Review : Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Pages : 272
Genre : Psychological Thriller
Stand alone
My Rating : 4/5
About the Book :
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.
My Thoughts :
I was going through Lucy’s posts on The Reading Date this week, when I read her list of Top Ten Books on My Radar This Year. I was thrilled to realize that not one, but two of Gillian Flynn’s novels were being adapted in 2014! While I knew about Gone Girl, Dark Places was a surprise for me. I still have to read this one, but I did read Sharp Objects a few months ago. And now has come the time to share my notes with you!
Sharp Objects is Gillian Flynn’s first novel and already, we can see through this unsettling tale many aspects of what we’ll later find in Gone Girl : the unlikable characters, the complex plot, the twisted and unhealthy relationships are all there, though maybe in a less subtle way. Camille is such a strange narrator, too; though it is easy to empathize with her for the things she lived through, she is herself very difficult to appreciate. There is a distance between her and the reader, an understandable but very uneasy one.
On top of that, there isn’t anyone really likable around her. Especially the women! I’m not sure how much of this comes from the Camille’s narration, and how much comes from the characters themselves, but there’s very little to like about them. They’re not, for the most part, hateful creatures; just really untrustworthy and unlikable ones. This including her mother and her sister, whom I will describe, at best, as interesting. This might all sound very negative to some readers who are looking to sympathize with the characters, but I personally enjoy reading about these people. Just not meeting them. Yeesh.
The pace of the novel is slow but the story quickly swallows you in, dark and sticky with its weird ambiance. I had a good guess of where this was going, it’s true; but I still found myself completely immersed in the drama of Camille’s family and the mystery she was investigating. The experience was, for me, much more about the characters than about the investigation itself.
All in all, Sharp Objects was a solid psychological thriller. While its story was a tad more creepy and weird than Gone Girl’s, its execution wasn’t as tight and effective. I absolutely recommend it for its disturbing effect though, and I am looking forward to finally reading Dark Places soon!
Ooh you started reading Dark Place already – I need to get on that! I did get momentarily distracted by listening to the Gone Girl audiobook 🙂 Sharp Objects does sound creepy good! I own a copy so have no excuse not to read it. Gillian Flynn really excels at creating such unlikeable characters. Great review, Kay!
Hi Lucy!
I pulled Dark Places from my shelf but after reading your comment the other day, I, in fact, didn’t start it right away! I’m not sure if you saw my answer, but I thought the idea of a readalong could be really fun! 🙂
She does know how to write unlikeable characters doesn’t she? This one was too dark for me.