okay so i,of course, was initially drawn to this book because it has shiny cover. i am like a magpie or a raccoon or something... and then it just sat on the shelf for ages and one day i read the description of it somewhere. and it's all "whore" on her ankle and "pain" on her heart or whatever.(which is not on the back cover copy, but is right up there in the goodreads.com description) and i thought - "oooh you are so edgy and shocking!!" and i rolled my eyes and figured i would just never read it. but THEN i was so sleepy today i thought i would just read something unchallenging that it might be fun to write a bad review of. alas, its actually pretty good; and not cheesy-edgy. it can be read in a day, no problem, and it features the most unhealthy mother-daughter relationship i've ever read. and i've read bastard out of carolina.

come to my blog!

From the first page, I felt the author had just finished a Chuck Palahniuk novel and decided she wanted to be like him when she grew up. Sentence fragments can be fun if you're in the mood for things like "A belly. A smell. He was suddenly standing next to me." (Not exact quotes, but pretty close.) I wasn't in the mood, and it was irritating. Also, I couldn't enjoy the main character. I found the scene where she was 12 years old and in someone's hunting shed, full of dead, bloody animals and porn irritating. I get that I was supposed to think "oh wow what a messed up home life she has to be masturbating in a shed full of dead animals", but instead I thought " I have no interest in this, or her."

wtf did i just read

BEST GILLIAN FLYNN BOOK. By a mile. Sorry, Gone Girl, you are no longer welcome here. (Just kidding I'm going to reread it in one absolute second but will it be as good as this book? No, it will not. Probably. We'll see.)

This is so CREEPY and the writing is so visceral and it's so unique. There have probably been thrillers like this one since this one, but definitely not many before.

There are so many characters that are just hopelessly fascinating. Like, all of them, basically. Any time the protagonist gets into a conversation with any human person it's a goddamn treat because everyone is so interesting and confusing and you just want to know everything about everyone!!!

Flynn also has this fantastic crazy writing style that you feel and picture so hard. Very Virgin Suicides. There are turns of phrase in this book I read four times and promptly filed away as "you will remember this at random points for the rest of your life."

I don't even know what to say beyond this is a whole new level of good. You have no idea. If the HBO adaptation doesn't do it justice I will goddamn picket the home of Amy Adams with a protest sign but also HOW COULD IT DO IT JUSTICE.

I'm a mess. And I'm not even mad about it.

Bottom line: How is this Gillian Flynn's first book??? How is this any non-deal-with-devil-having person's first book????? How is this a book?????

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currently-reading updates

me: yeah i can reread this before the show premieres

...even though i haven't finished a book in almost a week

...and i have to read another book in its entirety today for school

....and the show premieres in less than 9 hours.

sure no problem!!!! gillian flynn come thru

3.4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.”

Wow well this was... disturbing. And sick and twisted and depraved and degenerate. Possibly incest. I liked it! But didn't love it. Prior to reading this book, I had watched the mini series from HBO. And then naturally, I bought the book and didn't read it until now. Yes, the series came out 2 years ago and I'm reading the book in 2020, shut up. But let's talk about it.

Camille was a very interesting protagonist to read about. She has a very dark past, a disturbed family, history of violence, abuse and self harm and now after years of not being back to her hometown and having being "saved" so to speak, she ends up back in the rabbit hole. Which brings back many bad memories, awkward meetings with old classmates, gossip, and most importantly... a reunion with her toxic mother. I didn't like Camille as a person. She was very unlikable and snobbish to me. But I liked reading about her and delving more into her psyche. Finally a good "unlikable characters" book.

The storyline was pretty basic, two little girls are killed in a small town... reporter has to go there and write an article about it... but in this case the reporter is from the town. This fucking town man! Is this how people are like in small towns in America? Like honestly, 13 years olds acting like 18 years olds? What the fuck was that about? They could just up the ages a tiny bit... 15 would have been more realistic. Looking like that and acting like that at 13 does not happen often. Maybe they could have done this with Amma only, which yes was the most popular and mean girl in school blah blah blah, but the other girls don't really fall much behind. They are in middle school for God's sake! No. Couldn't buy it. Tell me please, if 13 year olds in America act like this, I truly want to know.

The mystery was thrilling but at times it fell flat. There are moments were the plot was backtracking I could say? I can't really explain it but I guess I could say some things felt very repetitive sometimes. Conversations and characters mostly. Also thoughts in Camille's mind and the way she expressed them. Maybe this book could be smaller and it would be more impactful and fast paced.

One of my biggest problems with this book was the ending and the "twist". The revelation was written in such a weird way that I literally had to go back to my audiobook and book (yes I listen to audiobooks at 2.3 while reading the book too to read faster, trust me it works, especially if you're bilingual) to understand what the fuck just happened. Luckily, I didn't remember the twist from the mini series and when I remembered it I got that "OH SHIT HOW DID I FORGET THIS" but the presentation could have been better. It was a good plot twist buried by the writing and presentation.

