Pages: 262
Published: September 2006 by Shaye Areheart Books
# in Series: N/A – Standalone
Source: Purchased at Coles
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Summary from Goodreads:
WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart
Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg
Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle
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. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.With its taut, crafted writing, Sharp Objects is addictive, haunting, and unforgettable.
My Thoughts & Review:
Camille is a reporter who has recently been released from the psychiatric hospital(although this is not revealed until about halfway into the novel its stated in the synopsis, so no spoiler) whose next assignment is to go back to her hometown to investigate/cover the murders of two young girls. While she is there she is met with a lot of struggles with her past and has to deal with her emotions with cutting, her mother who she has never had a strong relationship with and her thirteen year old, strange and violent, younger sister.
Camille was a very different protagonist. I felt awkwardly separate from her during the story but I think that is how Gillian Flynn wanted you to feel. I felt for her in situations but I couldn’t emotionally connect with her past history, or even some of her current situations. Her mother, Adora, was just awkward. Straight away, I felt there was something off about her… she was strangely disconnected from her children in an odd way. She coddled them in public, or when they were fallen ill, but when they were their regular selves she seemed to ignore them. Camille’s stepfather, Alan was not present really and when he was he gave me the creeps and her younger sister Amma weirded me out to no end. She was the oddest thirteen year old girl I have ever seen portrayed in a novel. She was needy, violent, childish and moody. All at different times. You really couldn’t get a true feel of what Amma was like as she was constantly having dramatic mood swings.
I really enjoyed how you did not know at all who was really the killer of these girls. I thought I had it on lock until the very end and then I was shocked. There was a part that I had guessed… which I don’t really want to talk about much in fear I may ruin it because I don’t think a lot of people will know what it is. Also, the town this took place in, Wind Gap creeped me out. It reminded me of one of those towns that you see in horror movies. All of the people were just strange. The plot was also a bit slow-moving, but then all of a sudden I couldn’t put the book down.
To sum it up, Sharp Objects was a really good read but I can’t exactly pin point why it’s 4 stars. Gillian Flynn is a wonderful thriller writer, and her novels are just designed to mess with your head! It’s really hard to review her books because so many things you think are not spoilers are intricately winded into the final plot twist and I do not want to spoil anything. If you like Gillian Flynn, or adult psychological thrillers you will absolutely enjoy Sharp Objects and should definitely pick it up 🙂
My Rating:
This really was unsettling and creepy! I agree about Amma, I felt so confused about her and she’s definitely not your typical pre-teen. I like Gillian a lot as a writer so I can’t wait to see what she has in store.
I feel the same way Elena! So unsettling. Gillian Flynn can mess with your head like no other author!