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i figured out who it was like 40% into the book because i’m beautiful and smart. very excited to check out the show now <3
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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 98 votes)
5 stars
28(29%)
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29(30%)
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41(42%)
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98 reviews
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Update - NEWS ABOUT the HBO mini-series of "Sharp Objects". Who else has seen it?
What are your thoughts? Which did you enjoy more? The book or the series?
Amy Adams was outstanding!!! One of the best acting roles I've seen her play.
VERY creepy show -- 'excellent' -- All the actors were great. In many ways --I liked the HBO show more than the book. I know --weird --right? --Or??? maybe I was more prepared for just how disturbing this story is! The ending in the HBO series -- was ......................'creepy' as can be!!!
OLD REVIEW:
I've had both "Sharp Objects" and "Dark Places" for years....but, hey, I'm slow.
I picked "Sharp Objects" to read first when I heard Amy Adams is going to be the leading actress in a drama series.
I wasn't expecting so much violence. This is a very dark disturbing story.....
......but my favorite parts were the psychological aspects of he mother/daughter relationship. When a child has a mother from hell - kinda shapes your life
from the 'get-go' and not in a pretty way.
I can already see Amy Adams playing the role of reporter Camille Preaker....who returns to her small hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.
She identifies with the girls a little too closely -- plus she had recently spent a short stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Camille is vulnerable- fragile- and flawed. The closer she gets to cracking the case she is working on, the more she begins to crack. Old haunting demons are rising to the surface ...memories of her sister and emotional and physical abuse.
This book could have been called "DARK SHARP PLACES AND OBJECTS"!!!
Happy day 2 days after Halloween ....ha! :)
3. to almost a 3.5
What are your thoughts? Which did you enjoy more? The book or the series?
Amy Adams was outstanding!!! One of the best acting roles I've seen her play.
VERY creepy show -- 'excellent' -- All the actors were great. In many ways --I liked the HBO show more than the book. I know --weird --right? --Or??? maybe I was more prepared for just how disturbing this story is! The ending in the HBO series -- was ......................'creepy' as can be!!!
OLD REVIEW:
I've had both "Sharp Objects" and "Dark Places" for years....but, hey, I'm slow.
I picked "Sharp Objects" to read first when I heard Amy Adams is going to be the leading actress in a drama series.
I wasn't expecting so much violence. This is a very dark disturbing story.....
......but my favorite parts were the psychological aspects of he mother/daughter relationship. When a child has a mother from hell - kinda shapes your life
from the 'get-go' and not in a pretty way.
I can already see Amy Adams playing the role of reporter Camille Preaker....who returns to her small hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.
She identifies with the girls a little too closely -- plus she had recently spent a short stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Camille is vulnerable- fragile- and flawed. The closer she gets to cracking the case she is working on, the more she begins to crack. Old haunting demons are rising to the surface ...memories of her sister and emotional and physical abuse.
This book could have been called "DARK SHARP PLACES AND OBJECTS"!!!
Happy day 2 days after Halloween ....ha! :)
3. to almost a 3.5
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1 Star
Overview:
I should have known better. I don’t have an excuse.
I read Gillian Flynn's other book, Gone Girl, last year—and wasn’t a fan. Everyone raved about it, but I found the characters shallow, the plot twists weak, and the narrative so busy being cynical it didn’t seem to know what it was trying to say.
Nevertheless, I’d heard great things about Gillian Flynn’s writing. So I went into this with an open mind--- maybe I had just started with the wrong book!
But I really should have known better. When I wanted to DNF this around 13% of the way through, I should have trusted my instincts and realized Flynn's writing just isn't for me. But I kept seeing reviews talking about “the twist” and how the ending was the best part. So I persevered. Safe to say, I didn’t like this. Actually I think I disliked it more than Gone Girl.
*language and mature themes ahead, due to the nature of this book*
Pros:
I don’t like to rate things so low. I really don’t, and I rarely do it. I was initially going to round this up to a two-star, but I realized I didn't have a real reason. I have 'criteria' for all my ratings and in order to earn two-stars from me, a book has to contain some elements I liked. This contained a handful of descriptions I liked. That’s it.
At points in the text, Flynn compares a new-found murder victim’s appearance to that of a baby doll, with mouth open and ready to suckle. This was an incredibly creepy simile that I thought painted the scene quite clearly.
Then later, Flynn describes a woman as having “hips like antlers.” In regards to the bony prominence that juts out against the rest of the woman's body. Again, I thought this was an incredibly inventive description that also perfectly illustrated the character.
Cons:
Oh boy. Here we go.
What were these characters supposed to be? Every single character was filled with an intense hatred and cynicism about everything. They were all incredibly violent, shallow people with no other defining characteristics They were all very boring, flat people who just seemed to be awful without any motivation.
It seems Flynn’s work relies upon a belief that all people are inherently evil and selfish—which is a popular theory in itself that I’ve seen in a wide variety of fiction. But the characters still need to make sense.
Everything was needlessly dark? Like I just don’t understand?
