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Blair's Reviews > The Rules of Attraction
The Rules of Attraction
by
by
At the beginning of the year, I decided that in 2020 I would devote some time to working through my sprawling to-read list, whether that meant actually reading the books or throwing them out. A second-hand copy of The Rules of Attraction had been sitting on my shelves for years, and I rather thought I might have missed the moment to read and/or enjoy it. Perhaps rather embarrassingly, though, I loved it. It's nihilistic, sure, but also SO well observed, hyper-quotable, and parts of it had me in stitches (especially the scene in which a group of students rush their friend to hospital only for a bizarrely incompetent doctor to declare him dead � while he's sitting up and talking). The characters are almost universally loathsome, but � and I wonder whether this is something I would've missed if I'd read it when I was 20 � there's vulnerability and naivety detectable in their desperate antics. The novel as a whole is fast, funny and brilliantly awful, but it's also somewhat more human than I was expecting.
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Reading Progress
February 22, 2013
– Shelved
May 25, 2020
–
Started Reading
May 25, 2020
–
4.57%
"Stereotype with a Haircut. Why does he even care? Does he actually think I'll go to bed with him? Why won't that person leave? Is Tony even looking over here?"
page
15
May 25, 2020
–
8.23%
"Junkies are pathetic enough but rich junkies are even worse. Even worse than girls."
page
27
May 25, 2020
–
8.54%
"I could see that I was still wearing my tie, my underwear, and my socks. I couldn't figure out why I was only wearing these three articles of clothing so I stood for a long time staring into the mirror trying to remember last night, but couldn't."
page
28
May 25, 2020
–
9.76%
"Then suddenly they all cackled, still huddled around the paper, reminding me of the three witches from Macbeth except infinitely better looking and wearing Giorgio Armani."
page
32
May 25, 2020
–
17.68%
"'If you can't be with the one you love, honey...' 'Fuck their roommate instead.'"
page
58
May 25, 2020
–
17.99%
"I sighed and told myself that if I went to bed with him tonight I would kill myself in the morning."
page
59
May 25, 2020
–
20.43%
"How did he do it, I wondered... Try to OD on Sudafed and wine coolers? What provoked him? CD player conk out on him? Did they cancel Miami Vice?"
page
67
May 25, 2020
–
24.39%
"I wondered suddenly if he was Catholic. My spirits rose: Catholic boys will usually do anything."
page
80
May 25, 2020
–
25.91%
"I used the dead best friend story. It seemed better than using the girlfriend with cancer story or the favorite aunt who committed suicide after the favorite uncle died story, both of which seemed overly melodramatic."
page
85
May 25, 2020
–
30.79%
"This was the Eighties, I kept thinking. How could there be any hippies left?"
page
101
May 25, 2020
–
37.2%
"What am I going to do? I think. What is this night unless I do something? Is this just going to be nothing? Like every other fucking night?"
page
122
May 25, 2020
–
46.34%
"'How's school?' my mother asked after she tipped the bellboys (who were not sexy, contrary to Mrs. Jared's allusions that they were)."
page
152
May 25, 2020
–
57.62%
"He's got that restless pre-fucking state about him; expectant nervous energy."
page
189
May 25, 2020
–
64.94%
"But what else is one to do at college except drink beer or slash your wrists?"
page
213
May 25, 2020
–
65.24%
"Judy tells me that Roxanne told her that Sean deals drugs. I tell her, 'At least he doesn't breakdance.'"
page
214
May 25, 2020
–
66.16%
"I don't understand why Lauren doesn't realize that six people doesn't constitute a 'party,' but more like a fucking 'gathering.'"
page
217
May 25, 2020
–
71.95%
"How was the party? House crammed with drunk sweaty horny bodies dancing to old songs aimlessly wandering around blindly fucking each other? Who cares?"
page
236
May 25, 2020
–
91.46%
"I had heard from Raymond that Victor had been institutionalized, which meant I had a better than fifty-fifty chance of getting him into bed."
page
300
May 25, 2020
–
93.6%
"These were people I never would have spoken to out of this room, but here, at the party, I loathed them more than I thought possible."
page
307
May 25, 2020
–
Finished Reading
Great book 👍
