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Feb 10, 2012

Tatiana rated it:

As seen on The Readventurer

If you ask me which words come into my mind first whenever I think of this book, my answer will be: nasty, dark, twisted, disturbing.

In this rather traumatizing psychological thriller Camille Preaker, a troubled newspaper reporter, is sent to her home town to get the inside scoop on the murders of two preteen girls - both were strangled and had their teeth removed. As we follow Camille on her quest to obtain as much information as possible about the More...

6 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

karen rated it:

okay so i,of course, was initially drawn to this book because it has shiny cover. i am like a magpie or a raccoon or something... and then it just sat on the shelf for ages and one day i read the description of it somewhere. and it's all "whore" on her ankle and "pain" on her heart or whatever.(which is not on the back cover copy, but is right up there in the goodreads.com description) and i thought - "oooh you are so edgy and shocking!!" and i rolled my eyes and fi More...

22 comments like (25 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Troy rated it:

Terrific book, truly creepy. A page turner about a journalist going back to her tiny Missouri home town to cover the recent murders of two little girls. Gillian Flynn's writing in Entertainment Weekly has always been a notch above, and her first novel is no disappointment.

What's remarkable about this book is that it focuses on some of the most damaged and interesting women I've ever seen in fiction. Strong women in fiction usually means one of three things:

1) Ass-kickers More...

1 comment like (22 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Laura rated it:

From the first page, I felt the author had just finished a Chuck Palahniuk novel and decided she wanted to be like him when she grew up. Sentence fragments can be fun if you're in the mood for things like "A belly. A smell. He was suddenly standing next to me." (Not exact quotes, but pretty close.) I wasn't in the mood, and it was irritating. Also, I didn't really believe the narrator was a woman. I found the scene where she was 12 years old and in someone's hunting shed, full o More...

8 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

Noran rated it:

This book I can relate to in funny ways. I live in the Chicagoland portion of Indiana--we as known as the lost county "Lake". We know all about Chi-town happening/sports, then who/what/where is going on the "Cross Roads of the Nation"-state motto. Second, I work at an Er with Psych services--so I can relate to the characters and their issues. Mental and drug/alcohol/loose sex. Finally I helped moved a friend decades ago to a small town, out in farmland USA--teaching me More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Regina rated it:

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 More...

13 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2009

Simon rated it:

The razor blade on the front cover of the book is what one yearns for right after embarking on this read, sharp blade with which to cut every single page, one by one, until they are so neatly shredded that even the memory of what was written on them becomes non existent. And then, one can use the same razor to end one's own life.

I'm still unsure what the author was thinking when she began this book, unless she had some very deep and very disturbing mental issues to work through.
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9 comments like (24 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Lou rated it:

Stephen King was right when he mentioned you would remember some dark moments of the novel.It was a gripping read and you will get a shock when you find out the identity of the perpetrator of the crimes . A troubled reporter is sent to seek out a story about murder of some girls in her home town. Shes trying to keep on the straight and narrow and not inflict pain on herself but just the idea of being back home amongst the past and present is a struggle, is there space on her body to inflict more More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2009

Daniel rated it:

Mystery-thriller "Sharp Objects" is a perfectly serviceable vacation read -- a page-turner well-suited for a couple sessions by the pool, and then immediately forgetten. Gillian Flynn's novel is the kind of book that gets a glowing blurb from Stephen King, and seems written by a television critic. (King's praise indeed fills the back cover, and Flynn's head TV critic for Entertainment Weekly.)

The book's fine for what it is, though a bit sloppily edited, as this type of nove More...

10 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

Critics agree that Gillian Flynn's psychological thriller and murder mystery is a far more sophisticated offering than a debut novel has any right to be. Flynn, the Chicago-based television critic for Entertainment Weekly, paints a clever, sensitive, and scathing portrait of small-town America__"Wind Gap truly is the home town from hell," notes the Washington Post__while portraying a convincing heroine consumed by violence, past and present. Flynn's vivid prose captures human foibles p

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2010

Christina rated it:

To call this book effed up is an understatement. The drama that comes from living in a small town, particularly one where there's a huge dichotomy between the very rich and the very poor, breeds discontent of all kinds here. I had read some reviews here on Goodreads, and someone partially spoiled it for me (it was a misleading spoiler), but I sort of had an inkling what was going to happen from about the midway point. I'm not sure what kind of commentary this book is making, though, because i More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2010

Dorsi rated it:

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 au More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2009

Clif rated it:

Today's writers apparently believe they need to give their story's characters bizarre personalities in order to keep their books from being just another murder mystery. Gillian Flynn has tested the limits of this trend by writing Sharp Objects through the first person narrative of a newspaper reporter named Camille Preaker who has numerous mental health issues, the most dramatic of which is a compulsion to self mutilate. She has received counseling and treatment in a mental hospital for the pr More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 10, 2008

L rated it:

Completely sucked in by the second paragraph. Flynn has a way with words, with images, with place, with character. Camille, less-than-ace reporter speaking of her home town:

"Now its biggest business is hog butchering. About two thousand people live there. Old money and trash."

"Which are you?"

"I'm trash. From old money."

How can you not love it?

Round about page 43 the idea struck me. "It's the mother, More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2008

Tracy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2010

Annalisa rated it:

An emotionally disturbed reporter reluctantly returns to her hometown to cover a series of murders when her boss figures she'd have the in as a local. She must dig up old insecurities at her mother's home having to endure the relationship that inspired her to carve words on every inch of her body other than her face.