I don’t have a problem with darker books. I think a story can be just as dark and twisted as the author feels it needs to be, as long as it still tells the story well This just seemed to include random gritty details or supppppeeerrr intense descriptions. The main character’s struggle with mental health problems and self-harm (is this a spoiler? It’s pretty evident from the book’s blurb) was never discussed in any sort of nuanced way. Instead, it’s used almost as a plot device to show just how “edgy” this book is.
I don’t mind profanity or adult material in adult books. But the over-abundance of it in this book, again, just seemed like it was trying to hard to be gritty or “edgy.” Everything was needlessly sexualized even when the conversations or characters didn’t call for it at that time.
This book was too short to be so boring The pace was irrationally languid despite the intense subject matter, and it felt like it took chapters and chapters for the characters to stop just discussing things and for things to actually happen.
There’s been a fairly large amount of controversy surrounding the way Gillian Flynn, a self-proclaimed feminist, writes her female characters.
You have those who think it’s problematic all of her female characters are such awful people: Like The Huffington Post and others.
And then you have those who believe all her characters are horrible people, and that feminism means allowing for female villains and anti-heroes: Including Flynn herself.
I won’t be touching upon this controversy too much, as I don’t think there’s very much I can say that hasn’t already been discussed. I personally want female villains and anti-heroes who are just as complex as their male counter parts—which I didn’t find in this book where all the characters were so shallow.
There were a few things that did seem problematic:
-tThe main character calls a man a “sexist, liberal lefty practicing sexual discrimination” for believing a drunk woman having sex with an entire football team without her explicit consent was sexual assault. Even when when it was revealed the woman was a minor.
-tThis entire quote: “Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip.”
-tThe whole book is filled with the assumption that woman are either so fragile they are sick and broken all the time, or that they just love the attention of being sick. I understand a large part of this was related to the situations Camille was raised in and her mother, but it extended to every other character as well.
-t“Women get consumed. Not surprising, considering the sheer amount of traffic a woman's body experiences. Tampons and speculums. Cocks, fingers, vibrators and more, between the legs, from behind, in the mouth.” WOMEN ARE NOT COMMODITIES THAT GET CONSUMED. The implication that a woman can be ‘run-down’ based off the amount of things she’s had in her orifices is completely disgusting.
I guessed whodunit less than halfway through. The reasoning was interesting, though the way it was all revealed match the same odd, explicit tone as the rest of the story.
In Conclusion:
Safe to say, I will not be reading Dark Places.
Overview:
I should have known better. I don’t have an excuse.
I read Gillian Flynn's other book, Gone Girl, last year—and wasn’t a fan. Everyone raved about it, but I found the characters shallow, the plot twists weak, and the narrative so busy being cynical it didn’t seem to know what it was trying to say.
Nevertheless, I’d heard great things about Gillian Flynn’s writing. So I went into this with an open mind--- maybe I had just started with the wrong book!
But I really should have known better. When I wanted to DNF this around 13% of the way through, I should have trusted my instincts and realized Flynn's writing just isn't for me. But I kept seeing reviews talking about “the twist” and how the ending was the best part. So I persevered. Safe to say, I didn’t like this. Actually I think I disliked it more than Gone Girl.
*language and mature themes ahead, due to the nature of this book*
Pros:
I don’t like to rate things so low. I really don’t, and I rarely do it. I was initially going to round this up to a two-star, but I realized I didn't have a real reason. I have 'criteria' for all my ratings and in order to earn two-stars from me, a book has to contain some elements I liked. This contained a handful of descriptions I liked. That’s it.
At points in the text, Flynn compares a new-found murder victim’s appearance to that of a baby doll, with mouth open and ready to suckle. This was an incredibly creepy simile that I thought painted the scene quite clearly.
Then later, Flynn describes a woman as having “hips like antlers.” In regards to the bony prominence that juts out against the rest of the woman's body. Again, I thought this was an incredibly inventive description that also perfectly illustrated the character.
Cons:
Oh boy. Here we go.
What were these characters supposed to be? Every single character was filled with an intense hatred and cynicism about everything. They were all incredibly violent, shallow people with no other defining characteristics They were all very boring, flat people who just seemed to be awful without any motivation.
It seems Flynn’s work relies upon a belief that all people are inherently evil and selfish—which is a popular theory in itself that I’ve seen in a wide variety of fiction. But the characters still need to make sense.
Everything was needlessly dark? Like I just don’t understand?
I don’t have a problem with darker books. I think a story can be just as dark and twisted as the author feels it needs to be, as long as it still tells the story well This just seemed to include random gritty details or supppppeeerrr intense descriptions. The main character’s struggle with mental health problems and self-harm (is this a spoiler? It’s pretty evident from the book’s blurb) was never discussed in any sort of nuanced way. Instead, it’s used almost as a plot device to show just how “edgy” this book is.
I don’t mind profanity or adult material in adult books. But the over-abundance of it in this book, again, just seemed like it was trying to hard to be gritty or “edgy.” Everything was needlessly sexualized even when the conversations or characters didn’t call for it at that time.
This book was too short to be so boring The pace was irrationally languid despite the intense subject matter, and it felt like it took chapters and chapters for the characters to stop just discussing things and for things to actually happen.
There’s been a fairly large amount of controversy surrounding the way Gillian Flynn, a self-proclaimed feminist, writes her female characters.
