i finished reading 'the shards' and am still a little uncertain how i feel about the ending. it was an excellent read however, i really enjoyed it despite the uncomfortable gay sex scenes i thought it was brilliantly written and constructed. the setting was la in the 80's and the book had a soundtrack written into it which i appreciate o  number of levels. the images evoked were the uber privileged rich white kids attending a high end college all caught up in the wake of a new arrival who may or may not be a serial killer. 

the conclusion seemed a bit hasty, all points converging to a confrontation between the protagonist and the adversary. the fact brett himself is the main protagonist and writes himself into what could be perceived as a true story about his youth just before he completed 'rules of attraction' gives us a meta fiction that sucks us inside that ambiguous liminal space where we can't really know if what we are reading is autobiographical or not. i liked all the plot devices but the ending is unresolved within me, i like it but it feels unfinished. however in some ways it's the perfect ending.