Sharp Objects: A Novel
by Gillian Flynn
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The First Cut is the Deepest
Gillian Flynn's stunning debut novel is so sharp the tip of its blade nicks bone. Sharp Objects is as good a first novel as I've read in a very long time—maybe ever. Though promoted as a mystery/thriller, the book is far more a character study of its heroine, Camille Preaker, her sick family, and the sinister secrets small towns conspire to keep.
Fragile reporter, Camille Preaker is a cutter, but instead of slicing lines into her skin to release the buildup o...more
Gillian Flynn's stunning debut novel is so sharp the tip of its blade nicks bone. Sharp Objects is as good a first novel as I've read in a very long time—maybe ever. Though promoted as a mystery/thriller, the book is far more a character study of its heroine, Camille Preaker, her sick family, and the sinister secrets small towns conspire to keep.
Fragile reporter, Camille Preaker is a cutter, but instead of slicing lines into her skin to release the buildup o...more
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Read in June, 2007
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 town se...more
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 town se...more
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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 en...more
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Read in February, 2008
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 flirtat...more
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Note: This review, like most posted at J. Kaye's Book Blog, are followed by a book raffle. The URL is http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogsp.... Go to the blog and follow the details are found on the page's right sidebar.
My Thoughts:
This book has the WOW factor! I didn't know who the killer was until the end. But be warned, this book is graphic, dark, and disturbing - not for the faint at heart. What an awesome ending! I didn't ...more
My Thoughts:
This book has the WOW factor! I didn't know who the killer was until the end. But be warned, this book is graphic, dark, and disturbing - not for the faint at heart. What an awesome ending! I didn't ...more
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Read in September, 2006
recommends it for:
anyone
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 in fantastic out...more
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 in fantastic out...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
mystery lovers
In a small town in Missouri two young girls have been killed and their teeth removed. Few clues and the reluctance of the townspeople to talk about their own stall the case.
Camille Preaker is a second-string reporter on a small Chicago newspaper. Having fled Wind Gap after high school she is sent back by her boss who smells a scoop. Re-ensconced in the family mansion, Camille is haunted by memories of her troubled past and the troubled present.
Living in the mansion are a dysfunctional m...more
Camille Preaker is a second-string reporter on a small Chicago newspaper. Having fled Wind Gap after high school she is sent back by her boss who smells a scoop. Re-ensconced in the family mansion, Camille is haunted by memories of her troubled past and the troubled present.
Living in the mansion are a dysfunctional m...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Patrick by:
Elizabeth
I normally don't read murder mysteries, but this was for my exclusive book club, and I found it a pleasant, twisted surprise. The narrator is a 30-ish woman with deep-seated psychological problems whose work as a reporter sends her back to her evil little hometown to cover the murders of two young girls, who have had their teeth removed post-mortem. The book focuses a lot of attention on the messed-up women of the town: the reporter's old clique, who still live their lives as if they were in h...more
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Read in May, 2008
Although at times harrowing to read, this mystery novel is much more than that--providing an in-depth look at a disturbing and expanding mental illness, becoming more common especially among young women, to cut themselves. Flynn juggles the mystery plot evenly with insight into Camille's illness and tentative recovery. A job-related return visit to her childhood home forces an interface with all those embarrassing high school feelings and character types - now grown up- that we all hope we have ...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommended to Derrall by:
Amazon.comrecommends it for: Everyone
Mmmmm, good stuff from begining to the end. Starts off nice and slow and slowly builds and builds up to something spectacular, then it gets even better.
Main character is extremely likeable, relationships with the others is creepy, and you're always wondering what's really going on or who she's really talking about.
It shows you how hardcore women are, and how spectacular some of their minds can be, even though they can be creepy... (refering to characters and writer!!)
Only reason it ...more
Main character is extremely likeable, relationships with the others is creepy, and you're always wondering what's really going on or who she's really talking about.
It shows you how hardcore women are, and how spectacular some of their minds can be, even though they can be creepy... (refering to characters and writer!!)
