Sharp Objects is a thriller written by Gillian Flynn. I've previously read her other two suspense books, both made into films, and wanted to round out her three most popular novels; there is one more less popular novel of hers that I will eventually read too. While there were many great aspects to this one, it is my least favorite and had too many disjointed, cavernous holes that I couldn't ignore. For those reasons, I couldn't justify giving the book more than three stars, which in my opinion, is still good, and I would recommend reading it - just go in knowing there will be concerns. Minimal spoilers below (not murderer's identity) so go in reading my review carefully.

Camille is a troubled reporter who's been recovering from something. She's assigned to a serial murder case in her Missouri hometown by a supportive boss, who is also her friend. Upon arrival, it's clear she and her mother have a lot of complex history to unpack. We learn that Camille is a cutter who's destroyed her body because of these issues with her own mother. A sister died from an illness nearly two decades ago, and she also has a 13-year old half-sister, Amma, through her mother's marriage. Two 13-year old girls were found murdered in a nearby forest. Both girls' teeth were removed, but they weren't molested, which confuses the detectives in terms of motives. The local cop seems useless... the bigshot from Kansas City doesn't have much but is willing to work with Camille on the story.

Let's begin with the positives. The writing is strong. The imagery is clear. I felt transported to a depressed, frightened town with a diverse cast of characters. Camille has many levels to her personality, and she's obviously worked hard to escape from an awful upbringing. Adora (mother) is a horrendous woman on one page and a loving, supporting mother in the next few. Rich with complexity. Flynn excelled at communicating all of those components. Digging further into these details will be tough without giving away any spoilers... and explaining the parts of the story where I found missing things will be even harder, but I will try.

On the negative side, I hardly knew anything about their town. Why were all the young girls complete nasty trolls who lashed out at their friends? How could Adora, Camille and Amma's mother, let Amma behave that way? I know she was a bit off her rocker, but she also was a society matron, and no one told her that Amma was doing bad things... sex at 13 and still clueless? What about her father and why he ignored it? Then I struggled with Camille's personality and issues. I completely understand she had a tough mother and her coping mechanism was to cut herself. I get how that is a medical/psychological disorder/illness but sometimes it was as if she cut herself a few times and had two or three scars while others it was described that she had hundreds of words carved on her skin to the point she only had one small spot on her back without any words. The explanations didn't add up, and it felt like the author herself didn't know so she just wanted to make it a big piece of Camille's story. I don't at all think it was poorly handled... in fact, I think it's good to spotlight this stuff so people with tendencies to harm themselves see characters like themselves in books and know they can recover, but that was mostly all ignored here. The plot went nowhere.

On top of all that... not a single person in the town had any clue about the murderer's identity. And then when we get the twist at the end, that the person arrested wasn't actually guilty, and the true culprit almost got away with it... I was dumbfounded again. Yes, we need to be creative as authors and sometimes push our readers out of a comfort zone with what they believe, but... we went from page 350 where the detective is arresting the killer to the explanation and building out Camille's future to realizing someone else was the killer in 10 pages, without any details of what happened in the 3 month period between those two chapters. It felt extremely forced... and while I LOVE the plot and different angles, 50 pages of repetition could've been cut from earlier chapters and substituted with 50 pages of detail and explanation near the end. Then I would've totally raved about the story. I blame the editing team on this one; they should've stepped back and said, "Maybe things aren't connecting and we moved too fast here."

I could say a lot more, but I don't want to spoil too much. I've already told you the first person picked as the killer isn't the truth, but I will watch the TV series and I will read the author's next book. They're generally well written and truly bring you into the depth of the story, so that's a reason to enjoy them too.

Camille Preaker is haunted by childhood memories of a cold, hysterical mother and the devastating loss of her sister, Marian, who died when Camille was only 13. Literally carrying her war wounds upon her flesh, Camille is a recovering "cutter" who has carved a myriad of words into her skin as a visible record of the pain and trauma she's experienced. Having escaped from the clutches of a cloying family environment, Camille is being sent back into the cauldron, this time as a reporter for a second-rate newspaper to cover the gruesome murders of two local pre-teens. The more involved she becomes in the mystery, the more she uncovers about her town, her family, and herself. The discoveries are anything but pleasant.

