It took me a while to get to the middle of this book, but then once the pace picked up, I was hooked by this dark, disturbing read that pulled me into a depraved world and refused to let go until the very last page.

If you're in the mood for a psychological thriller that's as chilling as it is thought-provoking, this is the book for you. Just be prepared to be left with a lingering sense of unease long after you've closed the cover. I rated this 4 stars for its twisted depravity and deducted a star because it left me shaken and a little bit haunted.

Un gran thriller, la escritora hace un gran trabajo con la descripción y psicología de los personajes principales. Una relación enfermiza, llena de detalles siniestros.
Una gran lectura aunque el final puede ser predecible, no deja de sorprender.

I have been trying to read this book since I purchased it in 2022. I kept putting it down because I got bored. Oops?

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This book follows Camille, who is sent back to her home town of Wind Gap, Missouri by her boss at a local newspaper in Chicago to write about two murders. As she is thrown into the investigation into the murders, she comes to realize how dangerous things really are in the town she was raised in.

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I'm not sure how I feel about the end of the book, to be honest. I'm not sure how I feel about finding out who the killer is. I don't want to reveal that information in this review so I can maintain a review without spoilers.

I feel bad for Camille and Amma both because of how they were raised. I was horrified as more and more was revealed about Camille's past. I can definitely understand why she made some of the choices she did while growing up.

I can understand why she ended up in a psychiatric facility in her 30s. I can understand the choices she made that led to that time in the facility. I am so glad her boss was there for her when she needed someone the most.

I can also understand why Amma was such a bully for most of the book. I can understand why she was into alcohol, drugs, and sex. I was shocked at how young she was but on the other hand, I can understand why she used the alcohol and drugs to numb the pain she so obviously feels.

I love a good thriller but I'm so glad I ended up checking out the audiobook through Libby. I'm glad I chose to go through this book that way instead of reading it on my Kindle since I know I'd end up DNF'ing it yet again. Yikes!

I'd recommend this book if you want a good thriller but I'll admit that it was slow in the beginning of the book. I think it really picks up at the end of the book when Camille comes really close to figuring out who the killer is. Wait until you find out who it is!

my main thoughts after finishing this is....eh.
when I read thrillers I want to be shocked and this didn't do that. I guessed who the killer was within the first 10% and the rest of the book just played out very predictably

it wasn't bad but just not what I want when I read a thriller. however I am excited to watch the HBO miniseries

Shudder!

This is one seriously disturbing, creepy, little story, cut with a gothic edge.

It is also the second Gillian Flynn I have read and it is true, I believe her books are best read blind.
This one I delved into with next to no knowledge of the story. Perfect.

With Camille Preaker, Flynn gives us an unlikely heroine and a narrator to care about. Camille told me this story, deftly uncovering the details of creep over time. This effectively left me unsure that I even wanted to know more and quite unable to stop myself from reading on. No question this is one of sickest, most disturbing Mother/Daughter relationships I have ever encountered. It puts the D in dysfunctional.

n  “Now it cuts like a knife
But it feels so right
Ya it cuts like a knife
But it feels so right”n

Who would believe that this is a debut novel?
It blew my socks off.
Well, peeled them off actually, with short, sure strokes.

Trust me; let Flynn tell you this story.
It is best that way.

Heridas abiertas es puro dolor, suspenso y la psiquis trastornada de sus personajes. Es una historia que toma como eje las relaciones familiares en un entorno tétrico y abusivo. Es más, la historia tiene como especialidad estar ubicada dentro del thriller puramente psicológico.

Para empezar, Gillian Flynn centra su historia en contar y mostrar varias facetas oscuras y tenebrosas de sus personajes. Hay un retrato enfermizo, insano, tóxico y bastante siniestro en cada uno de ellos. Es más, la atmósfera sombría y gótica que crea sin ser una prosa tan adornada o maravillosa te mantiene siempre en vilo y con las ganas de seguir leyendo a medida que se van juntando las pocas piezas del tablero. Sin embargo, es por eso mismo que creo que en este caso la trama de la historia se basa más que todo en darte mal rollo con las situaciones que se presentan y lo tan dañado que tienen la mentalidad los personajes (sus mismo traumas, miserias y dependencias emocionales); que en tratar de resolver o encontrar un culpable a los asesinatos cometidos.