You have those who think it’s problematic all of her female characters are such awful people: Like The Huffington Post and others.
And then you have those who believe all her characters are horrible people, and that feminism means allowing for female villains and anti-heroes: Including Flynn herself.
I won’t be touching upon this controversy too much, as I don’t think there’s very much I can say that hasn’t already been discussed. I personally want female villains and anti-heroes who are just as complex as their male counter parts—which I didn’t find in this book where all the characters were so shallow.
There were a few things that did seem problematic:
-tThe main character calls a man a “sexist, liberal lefty practicing sexual discrimination” for believing a drunk woman having sex with an entire football team without her explicit consent was sexual assault. Even when when it was revealed the woman was a minor.
-tThis entire quote: “Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip.”
-tThe whole book is filled with the assumption that woman are either so fragile they are sick and broken all the time, or that they just love the attention of being sick. I understand a large part of this was related to the situations Camille was raised in and her mother, but it extended to every other character as well.
-t“Women get consumed. Not surprising, considering the sheer amount of traffic a woman's body experiences. Tampons and speculums. Cocks, fingers, vibrators and more, between the legs, from behind, in the mouth.” WOMEN ARE NOT COMMODITIES THAT GET CONSUMED. The implication that a woman can be ‘run-down’ based off the amount of things she’s had in her orifices is completely disgusting.
I guessed whodunit less than halfway through. The reasoning was interesting, though the way it was all revealed match the same odd, explicit tone as the rest of the story.
In Conclusion:
Safe to say, I will not be reading Dark Places.
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I don't know about you, but in my opinion this is WAY better than Gone Girl, I think this one is a hidden gem.
It's a lot more subtle but that's why it works more. This is one spine-chilling disturbing and dark book and I absolutely loved it. Some of the scenes in this book literally just stunned me. Very clever writing from Gillian Flynn.
When two girls are abducted and killed in Missouri, journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her home town to report on the crimes. Long-haunted by a childhood tragedy and estranged from her mother for years, Camille suddenly finds herself installed once again in her family's mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and the half-sister she barely knows - a precocious 13-year-old who holds a disquieting grip on the town.
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims - a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story.
If you have not read this one yet but have been meaning to, please do it. This sat on my bookshelf for over a year, what a waste, it was one of my most memorable reads of the last few years.
Camille, who is a Journalist is sent back to very small town USA where she grew up to get the juice on a story of young women going missing and turning up dead - with their teeth pulled out. Her big Chicago boss is hoping her home connection will give her the inside scoop.
The characters in this book are bloody EXCEPTIONALLY done, both Camille's mother and her half-sister, Amma are some of the best written, most disturbing characters I have read in a book in ages. I had goose bumps with both of them, a lot of goose bumps. Did I say this book has a dark overtone?
Camille is a flawed and damaged character, what you see is not always what you are seeing, I really grew to like her and her tenacity for the truth no matter what the cost. Once she gets it, it changes everything. Amma got under my skin in a very uncomfortable way, Flynn portrays her in a way that makes an impact on your psyche.
The town doesn't just welcome Camille in and for a while nobody is talking but she is determined to keep digging and what she uncovers is just wrong, so wrong, so darn wrong. Is she even on the right path? Can she see clearly what is right before her eyes.
With scenes (pig farm) that just churn you inside and sentences spoken that literally make the temperature drop in your body, this one has subtle yet so blatant shock factors all the way through it. It creates atmospheres that you feel part of from awkwardness to sheer terror. I could not put this book down because each bit rolls into the next and I had to know what was really going on.
Just who is taking these girls and killing them so brutally? The whole town believes it's one of their own and everybody has their theory, fingers are pointing everywhere. In the uncovering of the truth Camille is forced to face demons from her past.
For me this is a 5 star read because I won't forget it, I devoured it and could not put it down, it's well written and it's cleverly done.
::~~~~~~:::::~~~~~:::::~~~~~:::::~~~~~~::
Thanks so much for reading my review!
I hope you enjoyed it, if you did I’d be delighted if you leave me a “like” and I love to read your comments. If you’d like to connect you can follow me or please send me a friend request.
If you are an Author or Publisher and you’d like me to consider reading and reviewing your book(s) please just message me.
It's a lot more subtle but that's why it works more. This is one spine-chilling disturbing and dark book and I absolutely loved it. Some of the scenes in this book literally just stunned me. Very clever writing from Gillian Flynn.
When two girls are abducted and killed in Missouri, journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her home town to report on the crimes. Long-haunted by a childhood tragedy and estranged from her mother for years, Camille suddenly finds herself installed once again in her family's mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and the half-sister she barely knows - a precocious 13-year-old who holds a disquieting grip on the town.
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims - a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story.
If you have not read this one yet but have been meaning to, please do it. This sat on my bookshelf for over a year, what a waste, it was one of my most memorable reads of the last few years.
Camille, who is a Journalist is sent back to very small town USA where she grew up to get the juice on a story of young women going missing and turning up dead - with their teeth pulled out. Her big Chicago boss is hoping her home connection will give her the inside scoop.
