Twenty-five years on from Less Than Zero , we pick up again with Clay. In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with Less Than Zero , his extraordinarily accomplished first novel (New Yorker), successfully chronicling the frightening consequences of unmitigated hedonism within the ranks of the ethically bereft youth of 80s Los Angeles. Now, twenty- Twenty-five years on from Less Than Zero , we pick up again with Clay. In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with Less Than Zero , his extraordinarily accomplished first novel (New Yorker), successfully chronicling the frightening consequences of unmitigated hedonism within the ranks of the ethically bereft youth of 80s Los Angeles. Now, twenty-five years later, Ellis returns to those same characters: to Clay and the band of infamous teenagers whose lives weave sporadically through his. But now, some years on, they face an even greater period of disaffection: their own middle age. Clay seems to have moved on - hes become a successful screenwriter - but when he returns from New York to Los Angeles, to help cast his new movie, hes soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his former girlfriend, is now married to Trent, and their Beverly Hills parties attract excessive levels of fame and fortune, though for all that Trent is a powerful manager, his baser instincts remain: hes still a bisexual philanderer. Then theres Clays childhood friend, Julian - whos now a recovering addict - and their old dealer, Rip - face-lifted beyond recognition and seemingly even more sinister than he was in his notorious past. Clay, too, struggles with his own demons after a meeting with a gorgeous actress determined to win a role in his movie. And with his life careening out of control, hes forced to come to terms with the deepest recesses of his character - and with his seemingly endless proclivity for betrayal.