this. The book leads nowhere, and there is no real plot, but rather a documentation of events according to three different points of view. But looking at it from a different perspective, it is actually quite brilliant. Ellis is making a mockery of the young, rich college stereotype -- it isn't a case of poor character creation and poor story planning, it is precisely what it is meant to be. It can be hilarious at times, but it can also be a drag. Though it is a drag, I can guarantee you won't be able to stop reading. If you want to read something real quirky and a little fun, and can look past the lack of personality, the over-usage of drugs, constant partying and sex, then go ahead and read this.. even just to satiate your curiosity. Or you could just check out the movie... either way I'm giving it three stars. Not great, but not exactly garbage either.

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*Product available on Desertcart Australia*
*Store origin: AU*
*Last updated: 2026-07-07*