The characters in this book are bloody EXCEPTIONALLY done, both Camille's mother and her half-sister, Amma are some of the best written, most disturbing characters I have read in a book in ages. I had goose bumps with both of them, a lot of goose bumps. Did I say this book has a dark overtone?
Camille is a flawed and damaged character, what you see is not always what you are seeing, I really grew to like her and her tenacity for the truth no matter what the cost. Once she gets it, it changes everything. Amma got under my skin in a very uncomfortable way, Flynn portrays her in a way that makes an impact on your psyche.
The town doesn't just welcome Camille in and for a while nobody is talking but she is determined to keep digging and what she uncovers is just wrong, so wrong, so darn wrong. Is she even on the right path? Can she see clearly what is right before her eyes.
With scenes (pig farm) that just churn you inside and sentences spoken that literally make the temperature drop in your body, this one has subtle yet so blatant shock factors all the way through it. It creates atmospheres that you feel part of from awkwardness to sheer terror. I could not put this book down because each bit rolls into the next and I had to know what was really going on.
Just who is taking these girls and killing them so brutally? The whole town believes it's one of their own and everybody has their theory, fingers are pointing everywhere. In the uncovering of the truth Camille is forced to face demons from her past.
For me this is a 5 star read because I won't forget it, I devoured it and could not put it down, it's well written and it's cleverly done.
::~~~~~~:::::~~~~~:::::~~~~~:::::~~~~~~::
Thanks so much for reading my review!
I hope you enjoyed it, if you did I’d be delighted if you leave me a “like” and I love to read your comments. If you’d like to connect you can follow me or please send me a friend request.
If you are an Author or Publisher and you’d like me to consider reading and reviewing your book(s) please just message me.
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Eek. This book was twisted and eerie, it was very good. A true page turner.
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SHARP OBJECTS by Gillian Flynn earned 5 brilliant (but raunchy) stars from me!
MY TEASE…
Thirty-year-old Camille Preaker had left her miserable hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, the first chance she got. She moved north to Chicago and became a reporter for the Daily Post. She had always been a writer of sorts, cutting words with sharp objects into her skin as a permanent record. Each word tingled with the memory of a painful childhood scar, like the death of her sickly and beloved younger sister, Marian.
Turns out, not a lot had changed in Wind Gap since Camille left. Young girls were still dying.
With Camille's connection to the small town, her newspaper sends her back “home" in hopes she will break the story that leads to the serial killer’s identity.
Dormant words on Camille's skin awake with her return because the darkest of secrets hide behind the Victorian, Southern charm of Wind Gap. Will Camille unravel their truth before another girl dies or the past ensnares her?
THOUGHTS…
I gave SHARP OBJECTS five stars because of its amazing plot. I did not accurately guess the murderer! Kudos to the author for that!
Without the twisty plot that kept me glued to learning the truth, the book probably wouldn't have worked for me. Personally, I want to like a story’s protagonist and unfortunately, I didn't really like anyone in this story.
Take Camille: the author made her narrative so raunchy and crude at times, that it threw me out of the story, and I don't consider myself a prude.
Here's an example. Camille went to interview the father of one of the murdered girls. The house is a mess, as one might expect after a tragedy. The only clean room left is a bedroom, so the father takes Camille there to talk. Here's Camille's internal thoughts:
“We could have been day players in an amateur porn flick.”
And then…
“He needed no foreplay for the interview, and I was grateful. It's like sweet-talking your date when you both know you're about to get laid.”
Really? Camille’s thinking about a porn analogy when interviewing a grieving father whose child had been murdered and all of her teeth had been removed? Seriously?
And the author could not resist the foreign pubic hair tactic to incite a gag.
“Someone else’s pubic hair floated by.”
Well, thank you very much for sharing.
Finally, there are a lot of stickiness, vomiting, and bodily smells in this book. I was like ... Gillian Flynn, PLEASE let Camille take a normal shower/bath to clean herself for once! LOL!!!
QUICKFIRE RATINGS from 1 (ugh) to 5 (woo-hoo)…
Plot (the story): 5
Main character’s likability: 2
Likability of supporting character(s): 2
Setting(s): 5
Pacing (how fast did I turn the pages): 5
Believability of story: 5
Satisfying ending: 5
Tension of story: 5
Stirs the heart (romantic elements): 1
Did I solve the mystery/guess the ending before the reveal? No (5)
OVERALL:
In the end, the plot, not the characters, won me over. A brilliant execution of a dark psychological thriller!
MY TEASE…
Thirty-year-old Camille Preaker had left her miserable hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, the first chance she got. She moved north to Chicago and became a reporter for the Daily Post. She had always been a writer of sorts, cutting words with sharp objects into her skin as a permanent record. Each word tingled with the memory of a painful childhood scar, like the death of her sickly and beloved younger sister, Marian.
Turns out, not a lot had changed in Wind Gap since Camille left. Young girls were still dying.
With Camille's connection to the small town, her newspaper sends her back “home" in hopes she will break the story that leads to the serial killer’s identity.
Dormant words on Camille's skin awake with her return because the darkest of secrets hide behind the Victorian, Southern charm of Wind Gap. Will Camille unravel their truth before another girl dies or the past ensnares her?
