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Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn (Goodreads Author)

3.95 · Rating details · 504,631 ratings · 37,359 reviews

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, 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 in ...more

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Paperback, 254 pages

Published 2006 by Broadway Paperbacks

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3.95 ·

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· 504,631 ratings · 37,359 reviews

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Jun 29, 2012 Emily May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Emily May by: Tatiana

Shelves: mystery-thriller, 2012

“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.”

There is something deeply unhealthy about this book. It's in the characters, in the story, in the relationships, in the sex, and just in the general mood of the novel. Reading this made me feel a little unwell, both physically and mentally, but I am glad I did. If you know me, you'll know I love complex characters with issues that feel raw and real, rather than melodramatic. The people in this novel are majorly fucked up, no one is ...more

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Aug 06, 2012 RandomAnthony rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Last week I read the fuck out of Gillian Flynn's catalog. Three novels in eight days while my wife and kids were out of town and a sweltering late July marooned me in one of the house's two air conditioned rooms. So although this review is primarily for Sharp Objects, my favorite of Flynn's trio, let me go on record with Gone Girl (four stars, go read another of the zillion of reviews) and Dark Places (three stars, maybe too many narratives perspectives and too willing to wallow in the muck) as ...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Alex rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: suspense-thriller-mind-fuck, reviewed, contemporary

Little buddy read with Her Majesty La Lionne and Jerry on January 31st!! :D

This is my third Gillian Flynn book, after Gone Girl and Dark Places. The first one blew my mind, the second one freaked me out a little and this one really scared me.

Sure, after reading 5% of it I was like
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--a creepy story with the potential of giving me special nightmares,

but by 90% I was like
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WTF did I just read??

All the characters were disturbing, ~~especially~~ even the children.

Allow me to start with Camille. She's a ...more

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Aug 01, 2008 Simon Cleveland, PhD rated it did not like it · review of another edition

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.

This book is da 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.

This book is dangerous and not because it excites one with a thrilling and suspenseful story. It is dangerous because once one reads it, one loses any desire to look for another book that may restore one's faith in the existence of good books with an uplifting charge. Not only is this book dangerous, but it is sick. Its underlying sickness is that it's emotionally draining and unless readers are looking to load up on more mental baggage (I can't think of anyone who doesn't have enough), I'd stay away from its pain.

The main character is a female reporter who returns home on an assignment (covering the serial murders of two little girls). As memories of her painful childhood emerge, readers find a lot more about her character, for example her alcoholic addiction and her obsession to carve words into her own flesh. Waves of her unresolved issues wash away further hopes of a challenging literary work as readers are practically dragged into her problems (not loved enough by her mother, not popular enough in school, not motivated enough in her work) and are subjected to the anguish of either feeling sorry for her or wanting to end her existence.

As disturbing details of the two murders resurface, readers are introduced to yet two more characters as equally unpleasant as the first. There is the psychologically unstable (almost emotionally poisonous) personality of her mother and the pathologically sinister and equally disturbed one of the teenage sister. And of course there are the endlessly problematic and mentally crushing details of the small-town's Midwest America (why would one want to read this is beyond my understanding).

This book robs one of smiles, of the beauty of life, and even of the reason for love. It is not only bitter, but leaves one with an unpleasant smell of what I'd like to call rotten feelings. I can't brand the book dull (as it did leave me with unwanted thoughts), but I can promise you that you'll feel dull once you've read it. I don't recommend it, but may compare the feelings I have for it to what Chuck Palahniuk's 'Choke' birthed in me.

...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Will Byrnes rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, thriller

Camille Preaker is a young Chicago reporter with a troubled past. When a second young girl goes missing in her home town, Wind Gap, MO, Camille’s fatherly boss sends her down to get the inside scoop. Who says you can’t go home again? Well, maybe you can, but would you really want to? There is a reason she is in Chicago, instead of Podunk, MO, and the danger for Camille lies as much with her delicate psychological state, a product of her childhood, as it might with a psycho-killer on the loose. " ...more

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Apr 18, 2018 Emma Giordano rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobooks

2.5 Stars. Unfortunately, I did not love this book and it is probably my least favorite of Gillian Flynn's work. As this was her debut, I'm happy to say I feel her later works show great improvement and a lot of strength.

