This 1991 Controversial Horror Novel Was Pulled Three Months Before Its Publication Date

We're all no stranger to finding out that some of our favorite books were banned - or that there was an attempt to ban them. However, there are some novels that never even made it to print, and it was due to the backlash ahead of the publication date.

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis was one of those books. It has since become one of the most controversial horror novels in the world, published in 1991 to a crowd that may not have been quite ready for the graphic nature of the storytelling. Yet, it would go on to be adapted into a cult classic horror movie starring Christian Bale and Jared Leto.

‘American Psycho' Was Pulled By Its Own Publisher

American Psycho was originally picked up by Simon & Schuster, but as word got around about the graphic nature of the tale, the publisher decided to pull the support. Just three months before the book was supposed to be released, Simon & Schuster dropped everything, stating that they made an "error in judgment" by putting their name on something with such "questionable taste."

That didn't stop the novel from getting out there, though. Ellis was still able to get his book published on the date that was originally intended, but not with the original publisher. Vintage Books quickly jumped on the chance to get this controversial story out into the world, and the rest is history.

That didn't stop it from becoming a banned book. It was the 53rd most banned book in the 1990s, according to the American Library Association, and a lot of that was due to the societal story Ellis wanted to tell that people just weren't ready to hear.

The Honest Meaning Behind Bret Easton Ellis' Story

American Psycho wasn't born out of an attempt to make people cringe. It wasn't there as some sort of literary form of torture. It was an honest story about how Ellis was feeling at the time.

He shared with Publishers Weekly that the story was born out of his realizing what it meant to be an American male at the time, and he wasn't happy with that. It was all about status and power, and he explained, "Consumerist success was really the embodiment of what it meant to be a cool guy-money, trophy girlfriends, nice clothes, and cool cars. It all seemed extremely shallow to me. Yet at the same time, you have an urge to conform."

The world was different in the early ‘90s compared to today. While there is still some controversy around the horror novel, Ellis shared that it wouldn't get the same reception in 2011 as it did in 1991, and the fact still stands.

"It's a different world," Ellis went on to explain the difference with the news cycle and the media now, "I also don't think you can replicate that kind of controversy now because of the nature of the media, and, on some level, the nature of how we as a collective audience react to novels and to long-form fiction or serious fiction. It doesn't matter to us as much as it once did."

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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 11:20 AM.