THOUGHTS…
I gave SHARP OBJECTS five stars because of its amazing plot. I did not accurately guess the murderer! Kudos to the author for that!
Without the twisty plot that kept me glued to learning the truth, the book probably wouldn't have worked for me. Personally, I want to like a story’s protagonist and unfortunately, I didn't really like anyone in this story.
Take Camille: the author made her narrative so raunchy and crude at times, that it threw me out of the story, and I don't consider myself a prude.
Here's an example. Camille went to interview the father of one of the murdered girls. The house is a mess, as one might expect after a tragedy. The only clean room left is a bedroom, so the father takes Camille there to talk. Here's Camille's internal thoughts:
“We could have been day players in an amateur porn flick.”
And then…
“He needed no foreplay for the interview, and I was grateful. It's like sweet-talking your date when you both know you're about to get laid.”
Really? Camille’s thinking about a porn analogy when interviewing a grieving father whose child had been murdered and all of her teeth had been removed? Seriously?
And the author could not resist the foreign pubic hair tactic to incite a gag.
“Someone else’s pubic hair floated by.”
Well, thank you very much for sharing.
Finally, there are a lot of stickiness, vomiting, and bodily smells in this book. I was like ... Gillian Flynn, PLEASE let Camille take a normal shower/bath to clean herself for once! LOL!!!
QUICKFIRE RATINGS from 1 (ugh) to 5 (woo-hoo)…
Plot (the story): 5
Main character’s likability: 2
Likability of supporting character(s): 2
Setting(s): 5
Pacing (how fast did I turn the pages): 5
Believability of story: 5
Satisfying ending: 5
Tension of story: 5
Stirs the heart (romantic elements): 1
Did I solve the mystery/guess the ending before the reveal? No (5)
OVERALL:
In the end, the plot, not the characters, won me over. A brilliant execution of a dark psychological thriller!
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Finally I climbed out under my rock to read my first GF novel. I was happy I did. Camille got under my skin, zero pun intended, and I enjoyed the whole ride. Whilst graphic, I wasn’t bothered, and whilst dark this was fine too. I was impressed with the writing of this book and understand why this author has hit it off worldwide.
Camille is a very troubled young woman, a mediocre journalist and a recovering cutter. Self harming herself in the most dreadful way, by inscribing words into her skin. All over her body. She returns begrudgingly to her home town that is probably only good at one thing, for churning out pork meat and alcoholics. The people in the town seem to be a mess, the teenagers horrible, and let’s not forget Ms. Horrible little sister. For as much as she was troubled herself, she did try to help and nurture her in some way. This girl was too far gone to hope for any type of redemption. The women who grew from teens that Camille grew up with are equally as horrendous.
Camille’s mother was a loveless soulless woman who had a strange marriage with a horribly boring man called Allan. Upon this homecoming we see Camille struggle with returning to this hell hole and trying to piece together a child serial killing situation. This just seems nearly impossible for her to do as she relives memories from losing her own little sister many moons ago.
Absorbing reading, hateful characters and lovely ones too. I really did love John, the out of town Detective Richard and most of all the lovely Camille who it seems was facing her own redemption by the end. Silly me for leaving this author on my shelf for too long!
Camille is a very troubled young woman, a mediocre journalist and a recovering cutter. Self harming herself in the most dreadful way, by inscribing words into her skin. All over her body. She returns begrudgingly to her home town that is probably only good at one thing, for churning out pork meat and alcoholics. The people in the town seem to be a mess, the teenagers horrible, and let’s not forget Ms. Horrible little sister. For as much as she was troubled herself, she did try to help and nurture her in some way. This girl was too far gone to hope for any type of redemption. The women who grew from teens that Camille grew up with are equally as horrendous.
Camille’s mother was a loveless soulless woman who had a strange marriage with a horribly boring man called Allan. Upon this homecoming we see Camille struggle with returning to this hell hole and trying to piece together a child serial killing situation. This just seems nearly impossible for her to do as she relives memories from losing her own little sister many moons ago.
Absorbing reading, hateful characters and lovely ones too. I really did love John, the out of town Detective Richard and most of all the lovely Camille who it seems was facing her own redemption by the end. Silly me for leaving this author on my shelf for too long!
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“I just think some women aren't made to be mothers. And some women aren't made to be daughters.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects
This is one of the darkest, most disturbing books I've ever read. And I love it. Well, today I love it. I picked it up years ago, started reading and was like "no way Jose". I had read Dark Places and Gone Girl and, of course, thought I could handle Sharp Objects, the Gillian Flynn debut. I wasn't ready at the time for this little monster of a book.
The extremely creepy plot revolves around a serial killer in a Missouri town, and the reporter who has returned from Chicago to cover the event. Just a few of the themes include dysfunctional families, violence and self-harm. But there is so much more.
As I've mentioned before, I've read a lot of blasé, boring domestic noir lately. Give me a book with some meat on its bones! Blake Crouch's Dark Matter got my motor running again and I just couldn't go back to some of those wimpily -made up word written mysteries.
If you're caught in a summer stagnation, wake yourself up with this book. It's probably lying on a shelf in your house somewhere. Just prepare yourself. Flynn is an expert "description writer" and some of the things she describes are not pretty. At all. As in sick, sick, sick.