Only reason it ...more
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Read in October, 2007
This book succeeds throughout in making the reader squirm a little (and in some places, more than a little). A book populated with psychologically damaged females of all ages and types, headlined by the narrator, a journalist returning to her hometown ostensibly to cover a pair of murders and inevitably to confront the troubled childhood that drove her to half a lifetime spent cutting words into her skin. Her tendency throughout the novel to have uncomfortable events trigger recall of words et...more
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Read in April, 2007
This book kept my attention from the first through the last page. I found this book scary and exciting all at same time. It was like when you were little and watched a scary movie half covering your eyes the whole time. It read this book one Saturday and could not put it down. I half expected some of the twists and turns but was completley blindsighted by others. I loved this book, a must read for any adreneline junkie. Cammile knew all along that there was a great reason for her to be ten...more
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Read in September, 2007
The author uses a noirish style and the main character is a complex one with some faults. Most notably, she is a cutter. Camille Preaker is a mediocre reporter for a second-tier Chicago newspaper who has recently spent time in a recovery/rehabilitation facility for her cutting. Her boss sends her back to her hometown in rural Missouri to report on some murders of young girls. Camille and her mother do not have a warm relationship, and we learn that Camille's sister died as a child of mysteri...more
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recommends it for:
anyone wanting to read a non-typical mystery.
Story: Camille is a second-rate reporter living in Chicago and is assigned to cover a murder case in her small hometown in Missourri. Only, she has not been there for eight years and has no desire to go back. While Camille is gathering information for her story and her family life comes to light, we witness her unraveling as she is forced to review her past.
I had trouble sleeping after finishing this book. Everything about it--the characters, the plots, the setting--was creepy. Flynn...more
I had trouble sleeping after finishing this book. Everything about it--the characters, the plots, the setting--was creepy. Flynn...more
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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...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Hope by:
Entertainment Weeklyrecommends it for: weird abuse & thriller junkies
I picked up this book because it was written by a tv editor at Entertainment Weekly (my Saturday pleasure). The story is about an emotionally and physically scarred female reporter from a second rate Chicago paper reporting on a serial deaths in her hometown in MIssouri. Now her emotionally scarring is from her mother (crazy), and her physical scarring is her own work, as she is called a 'cutter.' Lots of alcohol, a weird little sister, freak-o mom and step dad, average small town America with...more
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Read in September, 2007
this book was disturbing, in a very excellent way (i think). it's not really a "trashy" thriller - it's more complex than that, but it's also. . . not very realistic. even though i had figured out who had done it early on - i didn't REALLY figure it out - the last three pages have a little twist that give this book four stars.
there's a lot of self-injury involved, a lot of drugs, a lot of crazy, disturbing things. but it's short, and in a way, i wish there had been more. at the sa...more
there's a lot of self-injury involved, a lot of drugs, a lot of crazy, disturbing things. but it's short, and in a way, i wish there had been more. at the sa...more
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Read in November, 2007
Somebody else said that this book was like V.C. Andrews mixed with a serial killer mystery plot - spot on! I only picked it up because Amazon selected it as one of their best fiction books of the year, and also, I recognized the author's name -she's the chief tv critic for Entertainment Weekly (although I usually don't agree with her reviews). It was a little slow going at first, but I got sucked in after a bit and couldn't put it down towards the end; the narrator is reasonably likable (which i...more
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Read in April, 2007
This one is a really good mystery plus a look at a really dysfunctional family. Camille Preaker writes for a paper in Chicago and her boss sends her to investigate two murders in her home town in Missouri. Unfortunately that means she has to stay with her mother, her step father and her sister Amma. Camille has some personal problems you will find that relate to the title of the novel. And the situation is not improved over time. She is sent to investigate the death of two girls, nine mont...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
intense relaxers
Based on my previous purchases, Amazon.com thought I would enjoy this book...usually I find their recommendations a swing-and-a-miss. However, they were spot on with this intense thriller. Though there was one primary aspect of the main character that was too easy/bizarre of a tie-in (would be a spoiler to say more) to be truly believable, the story was by far one of the most original and fascinating things I have read in a tremendously long time.
This is a great vacation/beach/airplane/a...more
This is a great vacation/beach/airplane/a...more
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