Quizás, es por eso mismo que hay gente decepcionada con este libro. Por eso, si estás buscando una trama centrada en resolver el misterio de los crímenes, te vas a llevar un estrellón porque esto es lo secundario. Es más que solo eso, porque la verdad en cierto modo a mí me resultó totalmente predecible quién o quiénes estaban implicados, pero eso no quiere decir que no me pareció adictivo o interesante hasta el increíble desenlace. Aunque por el contrario, si lo que quieres es un thriller psicológico con drama como condimento este es tu lugar. Para mí es simplemente adictiva y disfruto viendo representados personajes así de dañados en la literatura.

n  n

The review is now posted. You can read it here.

What I learned writing this review:

-Collab reviews are NOT easy to write, seriously.
-Time zones are HELL when doing these things.
-Evelyn & I have different ways of putting up reviews.
-I can't leave a review unfinished for more than one week. I need to write it at the most one day after reading the book.

As for this book... it was great! I can't wait to start reading Dark Places. In fact, if it wasn't because I have no time to read, I would have probably started and finished it already. The nastiness of Sharp Objects is enough to convice me of trying more of Flynn's works.

Don't forget to read the full review!

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October 16th, 2015:

Buddy read with Evelyn. (She actually abandoned me halfway through and finished the book for herself, but shhh)

I can now see what people meant when they said Gillian Flynn has a twisted mind. All the characters in here are fucked up, complex, and while not always likable, they were relatable at times. I even found myself in some. The mystery was also great, and thrilling, as it should always be in a mystery/thriller novel. I can't wait to read more of Flynn's. I love nasty.

Full review to come. Evelyn and I will be writing it soon. Wait for it!

3.5 stars

prefacing this review with the fact that i don't ever read thrillers/mysteries or particularly like them, but i felt indebted to read this since it's one of bonnie's, my bff, favorite books and i do nothing if not force her to read my favorites. it took less than half a day to listen to it on audio, and i found i liked it more than i anticipated i would. since i don't read mysteries i really have no grounds for reviewing it as it stacks up to other books like it, but i did enjoy the unfolding action and the narrator and the tone of the book.

the one thing i couldn't get over is that the people in this book's town are so hyperbolically strange and, for lack of a better word, crazy. it was hard to wrap my head around, but that could just be from my perspective of my own naiveté. by the end of the book i was kinda able to guess who had done what and why, but it was still chilling.

even though i know what happens i'd still be interested to watch the hbo show to see how it tackles this because i think a tv adaptation would be able to do something cool with this story.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn is a 2006 publication.

I have had this book in my TBR list for years, have checked it out of the library twice, only to have to send it back unread due to my review schedule. So, finally, I just pushed everything aside and checked it back out of the library and refused to pick up another book until this one was finished.

Well, after such a long wait, the build up and hype left me with an anti-climatic feeling. However, the book was still quite absorbing and all the reviews you've read warning of very dark subject matter, are true and then some.

Since twenty thousand plus people have left a review for this book on Goodreads, so I don't think you need another detailed opinion from me. But, I will say it's not for the faint of heart and one should be prepared for some very graphic depictions, super evil and demented characters, and a tightly woven story that will keep you guessing all the way to the end. So, if you enjoy truly twisted psychological thrillers and haven't read this one yet, I hope you will find a way to work it into your reading schedule. But, beware, once you finish this one you will definitely want to read something with a lighter tone in order to cleanse away the residue the story will leave in your brain.

Over all 4 stars

S-I-C-K. :) Gillian Flynn is a genius! I love her writing.

I love a good psychological thriller with disturbingly flawed characters and this book did not disappoint. The main character is a woman struggling to make a life for herself, fleeing her childhood and really, fleeing her mother when she is sent back to her home town as an investigative reporter. She is tasked to report on the gruesome murders of two pre-teen girls, but in the process she gets put right back in the middle of her messed up family dynamics, her small town’s social structure, and a potential romance.

