Bret Easton Ellis‘ dark satire American Psycho is censored in Australia, which means that it can only be sold wrapped in plastic to people over the age of 18.
Imprints Booksellers, a bookseller in Adelaide, was visited by the police for stocking a new batch of the books without following those conditions. The bookseller told ABC Australia that the books were shipped normally and he just assumed that the new edition from Picador Classic was no longer subject to the strict R18 classification.
“I’d actually always suspected a ploy by publishers to keep it in plastic longer because it makes it stand out on the shelf,” he told ABC.
A customer called the police to complain about the issue and since then, Imprints has taken the book off of display.