 Blair and Trent Burroughs share a loveless marriage . Blair remains , according to Janelle Brown , " the moral center of Ellis ' work " , and Trent has become a Hollywood manager . The Oregonian notes " Although Blair and Trent have children , the children are never described and hardly mentioned ; their absence is " even more unsettling than the absence of parents in a story about teenagers , underlining the endlessly narcissistic nature of the characters ' world . " Julian Wells has gone on to establish a very exclusive escort service of his own in Hollywood . While in Less Than Zero , Clay felt protective of Julian , who had fallen into prostitution and drug addiction , in the new novel , he attempts to have him killed . The " grisly " dispatch of Julian late in the book , and Clay 's casual mention of it early on , were part of a " rhythm " that Ellis felt suited the book . He speculates whether " the artist looking back " becomes a destructive force . He hadn 't planned to kill off the character , just finding that while writing " it felt right " . Rip Millar occupies both terrifying and comic relief roles in the novel . Vice describes him , hyperbolically , as " like the supervillain of these two books " . Uncertainties about the character 's " specifics " originate in Clay , who " doesn 't really want to know , which makes it kind of scarier " . 