Part thriller, part mystery, part Southern Gothic, Gillian Flynn's debut novel is simply outstanding. Camille Preaker is a heroine worth cheering for, as Flynn expertly delves into the female psyche and the delicate, often damaging ties between mothers and daughters. In the tradition of Flannery O'Connor, the writing here is so effective and evocative, this one will stay with you long after the reading is done.

Reread: 4 stars.

First read: 3 stars.
This is a very dark mystery book that should make you feel uncomfortable; however, I felt very much intrigued. Camille, the main character, returns back to her hometown to investigate a murder. This hometown has a very sinister mood to it, and that is exactly what I loved the most about this book. I wanted to know more about this dark place and its secrets, and even though I cringed whenever I heard about the citizens' behaviour, I loved it!
Nevertheless, this book also appalled me in a negative way. As mentioned earlier, this city has its secrets and they're all horrifying. People accept each other's behaviour when they shouldn't, and I had a hard time accepting that when reading.
The ending surprised me, and that's something I value a lot in a crime story. Normally, I'm not much into crime, but this is a story worth reading because it's about so much more than just the murder. It comes with complex characters and disfunctional families, and all in all it's a great read :)

Whenever I first discover an author that I really like, I always want to read the rest of their work.
This happened with Flynn after Gone Girl.
I managed to read the short novella The Grownups but never got around to reading the rest.
So many books, too little time!

Recently my Twitter timeline has been about the new HBO adaptation.
As I’m quite nervous about spoilers, I finally decided to take the plunge and brought the book.
I’m so glad that I did, as I was instantly hooked!

The story tells of reporter Camille Preaker who’s sent to her hometown of Wind Gap as one child had been murdered and another missing.
Whilst having to deal with events from her past, Camille attempts to get as much information as possible as she reports on the current events.

I really liked how both storylines unfolded. As Camille learnt more about the grisly case, more of her backstory was revealed.
She’s such a damaged character who you instantly root for.
It’s the type of story that the less you know the better the reading experience, I’m really glad that I took the plunge.

I really didn’t want to put this down.
If I’m being honest, I think I enjoyed it more than Gone Girl.

The idea for the book was not bad & the writing style was okay, however the characters were awful! The "heroine" (and I use this term loosely) was completely unlikeable. Between cutting words all over her entire body, doing hard core drugs with her 13 year old sister, & having sex with a teenage boy that she was old enough to mother, what's left to like? I realize the heroine had a totally messed up childhood but I could not even pity her! She did not have one redeeming quality! The author should have concentrated more on making the storyline/plot disturbing instead of the characters. There was not one likable character throughout! The alcoholism was off the charts! This book had potential but was completely ruined by the characters. It rambled on & on & on about meaningless nothing! (alcohol, drugs, weird sex) I have enjoyed books that have a lot of the previous (alcohol, drugs, & sex) but this was just plain weird. The author's writing style was not bad & something (I'm not sure what) kept me reading until the bitter end. I would not recommend this book to anyone. I hope the author writes more & focuses more on the plot & makes at least one of her characters remotely likeable! I have not completely given up on this author & will try reading her new book "Dark Places".

★★★★ /5
Gillian Flynn is an amazing author who never disappoints. This was an interesting, captivating novel with really good writing. I really like how the author crafts her characters and storylines. This book in my opinion has a really strong plot and the main character, every aspect of the story is well developed and because of that everything compliments each other really well.

everything about this is just so unapologetically rotten. i am unsettled and i need a shower. hello? what the fuck. what the FUCK.

this is probably the most brutal book i've ever read, definitely not for the fainthearted (which is a tragedy bc i am fainthearted)

for some reason??? i was ??? under the impression that??? this was a recently published novel??? i didnt REALIZE IT WAS HER DEBUT UNTIL AFTER I FINISHED
why am i like this

anyways, this book was messy in every single way possible. trigger and content warnings for pretty much everything under the sun.

im not really sure what i enjoyed about the book, it was really rough to read and i had to tune out during some parts (was listening to the audiobook). the ending was shocking, actually the entire book was shocking

the mystery was conducted amazingly, flynn knows how to weave a plot and this being her debut is really something. the characters are all unlikeable, but it's as if they're meant to be unlikeable. theyre all twisted in some deep, dark way and you're not really sure if you want to unravel it

reading this book is like walking into a creepy forest in the middle of the night, its just dark and scary and creepy and you don't really know whats going to happen

but hey its over!! now time for some sweet, cute, contemporaries!!

