 The Guardian attempted to aggregate what they found to be polarised reviews of Imperial Bedrooms , noting that one Times reviewer felt the novel was simply dull , " impoverished " , and " ghastly " , whereas the London Review of Books felt that in spite of its flaws , the book was enjoyable for its " beautiful one @-@ liners " and the fun of " seeing the old Easton Ellis magic applied to the popular culture of our era ... iPhones , Apple stores , internet videos and Lost . " The New Statesman compiled reviews from The Independent , The Observer , and The New York Times . The first two reviews are positive , praising Ellis ' " modern noir " , the book 's " atmosphere " , and indebtedness to Philip Roth and F. Scott Fitzgerald , with the Observer saying it " ranks with his best in the latter register [ of Fitzgerald ] . " The latter review accused Ellis of falling flat , attracting negative comparison to Martin Amis ; both have " a flair for such perfect , surreal description " but " struggle to set it in an effective context . " Other writers attempting to gauge the book 's reception also describe it as " mixed " . The Periscope Press deemed that the novel 's reviews were mostly negative , citing Dr. Alison Kelly 's article for The Guardian as the only counter @-@ example , while deeming that it " still read more like restrained criticism than outright praise " . On the subject of reviews , British critic Mark Lawson notes the tendency for Ellis ' reviews to be " unpredictable " ; he cited the irony of favour amongst right @-@ wing critics , and the extent to which the liberal media attack his work . Ellis himself , however , states that he " proudly " accepts the label of moralist . He also attributes some of the negative criticism that Imperial Bedrooms and Ellis ' earlier works have received in the past to the earlier schools of feminist criticism ; today , he observes young girls " reading the works correctly " , opining the books shouldn 't be read through the lens of " old school feminism . " To that end , the author observes that older women reviewing Imperial Bedrooms in the US had issues with it , not least feelings of betrayal . He feels these are ironic because the book is in fact a critique of a certain kind of male perspective and behaviour . 