To sum up, this was a good but not great mystery thriller for me. If you enjoy mystery thrillers that depend mostly on abusive relationships and character studies, you will like this a lot more. If you want good world building and a nice plot twist, you won't like it extremely much. And before I go... FUCK THE MOTHER. K bye!

when you're at a writing a haunting, viscerally disgusting and disturbing thriller contest but gillian flynn is your competition (maybe more to come)

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gone girl is my fav thriller so i'm probably going to eat this up

i'm not sure what to say about this book because while i think it reads like a bestseller should, i didn't enjoy it. the prose is compelling in that i felt compelled to finish it, and i did. i couldn't put it down but i wanted to get it over with. i think the writing is engaging but i will remember no turns of phrase, or kernels of wisdom.

i can say it seemed pretty obvious to me who would turn out to be guilty of the crimes in the end, and i was right. all of the characters in this book except for the guilty and the protagonist seemed clear stock types to me: the out-of-towner cop, the sheriff, the older brother of one of the girls killed, his girlfriend, all of the women of the reporter protagonists generation, of her mother's, of her sister's.. i have seen all these characters on sicker episodes of law and order or some other crime procedural, which for the record, i usually have no trouble anticipating the conclusions of either. i won't say i was surprised when i read that author, flynn, was a former television critic for entertainment weekly, in addition to holding a film degree. she has a very firm hold on characterization, and tropes, and she knows just when to serve up something that seems contrary to what you expect, to turn it on its head, and sufficiently creep her reader out. certainly, i exclaimed "this is disgusting" in a crowded subway because i couldn't help myself.

if you are looking for a dark and shocking read that includes shades of southern gothic, perversion, and self-mutilation, this may be the book for you. having finished this book, i don't think i ever want to see it again because it didn't really give me anything. it grossed me out, yes, but it never really scared me, or enlightened me, or surprised me. i respect the writing crafted here but i don't admire it. i'm glad that it's finished and i don't have to read it anymore.

sharp objects had nuances of an elizabeth george book called missing joseph i once read that i liked better, probably because it was a lot less grotesque, and was more difficult to figure out.

Last week I read the fuck out of Gillian Flynn's catalog. Three novels in eight days while my wife and kids were out of town and a sweltering late July marooned me in one of the house's two air conditioned rooms. So although this review is primarily for Sharp Objects, my favorite of Flynn's trio, let me go on record with Gone Girl (four stars, go read another of the zillion of reviews) and Dark Places (three stars, maybe too many narratives perspectives and too willing to wallow in the muck) as well, but I'm not writing reviews for those two. Sharp Objects, to me, stands out as Flynn's best so far. The narrator and the storyline don't dance with each other in a seamless, synchronized manner; family history and unwritten community norms mosh-pit it up until the collective response to the murders reminded me of that Soundgarden video where all the faces go funhouse-mirror-y. This narrator isn't a shining heroine. She's very human, supremely fucked up, trying to make sense and move forward. Maybe that's what makes Sharp Objects so interesting.

Highly recommended, Sharp Objects is the kind of book one could characterize as a summer read. This is the rare novel that both devoted and casual (yes, that sound you hear is me turning up my nose) readers will appreciate, as long as they can handle the psychological darkness. Good for any season, not just a summer read, even. My nose just turned up a little higher. I better stop now before I'm looking at the ceiling.

(By the way, if I haven't said so yet, Gillian Flynn is knee-weakening cute.)

n  Grippin’ book!n


n  WHERE EVERYTHING STARTEDn

Gillian Flynn is one of the most worldwide famous and popular authors nowadays with best-selling novels like Gone Girl and Dark Places, along with the short story The Grownup, but her debut novel was this one, Sharp Objects.

Flynn’s style features broken characters, nasty acts, gruesome crimes and plot twists, showing a face of American contemporary towns (not matter if they’re ficticious) that it’s not so common portraited…

…and a truly grippin’ narrative.

Maybe in this first book, and due precisely being her initial publication, I didn’t feel her attempts for plot twisting as successful as in her following works. Since in this novel are too obvious (at least to me), but still a great novel to read, thanks to Flynn’s narrative.

So, while it didn’t gave so much surprises as in her other books (that I read before this one), still, her narrative style is so enriching to read, that I appreciate a lot the actual reading experience.

Definitely a n  sharpn reading experience indeed!

It’s quite interesting how Gillian Flynn is able to “sell” us broken characters as the “heroes” of her books, since if you ponder about them, they’re not nice people (or are they just real people?) where they’re not truly evil, but neither are completely good, always walking in a very grey path where you can’t predict what they’ll do next, and since you can read their thoughts, they can’t lie to you, they may lie to other characters in the stories, but the reader is able to fully grasp the souls and conscience of the main protagonists...