3.5 stars

Nausea

I have just finished Gillian Flynn’s debut novel, and feel rather sick. Not the kind of sick that comes from a harrowing mystery finally solved, leaving you shaken but safely out the other side. No, the result of overlong immersion in a vaguely incestuous, sludgy drama that just made me feel dirtier and dirtier and didn’t even afford some decent catharsis at the end.

Oh, it begins well enough. I was looking for a quick read as a break from the two long novels I was already mired in. The 3-for-2 offer at B&N hooked me, and I was eagerly on my way. Flynn writes good prose, with an eye for the apt but unusual simile, so this started out as a 4-to-5-star read. Camille Preaker, a reporter on a minor Chicagoland paper, is sent back to her home town of Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate what seems to be the serial murder of two young girls. There is an established pattern for such books: after a bit of pottering around, there will be another murder or two, which will shake up the roster of suspects and put the heroine herself into danger.

Only it doesn’t happen that way at all. The only other murder is more or less an afterthought. Speaking for myself, I hit on two possible suspects well before the halfway point, and the book did nothing to suggest any remotely possible alternatives. Instead, we enter into a nauseating nightmare in which just about everyone we meet—primarily women—are painted in unsympathetic terms. There are Camille’s old school friends, grown into catty socialites. There are their tween-age daughters, an almost feral group of junior blondes. There is Camille’s half-sister Amma, thirteen, their leader in the town and a spoiled child at home. And there is Camille’s wealthy mother, Adora, a woman as cold as the solid ivory floor in her bedroom.

And then there is Camille herself, who turns out to have major problems of her own. One of these is the abnormality implied by the title and cover; though it is largely in the past, she still bears the scars. But the one that most got to me is her drinking. I cannot long retain sympathy for a heroine, however bright, who goes through her day downing drink after drink, and repeated descriptions of the resultant puking do not endear me either. It became harder and harder to distinguish Camille from the toxic environment. Was she in danger, and from whom? By the middle of the book, I found I no longer cared.

Gillian Flynn does have a twist at the end, but it is a small one, a slight reshuffling of the deck. It does little to clear the air or, as Lady Macbeth said, to wash this filth from off my hands.

[PS. It seems almost irrelevant to mention it, but the framing device of the novel is quite implausible. It is hard to believe in Camille Preaker as a functioning reporter, difficult to imagine her editor sending her on a project of so little concern to his readers, and impossible to believe him keeping her there so long when she turns up so little. And then at the end, when she does uncover something of some value, it is simply presented to her on a plate—a handwritten note somehow preserved in a file she would never have got permission to look at anyway.]

“I just think some women aren't made to be mothers. And some women aren't made to be daughters.”

This book was so good. Fast-paced, with a lot of interesting female characters, which is a rarity in modern literature, and a lot dark questions asked. While playing with morbidity and clichés, it never fails to surprise you. With a plain and direct writing style, Flynn shines brightly. A year and half after reading this, I changed my rating to 5 stars, because this book is a true masterpiece.

Camille, a reporter in Chicago, comes from a small town and a dysfunctional family. She lost her younger sister when she was 13 and that is when she started cutting herself. You'd think that now when she's all grown up and looking out for herself, she would've worked out most of her psychological problems, but she hasn’t and that fact is shown all over her body. Camille has words on almost every inch of her body that she has been cutting into herself over the last 14 years.

After spending some time in a mental hospital she comes back to her hometown to investigate the murders of two 10 year old girls for the newspaper she's working for. Unfortunately,she must deal with the death of her sister again and try to objectively find some exclusive information. She comes from a twisted and cruel family tree - her grandmother Joya with her sick and overprotective behaviour ruined her mother Adora, while Adora with her own share of coldness and squeamish behaviour ruined Camille and both of her sisters Marian and Amma.

Camille tries to get along with the mother who never loved her and establish a relationship with the half sister she hardly knows. A half-sister she couldn't even recognize. As the story continues, we find so much about Camille's childhood and her behavior as a teenager. She's covered in so many layers you can't put her into any category.

I thought I figured out the ending half way through but Flynn made the ending a jaw dropping one. This book is more than just a plot driven story. Yes, I was wondering who the killer is, but much of the story is about Camille's own issues and how she deals with them upon returning home. I love how Flynn portrays women. She definitely brings something new to contemporary fiction. Women here aren't weak, undecided and two-dimensional, but manipulative, too intelligent for their own good and wicked.