Yes, the characters are seriously f****d up! I don't need my heroine to be shiny and pristine. Every person in this story has got issues. Who knows what kind of childhood some people endure? Aren't you curious as to WHY they are weird? I always am!
I know some readers are all, "but, I don't really like the characters, I can't root for anyone..." Ok, then this book isn't for you. But, I'm telling you, Gillian Flynn is a master at blueprinting the human psyche into a living breathing character that you won't soon, if ever, forget. You'll probably even have a nightmare or two, after all, Stephen King is a huge Flynn fan.
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects
This is one of the darkest, most disturbing books I've ever read. And I love it. Well, today I love it. I picked it up years ago, started reading and was like "no way Jose". I had read Dark Places and Gone Girl and, of course, thought I could handle Sharp Objects, the Gillian Flynn debut. I wasn't ready at the time for this little monster of a book.
The extremely creepy plot revolves around a serial killer in a Missouri town, and the reporter who has returned from Chicago to cover the event. Just a few of the themes include dysfunctional families, violence and self-harm. But there is so much more.
As I've mentioned before, I've read a lot of blasé, boring domestic noir lately. Give me a book with some meat on its bones! Blake Crouch's Dark Matter got my motor running again and I just couldn't go back to some of those wimpily -made up word written mysteries.
If you're caught in a summer stagnation, wake yourself up with this book. It's probably lying on a shelf in your house somewhere. Just prepare yourself. Flynn is an expert "description writer" and some of the things she describes are not pretty. At all. As in sick, sick, sick.
Yes, the characters are seriously f****d up! I don't need my heroine to be shiny and pristine. Every person in this story has got issues. Who knows what kind of childhood some people endure? Aren't you curious as to WHY they are weird? I always am!
I know some readers are all, "but, I don't really like the characters, I can't root for anyone..." Ok, then this book isn't for you. But, I'm telling you, Gillian Flynn is a master at blueprinting the human psyche into a living breathing character that you won't soon, if ever, forget. You'll probably even have a nightmare or two, after all, Stephen King is a huge Flynn fan.
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holy shit
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When I had first come across rave reviews of Gone Girl, I was bowled over by the fact that there's after all a woman who is brave enough to try her hand at a genre rarely ventured into by women writers. And apparently, she excels at it too. Surely, she couldn't have hoodwinked hordes of unsuspecting readers into giving her books such high ratings.
So I had decided I'd devour Gillian Flynn's entire oeuvre starting with her first published work.
Needless to say, that it is with obvious disappointment I'm giving this book only 2 stars. I had high hopes for Flynn's first published novel.
Sharp Objects comes off as a classic case of trying too hard. The set up feels too contrived, the world building, shabby and the writing, unimpressive and awkward. ('bucolicry' Ms Flynn? is that even a real word?) And to heap on to the negatives, Flynn rushes us through the scenery, the murders, the facts with such alarming speed that few things get time enough to make a powerful impact.
The eerie, secluded little town of Wind Gap never comes alive for the reader. All the characters appear to be caricatures of stereotypical suspects in a murder mystery novel.
Even the central characters seem to be rather blurry outlines of real people instead of full-fledged human beings of flesh and bone. My mind failed at conjuring up even a single image of Wind Gap, its inhabitants or Camille and that's when I knew things were going downhill. After I had made some headway with the book, my attention kept drifting away and this doesn't usually happen with a thriller novel.(Proof of my steadily dwindling interest in thrillers maybe?)
Neither did I care about the murders nor did I think much of the disturbing imagery that Flynn shoves right in the reader's face from time to time. Even if you keep the somewhat macabre murders of pubescent girls aside, there are themes of self mutilation, sexual abuse, descriptions of horrific serial killings, slaughtering of pigs and chickens to make you cringe and wince as you read every alternate passage. Still I wasn't repulsed.
Instead what I felt acutely was Flynn's desperate desire to create a truly unsettling narrative. You can tell she is trying to offer you a blend of all things gory, disturbing and wicked just to titillate your senses. It's as if the central story became secondary to Flynn somewhere while she was writing this and only the deeply perturbing elements assumed primary importance.
Even the ending fails to pack in a punch, because if you have read a slew of whodunits at any point of time in your life, you will sort of guess the culprit.
The only part which successfully creeped me out was the protagonist's tendency to inflict injuries on herself as a way to purge herself of emotions. But that one feeling doesn't help you sail through a book which is, otherwise, ceaselessly dreary and simply put, lacklustre in every way.
Hence, 2 very unsatisfied, very bored stars.
I am holding out hope for Gillian Flynn though. Maybe my opinion will change after reading Gone Girl or Dark Places.
So I had decided I'd devour Gillian Flynn's entire oeuvre starting with her first published work.
Needless to say, that it is with obvious disappointment I'm giving this book only 2 stars. I had high hopes for Flynn's first published novel.
Sharp Objects comes off as a classic case of trying too hard. The set up feels too contrived, the world building, shabby and the writing, unimpressive and awkward. ('bucolicry' Ms Flynn? is that even a real word?) And to heap on to the negatives, Flynn rushes us through the scenery, the murders, the facts with such alarming speed that few things get time enough to make a powerful impact.