...and while you're aware that they're not nice on taboo and/or politically correct subjects, you still develop a bond with the protagonists, you may not think like them, but get to understand why they think in the way that they think, due the enviroments where they grew up and the traumatic experiences that they've suffered.

And you have to respect Gillian Flynn since she’s a bold writer that don’t hesitate of being non-politically correct when her characters express their particular points of view about everything, and indisputably resolute of using the darkest deeds that human beings can do to other human beings.
And everything started here.


n  WELCOME (BACK) TO WIND GAPn

Camille Preaker is a young journalist specialized in the crime beat of the Chicago’s newspaper, where she works, and she’s assigned to cover a possible serial killer operating at her hometown, Wind Gap, Missouri…

…but Camille left the town for good reasons, she is still experiencing very personal traumatic after effects for her living there, and she hoped never come back.

Against her best judgement, Camille is the prodigal daughter of Wind Gap, but hardly she is truly welcomed in her own home, where Adora, her strict mother, and Amma, her volatile stepsister, each giving to Camille, their own particular kind of “greetings”, finding herself in the middle of their mischievous games, making to remember to Camille why she left several years ago.

Wind Gap’s Police Department doesn’t want to admit that a serial killer is in town, but a young girl murdered and another missing (which most likely will appear dead soon), it’s becoming harder and harder to avoid the gruesome scenario and the worse thing…

…it’s very likely that the serial killer is one of Wind Gap’s citizens.

Wind Gap’s Police Department received the external support of a Kansas City PD’s homicide detective, and soon he started a mutually beneficial relationship with Camille, where she tells him without much constraint the real dark history of Wind Gap.

Camille tries her best to investigate the case at her old hometown, interviewing the affected families for the crimes and any witness of the acts, but she left Wind Gap, so many time ago, that almost nobody sees her as a fellow neighbor anymore…

…and her unavoidable status of being part of one of the most influential Wind Gap’s families isn’t clear to Camille if it’s an advantage or a burden for her journalistic task.

However, Camille can’t stop since she may be the only hope to stop Wind Gap’s blood shedding.

The razor blade on the front cover of the book is what one yearns for right after embarking on this read, sharp blade with which to cut every single page, one by one, until they are so neatly shredded that even the memory of what was written on them becomes non existent. And then, one can use the same razor to end one's own life.

I'm still unsure what the author was thinking when she began this book, unless she had some very deep and very disturbing mental issues to work through.

This book is dangerous and not because it excites one with a thrilling and suspenseful story. It is dangerous because once one reads it, one loses any desire to look for another book that may restore one's faith in the existence of good books with an uplifting charge. Not only is this book dangerous, but it is sick. Its underlying sickness is that it's emotionally draining and unless readers are looking to load up on more mental baggage (I can't think of anyone who doesn't have enough), I'd stay away from its pain.

The main character is a female reporter who returns home on an assignment (covering the serial murders of two little girls). As memories of her painful childhood emerge, readers find a lot more about her character, for example her alcoholic addiction and her obsession to carve words into her own flesh. Waves of her unresolved issues wash away further hopes of a challenging literary work as readers are practically dragged into her problems (not loved enough by her mother, not popular enough in school, not motivated enough in her work) and are subjected to the anguish of either feeling sorry for her or wanting to end her existence.

As disturbing details of the two murders resurface, readers are introduced to yet two more characters as equally unpleasant as the first. There is the psychologically unstable (almost emotionally poisonous) personality of her mother and the pathologically sinister and equally disturbed one of the teenage sister. And of course there are the endlessly problematic and mentally crushing details of the small-town's Midwest America (why would one want to read this is beyond my understanding).

This book robs one of smiles, of the beauty of life, and even of the reason for love. It is not only bitter, but leaves one with an unpleasant smell of what I'd like to call rotten feelings. I can't brand the book dull (as it did leave me with unwanted thoughts), but I can promise you that you'll feel dull once you've read it. I don't recommend it, but may compare the feelings I have for it to what Chuck Palahniuk's 'Choke' birthed in me.

This was a book with little plot, going nowhere. I kept waiting for something to start up, or some past mystery to unfold/resolve, but nothing. It was just a story about cruelty and the heartlessness and boredom of women and girls living "it up" in small town Midwest. The narrator, now a Chicago reporter, returns to her hometown, Wind Gap, MO, on the tail of a young girl's disappearance. Camille, the narrator, used to cut words into her skin as teenager, starting after the death of her 9 year old sister, and also because their mother was cold and unloving. Almost near the end, some "plot" is tacked on the that mother is that way because of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, and that she killed Camille's sister, and is using that syndrome to make adult Camille and Camille's 13 year old half-sister sick. The whole novel is about nothing but horrible cruelty by girls and tons of repressed sexual energy. I didn't like it. And I hated the way it was "resolved". It reminded me way too much of "Isabella Moon", which also meandered insanely and never had a real plot or resolution.

yo everyone's crazy as hell wtf, Richard the only sane person, we stan a unproblematic king