In a world where we still have to justify the need for feminism, this book takes a completely different approach. Women aren't shown as helpless victims, instead they're initiators and villains. Society is so used to blaming men for everything bad that happens, but sometimes women can be just as horrible.

I loved reading about the bond between the characters and how their personalities were influenced by insanity that seems to run in the family. Flynn created flawed characters that we can empathise with even though it's so hard to love them. They're deeply insecure, fierce and broken women whose destructive emotions have tragic consequences.

At 95%, I thought I already knew who the murderer is. Even better, I was even DISAPPOINTED because I have figured it all out so early. While other writers begin to wrap up the story so near the end, Flynn was just getting warmed up to slap us with a few more twists. This book is impeccable from first to the last page.

“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. Women get consumed.”

I can't describe how much I love the portrayal of women in this book. Of course, they're not shown in the best light, but it's so refreshing to read about female psychology without any man messing with their minds. Other Flynn's books have the same kind of suspense but don't come near to the perfection of this one.

As flawed and broken as Camille is, I still adored her. At least most of the time. Well, except that one time when she wanted to give a guy a blowjob as a way of apology. I wanted her to find out who the killer is before anyone else, escape from her mother's destructive claws and her sister's manipulation and settle with Richard. Camille is smart and reckless. She wants to recover but doesn't know where to start. Being monumentally fucked up, she's reminded every day by carves on her skin of the pain and trauma she's experienced. Frankly, she's worth cheering for. Having lost her sister and never knowing motherly or even fatherly love, Camille was a teenage girl who'd let anyone take advantage of her. Not much has changed over the years.

"It is sort of a wild story, you know? A crazy lady snatches Natalie in broad daylight," he said. "Besides, why would a woman do something like that?" "Why would a man do something like that?" I asked.

I love authors who tend to shove taboos and stereotypes in the face.

“And sometimes drunk women aren't raped; they just make stupid choices--and to say we deserve special treatment when we're drunk because we're women, to say we need to be looked after, I find offensive.”

Despite of how much she hides it, Camille is very hot-tempered.

"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.”

The rare perks of being a journalist.

“I’m not one of those reporters who relishes picking through people’s privacy. It’s probably the reason I’m a second-rate journalist.”

If you haven't realised it by now, I'm completely in love with Camille.

Amma plays the good girl acting younger than 13 for her mother but for others, she's promiscuous and vicious. She controls her friends with fear, sex and drugs. Constantly seeking her mother's approval, she goes from hysteria to ecstasy, from depression to kindness, over and over again. She's a first-class manipulator.

“Sometimes if you let people do things to you, you’re really doing it to them,” Amma said, pulling another Blow Pop from her pocket. Cherry. “Know what I mean? If someone wants to do fucked-up things to you, and you let them, you’re making them more fucked up. Then you have the control. As long as you don’t go crazy.”

Don't let her fool you, she IS crazy, plain and simple.

It's really hard to describe Adora. She's paranoid, cold, manipulative, basically an attention whore. I must've used word "manipulative" at least 10 times by now, ugh. Everything she did to her children is deeply disturbing and don't even let me get started on how she probably brainwashed her husband Alan.

I loved all interactions between Camille and Amma. Despite of all her efforts, Camille empathizes and cares for Amma. On the other hand, Amma looks up to Camille in some weird way. Camille tried to save her, but not only Amma was beyond saving, also it's impossible to mend something broken, when you're almost unfixable too.

“When I'd been sad, I hurt myself. Amma hurt other people. When I'd wanted attention, I'd submitted myself to boys: Do what you want; just like me. Amma's sexual offerings seemed a form of aggression. Long skinny legs and slim wrists and high, babied voice all aimed like a gun. Do what I want; I might like you.”

They're two sides of the same coin, only Amma is the cruel one and Camille is the delicate one.

And finally, there is the sick dynamic between Camille and Adora. Though, it's almost non-existent. Except when Camille is ill and helpless. This book is a case where it's completely justified to say parents ruined their children and therefore it's their fault for ongoing tragedy.

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I devoured this novel. I hadn't seen the HBO mini-series, so the story was fresh and wrenching and raw. Gillian Flynn is not merely a great storyteller, she's a beautiful writer. There were smilies and metaphors I repeated aloud because they were so evocative and precise.

This is a horrible book. It is misogynistic. It makes Gone Girl look like a masterpiece, and that is saying something. It is gross (literally). It is trite. I hated it.