The eerie, secluded little town of Wind Gap never comes alive for the reader. All the characters appear to be caricatures of stereotypical suspects in a murder mystery novel.
Even the central characters seem to be rather blurry outlines of real people instead of full-fledged human beings of flesh and bone. My mind failed at conjuring up even a single image of Wind Gap, its inhabitants or Camille and that's when I knew things were going downhill. After I had made some headway with the book, my attention kept drifting away and this doesn't usually happen with a thriller novel.(Proof of my steadily dwindling interest in thrillers maybe?)
Neither did I care about the murders nor did I think much of the disturbing imagery that Flynn shoves right in the reader's face from time to time. Even if you keep the somewhat macabre murders of pubescent girls aside, there are themes of self mutilation, sexual abuse, descriptions of horrific serial killings, slaughtering of pigs and chickens to make you cringe and wince as you read every alternate passage. Still I wasn't repulsed.
Instead what I felt acutely was Flynn's desperate desire to create a truly unsettling narrative. You can tell she is trying to offer you a blend of all things gory, disturbing and wicked just to titillate your senses. It's as if the central story became secondary to Flynn somewhere while she was writing this and only the deeply perturbing elements assumed primary importance.
Even the ending fails to pack in a punch, because if you have read a slew of whodunits at any point of time in your life, you will sort of guess the culprit.
The only part which successfully creeped me out was the protagonist's tendency to inflict injuries on herself as a way to purge herself of emotions. But that one feeling doesn't help you sail through a book which is, otherwise, ceaselessly dreary and simply put, lacklustre in every way.
Hence, 2 very unsatisfied, very bored stars.
I am holding out hope for Gillian Flynn though. Maybe my opinion will change after reading Gone Girl or Dark Places.
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2.5 Stars. Unfortunately, I did not love this book and it is probably my least favorite of Gillian Flynn's work. As this was her debut, I'm happy to say I feel her later works show great improvement and a lot of strength.
CW: self-harm, sexualization of children, murder, child abuse (I don't normally put content warnings under spoilers but this warning is so integral to the ending AND it's so specific that I don't want people attacking me for spoiling the book) Munchausen By Proxy
I think Gillian Flynn is a brilliant writer, but it was quite obvious that Sharp Objects was her debut. Her prose remains easy to engage with, but it is much more simplistic compared to her later works. That being said, the writing was one of the elements I actually appreciated in this story.
I didn't particularly love the plot of the story. The idea of children being murdered and a journalist having to return to their small hometown was super intriguing to me, but the execution fell flat in my opinion. The "darkness" I constantly see associated with this book is definitely present - this book is not for the faint of heart, but truthfully, the story was boring in my opinion. I understand some people love small-town stories that focus on gossip and rumors, but it's not my cup of tea. I was missing the exhilarating plot twists from Gone Girl and Dark Places. It was very slow and for the most part, anticlimactic to me. I felt there were so many opportunities for more enticing, eventful scenes to be included but it was taken over by bland character interactions.
The big reveals/plot twists are difficult to discuss because my experience is an amalgamation of "This is surprising" and "This is expected." I feel the best way to describe it is I felt the resolution of the story was clever and well constructed, but it was partially anticipated. I feel the minute details surrounding the resolution were stronger than the big reveal itself if that makes sense.
Additionally, the ending felt very rushed as the truth of the mystery is revealed through Camille recollecting the events instead of being shown actively through the story. I think it would have been much stronger had we followed the revaluation in real-time along with Camille's initial reactions as opposed to having the events relayed to readers at a later time. Again, I feel this is a marker of this novel being Flynn's debut work and I can confirm that there is little "telling, not showing" in her future books.
Overall, I wasn't a fan of Sharp Objects, I think it just wasn't for me, but I'll continue to love Gillian Flynn's work.
CW: self-harm, sexualization of children, murder, child abuse (I don't normally put content warnings under spoilers but this warning is so integral to the ending AND it's so specific that I don't want people attacking me for spoiling the book) Munchausen By Proxy
I think Gillian Flynn is a brilliant writer, but it was quite obvious that Sharp Objects was her debut. Her prose remains easy to engage with, but it is much more simplistic compared to her later works. That being said, the writing was one of the elements I actually appreciated in this story.
I didn't particularly love the plot of the story. The idea of children being murdered and a journalist having to return to their small hometown was super intriguing to me, but the execution fell flat in my opinion. The "darkness" I constantly see associated with this book is definitely present - this book is not for the faint of heart, but truthfully, the story was boring in my opinion. I understand some people love small-town stories that focus on gossip and rumors, but it's not my cup of tea. I was missing the exhilarating plot twists from Gone Girl and Dark Places. It was very slow and for the most part, anticlimactic to me. I felt there were so many opportunities for more enticing, eventful scenes to be included but it was taken over by bland character interactions.
The big reveals/plot twists are difficult to discuss because my experience is an amalgamation of "This is surprising" and "This is expected." I feel the best way to describe it is I felt the resolution of the story was clever and well constructed, but it was partially anticipated. I feel the minute details surrounding the resolution were stronger than the big reveal itself if that makes sense.
