Imperial Bedrooms - Plot

Plot

The novel opens with Clay, a 45-year old screenwriter, explaining that an author had adapted the events of his early-1980s Christmas vacation into a novel which later became a film. The author had been in love with Clay's girlfriend Blair, and depicted Clay somewhat differently from how he really is. The action of Imperial Bedrooms depicts Clay upon returning to Los Angeles, having lived in New York for four years, in order to assist in the casting of his new film. There, he meets up with his old friends, who were seen in Less Than Zero. Like Clay, they have all become involved in the film industry: his philandering friend Trent Burrough—who has married Blair—is a manager, while Clay's former classmate at Camden, Daniel Carter, has become a famous producer. Julian Wells, who was a male prostitute in Less Than Zero, has become an ultra-discreet high-class pimp representing struggling young actors who do not wish to tarnish future careers. Rip Millar, Clay's former drug dealer, now controls his own cartel and has become disfigured through repeated plastic surgeries.

Clay attempts to romance Rain Turner, a young woman auditioning for a role in his new film, leading her on with the promise of being cast, all the while knowing she is too old for the part. His narration betrays that he has done this with a number of men and women in the past, and yet often comes out of the relationship hurt and damaged himself. Over the course of their relationship, he is stalked by unknown persons driving a Jeep and is frequently reminded by various individuals of the grisly murder of a young producer whom he knew. Clay disinterestedly watches a snuff film of the murder—later attributed to Rip—on the YouTube application on his iPhone.

As the novel progresses, Clay learns that Rip also had a fling with Rain and is now obsessed with her, killing anyone he believes will pose a threat to a future relationship. When Clay discovers that Julian is currently Rain's boyfriend, he conspires with Rip to have Julian murdered. After Julian's death, Clay receives a video of the murder from Rip, which has been overdubbed with an angry voicemail from Clay as a means to implicate him in the crime. The novel then depicts sequences of the savage sexual and physical abuse of a beautiful young boy and young girl, perpetrated by Clay. The novel offers no indication as to whether these scenes are fantasy or reality. Clay experiences no feelings of remorse or guilt for this, for Julian's death, or for exploiting Rain. In the last scenes, it is suggested that Blair could have been the one hiring people to follow Clay. In exchange for some undisclosed favor, she casually offers to provide Clay with a false alibi that will prevent the police from arresting him as an accomplice to Julian's murder.