Instead of turning inward, her little sister appears to be responding to the abuse with outward promiscuity and viscousness. The narrator must delve into both family and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 16, 2008

Nicola rated it:

Sharp Objects starts out in run-of-the-mill detective novel style: Camille, a hardened reporter based in Chicago, goes to Wind Gap, a small town in Missouri, to write a piece on the murders of two local girls. The twist is, Wind Gap is Camille's hometown and she had very strong reasons for leaving. The first 150 pages make a compelling read, but the characters and situations are too familiar to be particularly interesting: there's the cute cop from Kansas City who Camille begins a flirtation wit More...

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Apr 15, 2008

Esther rated it:

Some people don't enjoy texts that are written haphazardly because there is nothing linking the literary piece together and creating a flow smooth of information and words. This is the style of how Sharp Objects is written. Sharp Objects is pulled together for most of the time, but some parts are beyond the realms of confusion. Also, some parts of the book were grotesque, and the author didn't go in depth about the protagonist's emotions and thoughts, which could've been enough to save t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2007

Lake rated it:

Chicago reporter Camille Preaker’s assignment: to visit her Missouri hometown and come back with career-making coverage of the recent murder of two young girls. However, despite her knowledge of the town, Camille may not be the best person for the job. A self-mutilating cutter not long out of a psychiatric hospital, she requires liberal amounts of alcohol to cope with her painful memories of the younger sister who died on the cusp of adolescence. And the reunion with the rest of her family i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Nicola rated it:

I would give it 3.5 stars if I could. I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. I didn't like it at first. The writing isn't very good- really disjointed and just doesn't flow well at all. Camille was too weird a character for me. She acted, talked and thought like a child- it just wasn't very believable. The second part was definitely much better. It got really interesting, and some parts were definitely fascinating. I think the author tried too hard to make it unpredictable, which ended up More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Amy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 24, 2007

Kate rated it:

Huh. Um. Well, I read this really fast, and the writing was good, but it was kind of like reading a combination hard-boiled detective story and V.C. Andrews, with a good dose of "Cruddy"-esque misery. I can't imagine anyone to whom I would really recommend it, but I did sort of like it (though I was distracted by suddenly realizing part of the answer to the mystery less than half-way through the book). Most of all, though, I cannot even begin to understand why the author dedicated it t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 05, 2008

Lori rated it:

How many ways can you say "creepy?" Everyone in this book is so terminally, fatally flawed and damaged, nobody is what they seem, and deep psychological disturbances abound. Who is killing little girls in this town? Who WOULDN'T? Everyone seems capable, everyone seems to have a reason. The last 30-40 pages got so disturbing, I wanted to walk away... but I couldn't. Did I like it? Hard to say! Similar to "Pluto, Animal Lover," it's just too dark and horrible to say you More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Ian Thomas rated it:

A coworker loaned me this book which he picked up in an airport bookstore, saying it was a quick read.

It was. I found it a pastiche of cliched small-town characters. It's in vogue nowadays to have small towns full of deep, dark, terrible secrets. The book was full of unlikable characters (including the narrator) meaningless sex, vomit, and purple prose.

It was apparently a nominee for a Best First Novel award. My guess is it did not win. I honestly think the only reason th More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 01, 2009

Jacki rated it:

I just picked this up on a whim at the Goodwill because on the back, instead of a synopsis, is a quote from Stephen King saying that the book is creepy. I bought it because I trusted that if he said it's creepy, then I'd be creeped out.

That was a fair assumption.

The strange thing for me, in this book, was the focus on females. The main character, the kids who were murdered, the other creepy people in the book: All women. I think this is unique in murder-type books. Not su More...

6 comments like

Mar 22, 2009

Terry rated it:

Sharp Objects reminds me most of Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment, for better or worse. It’s fascinating (I read it in one sitting, after getting used to a bit of a herky-jerky style of writing) yet as it went on I squirmed quite a bit, sometimes as a compliment to the author’s really gross/Gothic story, and sometimes in annoyance at grossness that seemed trying to reach for Gothic and only reaching grossness-for-grossness sake. I was uncomfortable enough after reading it that I promptl More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Autumn rated it:

Young reporter, recently out of rehab for her very serious addiction to cutting, is sent to her home town to report on the abduction and murders of two young girls. Along the way, she reconciles with her weird and creepy family, meets and beds a hot young FBI agent, and faces a lot of her personal demons, solving the "mystery" along the way.

Succinct summation of the plot of "Sharp Objects", the first novel by Gillian Flynn. To be honest, this book reminded me stron More...

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Jan 17, 2012

Rosalind rated it:

I was looking for a shabby little shocker. There's nothing wrong with a shabby little shocker of course (the term was first applied to my favourite opera after all), especially when one has been indulging in richer fare and wants to vary one's literary diet. This one was just shabby though.

Perhaps I'm being unfair. It's a first novel by the author. It takes on serious themes close to my heart, emotional abuse by a parent first and foremost. It's the first appearance in fiction t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 13, 2011

Nigel rated it:

Stonkingly good psychological thriller which manages to conceal its damage and its gothic undertones beneath a slick, witty narrative voice, so that what begins as a serial killer chiller turns into a portrait of family at its most malignant.

Camille Preaker is a second-rate reporter at a second-rate Chicago newspaper. After a second girl goes missing in her old hometown of Wind Gap she is sent to investigate and finds herself living with her mother, step-father and half-sister. The s More...

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Oct 31, 2011

Roseanney rated it:

Although the first half was interesting and I rooted for the protagonist in solving the young girls' murder mystery in the hometown that she tried so hard to escape from, the likeability of Flynn's style vaporized as the writing seemed to be in circles after the first half. In addition, the ending was so rushed, contrite and predictable that it felt like the author was just trying to meet her deadline in wrapping up the mystery somehow. It was difficult to sympathize or want to know more about More...

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