Ms. Flynn nails perfectly small Midwest town life. A quote in her description of small town life,

“Like all rural towns, Wind Gap has an obsession with machinery. Most homes own a car and a half for every occupant, plus boats, Jet Skis, scooters, tractors, and among the elite of Wind Gap, golf cars, which younger kids without licenses use to whip around town.”

Ms. Flynn makes some disturbing observations about parenting and family life – and ties them in to premature death:

As to the death of a young girl, “it’s the only way to truly keep your child. Kids grow up, they forge more potent allegiances. They find a spouse or a lover. They will not be buried with you. The Keenes, however will remain the purest form of family. Underground.”

The situations described in this book are exceptional, but she breaks the image of small rural life as being ideal. Terrifying violence and dysfunction lurks beneath the surface and I have to say, she nailed it in terms of describing my small rural home town. As Flynn writes, the idealic quality of small towns is false. A question is – should people go home once they have fled extreme unhappiness? Can they go home and survive it emotionally? Going home almost undoes Camille and as the story is told the readers see from a disturbing first person angle, Camille’s personal psychological problems and the extent of her damage. It was terrifying to read about, but I could not put the book down.

A truly horrifying image of the protagonist’s mother:  “I remember my mother, alone in the living room, staring at the child almost lasciviously. She pressed her lips hard against the baby’s apple slice of a cheek. Then she opened her mouth just slightly, took a tiny bit of flesh between her teeth, and gave it a little bite.”

A question I had was, what was Ms. Flynn’s message in this? Small rural towns are messed up? Family dynamics can really screw people up? Old school social hierarchies breed disturbing people? I did find it interesting that the men in this story, save one, are thoroughly disappointing and that the evil, cruel and shallow women are upholding traditional images of beauty and also, were physically ultra feminine in terms of how our society defines such things. The violence that happens to women and girls happens on the brink of girls becoming women, and the things done to them  shaving the girls legs, fixing their hair, painting their nails  are superficial ways femininity has been defined in our modern culture. And finally, the evil doers  are the ultra beautiful, the ultra coiffed, and the ultra physical female ideals . What comment is Flynn making on images of women, female sexuality and femininity in modern US culture? I am asking because I have not yet decided what the answer is.

I recommend this book for people who enjoy dark psychological thrillers, where the mystery and murder are just set ups for authors to portray dark disturbing characters and fully fleshed but damaging relationships. I would say fans of Tana French, Donna Tartt, and Laura Kasischke would enjoy this book, but beware, it is not for the faint hearted – the decryptions of physical violence can be upsetting.

You can read this and all of my review at Lit·Wit·Wine·Dine.

I’ve had Sharp Objects sitting on my shelf years now. When I heard that one of my favorite actresses, Amy Adams, was going to be starring in the HBO adaptation, I knew I needed to get to it soon so I wouldn’t have to feel the guilt of watching before reading. And what better way to work it in than a TBT post?

At only 252 pages, Sharp Objects made for a quick and compelling read. I’d read the reviews saying how dark and disturbing it was but still wasn’t fully prepared. I know many of you have already read this book and I don’t want to ruin it for those of you who haven’t so I won’t discuss the details of the plot. Suffice to say that it’s one of the most bizarre, twisted, and depraved books I’ve read in a long time. At the same time, it is one of the most creative, imaginative, and consuming as well!

If you love books with gut-wrenching crime scenes and deeply dysfunction families, Sharp Objects is a must-read. At the end of this book there were all sorts of nature vs. nurture questions swirling around in my head.

Though I found Sharp Objects to be quite different from Gone Girl, and I’m not sure I loved it quite as much, I think it was a great read. I’m definitely glad I read this book before the TV adaptation.

4.25/5 stars

**I think it’s worth mentioning that there are some graphic descriptions of the protagonist’s struggle with self-harm/cutting.**