Author: Gillian
Flynn
Category: I saw the
movie version of Gone, Girl a few months ago. I thought about reading the book,
then I figured it would be a good idea to read a Gillian Flynn book about which
I was unfamiliar with the plot. So I picked Sharp Objects.
My thoughts: Oh.
My. Goodness. This book was really good, but incredibly disturbing. I finished
it in about three days because I just had to know what happened. And now that I
know…
The main
character of Sharp Objects is Camille Preaker. Camille developed a habit of
cutting words into her skin, a habit she began when she was thirteen. Words
such as castle, blossom, yelp, and freak are etched over most of her body. Camille
works at a third-rate Chicago newspaper, the Daily Post, and is sent by her
editor to cover the murders of two preteen girls in her hometown of Wind Gap,
Missouri. One little thing: Camille was released from a psychiatric hospital
months just months prior to her return to Wind Gap. And Camille’s relationship
with her hometown and her mother is complicated. But the more we get to know
Camille’s family, we find out that Camille is the sanest one of them all.
There are some
interesting characters in Sharp Objects. Upon her arrival in Wind Gap, Camille
gets to know and becomes fascinated with her half-sister Amma, a popular
thirteen-year-old who’s like Lolita with a very strong psychotic streak.
Camille’s mother Adora is the kind of person who will smile in your face while
stabbing you in the back. The specter of Camille’s dead sister, Marian, who
died when Camille was thirteen, haunts the family. A detective from Kansas
City, Richard Willis, is sent to Wind Gap, and he and Camille are intrigued by
each other. The town of Wind Gap itself functions as a character in the novel.
The story is
narrated by Camille, and the passages where she describes carving into her skin
with a knife were hard to read—I had to grit my teeth while reading them. If I
remember correctly, a character did this in Paradise (and I had the same
reaction to reading that). At its heart, Sharp Objects is a mystery—a very
disturbing one. This is why I had to finish it in a feverish bout of reading—I
just had to know what happened to those girls. I’d like to read Gillian Flynn’s
other novels, Gone, Girl and Dark Places. But I think I might space them out, and
not read them back-to-back. Gillian Flynn is a great writer, but the stories
that burst forth from her mind are disturbing.
Great passage: I
didn’t mind the idea of spilling Wind Gap’s stories to Richard. I felt no
particular allegiance to the town. This was the place my sister died, the place
I starting cutting myself. A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over
people you hated every day. People who knew things about you. It’s the kind of
place that leaves a mark.