Additionally, the ending felt very rushed as the truth of the mystery is revealed through Camille recollecting the events instead of being shown actively through the story. I think it would have been much stronger had we followed the revaluation in real-time along with Camille's initial reactions as opposed to having the events relayed to readers at a later time. Again, I feel this is a marker of this novel being Flynn's debut work and I can confirm that there is little "telling, not showing" in her future books.
Overall, I wasn't a fan of Sharp Objects, I think it just wasn't for me, but I'll continue to love Gillian Flynn's work.
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"I just think some women aren't made to be mothers. And some women aren't made to be daughters."
Journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her hometown, where one girl has been brutally murdered and another one is missing.
Dark and twisty and fucked up characters are my FAVE, and Gillian Flynn seems to be the absolute queen of creating them. Although one of the issues with having such car crashes for human beings in your stories is that you often don't have a character who you really root for or relate to. Usually I like having this sort of character in my books, but sometimes reading a book just for the sake of getting engrossed in the storyline and disentangling all the threads running throughout is all you need! Also known as… the perfect poolside read - which this was for me.
I'm a huge fan of Flynn's writing. Some of her descriptions and prose really wow-ed me. One woman she described as having "hips like antlers" in the way that the bones jutted out, and I just really liked that simile. There were a lot more instances like this where I would read a sentence or a paragraph and think "Oooh, that's GOOD!" I also loved a lot of the dark imagery that she included, it felt like quite a visual book and some of the scenes created will leave a lasting impression for sure.
Sharp Objects is full of twists and turns, a few of which I had predicted before they happened, but there were still a few that surprised me. The ending in particular! I thought I had it figured out, then it went one way and then another and I was just like WOOOAAHHH this is awesome.
Although that's not to say I had some issues. One of my major annoyances with this book was that it was extremely over sexualised at times. I am not a prude by any means, but it just felt like everything had links to sex in some way. EVERYTHING. And a lot of the time it seemed completely needless and tacked on. One event in particular… which I can't really talk about as I never include spoilers in a review, but it involved Camille's relationship with someone and it was just… completely unnecessary. In my view, anyway.
ALSO, also. I just do not buy that Amma is 13 years old! I just don't. I can completely understand that some kids are very mature and almost behave like adults at such a young age, but 13 was a bit of a stretch. Especially when you go on to watch the TV adaptation. I'm just not buying it, maybe 15 years old would be more believable? Some of Camille's opinions also rubbed me up the wrong way (that phrase would totally be made into some kind of innuendo in the book *rolls eyes*). In particular, there was one part where she discusses how women get "consumed" due to the "sheer amount of traffic" a woman's body experiences. I understand that this is merely Camille's opinion and I can't hold that against the book itself but the implication of it just grated on me.
That actually sounds like I had a lot of issues… but I still enjoyed the story a lot!! It's a page turner and it was exactly what I needed for my holiday.
4 stars.
Journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her hometown, where one girl has been brutally murdered and another one is missing.
Dark and twisty and fucked up characters are my FAVE, and Gillian Flynn seems to be the absolute queen of creating them. Although one of the issues with having such car crashes for human beings in your stories is that you often don't have a character who you really root for or relate to. Usually I like having this sort of character in my books, but sometimes reading a book just for the sake of getting engrossed in the storyline and disentangling all the threads running throughout is all you need! Also known as… the perfect poolside read - which this was for me.
I'm a huge fan of Flynn's writing. Some of her descriptions and prose really wow-ed me. One woman she described as having "hips like antlers" in the way that the bones jutted out, and I just really liked that simile. There were a lot more instances like this where I would read a sentence or a paragraph and think "Oooh, that's GOOD!" I also loved a lot of the dark imagery that she included, it felt like quite a visual book and some of the scenes created will leave a lasting impression for sure.
Sharp Objects is full of twists and turns, a few of which I had predicted before they happened, but there were still a few that surprised me. The ending in particular! I thought I had it figured out, then it went one way and then another and I was just like WOOOAAHHH this is awesome.
Although that's not to say I had some issues. One of my major annoyances with this book was that it was extremely over sexualised at times. I am not a prude by any means, but it just felt like everything had links to sex in some way. EVERYTHING. And a lot of the time it seemed completely needless and tacked on. One event in particular… which I can't really talk about as I never include spoilers in a review, but it involved Camille's relationship with someone and it was just… completely unnecessary. In my view, anyway.
ALSO, also. I just do not buy that Amma is 13 years old! I just don't. I can completely understand that some kids are very mature and almost behave like adults at such a young age, but 13 was a bit of a stretch. Especially when you go on to watch the TV adaptation. I'm just not buying it, maybe 15 years old would be more believable? Some of Camille's opinions also rubbed me up the wrong way (that phrase would totally be made into some kind of innuendo in the book *rolls eyes*). In particular, there was one part where she discusses how women get "consumed" due to the "sheer amount of traffic" a woman's body experiences. I understand that this is merely Camille's opinion and I can't hold that against the book itself but the implication of it just grated on me.
That actually sounds like I had a lot of issues… but I still enjoyed the story a lot!! It's a page turner and it was exactly what I needed for my holiday.
4 stars.
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