CW: self-harm, sexualization of children, murder, child abuse (I don't normally put content warnings under spoilers but this warning is so integral to the ending AND it's so specific that I don't want people attacking me for spoiling the book) (view spoiler) 2.5 Stars. Unfortunately, I did not love this book and it is probably my least favorite of Gillian Flynn's work. As this was her debut, I'm happy to say I feel her later works show great improvement and a lot of strength.

CW: self-harm, sexualization of children, murder, child abuse (I don't normally put content warnings under spoilers but this warning is so integral to the ending AND it's so specific that I don't want people attacking me for spoiling the book) (view spoiler)

I think Gillian Flynn is a brilliant writer, but it was quite obvious that Sharp Objects was her debut. Her prose remains easy to engage with, but it is much more simplistic compared to her later works. That being said, the writing was one of the elements I actually appreciated in this story.

I didn't particularly love the plot of the story. The idea of children being murdered and a journalist having to return to their small hometown was super intriguing to me, but the execution fell flat in my opinion. The "darkness" I constantly see associated with this book is definitely present - this book is not for the faint of heart, but truthfully, the story was boring in my opinion. I understand some people love small-town stories that focus on gossip and rumors, but it's not my cup of tea. I was missing the exhilarating plot twists from Gone Girl and Dark Places. It was very slow and for the most part, anticlimactic to me. I felt there were so many opportunities for more enticing, eventful scenes to be included but it was taken over by bland character interactions.

The big reveals/plot twists are difficult to discuss because my experience is an amalgamation of "This is surprising" and "This is expected." I feel the best way to describe it is I felt the resolution of the story was clever and well constructed, but it was partially anticipated. I feel the minute details surrounding the resolution were stronger than the big reveal itself if that makes sense.

Additionally, the ending felt very rushed as the truth of the mystery is revealed through Camille recollecting the events instead of being shown actively through the story. I think it would have been much stronger had we followed the revaluation in real-time along with Camille's initial reactions as opposed to having the events relayed to readers at a later time. Again, I feel this is a marker of this novel being Flynn's debut work and I can confirm that there is little "telling, not showing" in her future books.

Overall, I wasn't a fan of Sharp Objects, I think it just wasn't for me, but I'll continue to love Gillian Flynn's work. ...more

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May 01, 2013 Raeleen Lemay rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, spooky-scary

*3.5/5*

I felt like this book was way too slow paced for how short it was, and it sort of bugged me that the big reveal and explanation was left to the VERY end. It was like nothing nothing nothing BAM EVERYTHING.

However, the ending was crazy and twisted and I loved it! I just wish that craziness had been spread out a bit, because when I finally got it, it was over too fast.

Overall, a pretty good read.

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Jul 09, 2013 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, usa

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. I remember all the ruckus over Gillian Flynn a while back, and my resulting tracing (not carving) of a mental note on my palm that I should eventually read something by this gal because everybody was all in a tizzy over her wonderfulmousnessity back whenever, and I was confused by that fact based on the book descriptions alone. It all just sounded like mass market thrillers dressed up in fancy lit fic suits. Ya know, the stuff of mediocre books which sometimes Well, this was a pleasant surprise. I remember all the ruckus over Gillian Flynn a while back, and my resulting tracing (not carving) of a mental note on my palm that I should eventually read something by this gal because everybody was all in a tizzy over her wonderfulmousnessity back whenever, and I was confused by that fact based on the book descriptions alone. It all just sounded like mass market thrillers dressed up in fancy lit fic suits. Ya know, the stuff of mediocre books which sometimes get passed to great directors, screen-writers, and actors, and then maybe turned into really good movies. Basically, I just wanted to understand what the hell was going on with this new girl at the middle school who showed up mid-semester and got all the attention just because her folks were always out of town so you could smoke pot at her house and raid the liquor cabinet or whatever. I shamefully admit, I was ready and willing to dislike her. Maybe I'm shallow, and so was put off by the pop of it all. Maybe that one time I saw Gone Girl as a stickered best-selling! 20% off Audio Book, I silently simmered further, my eyes squintier still. Whatever, it doesn't matter. I was wrong. I frequently forget that this is a very frequent occurrence.

From the first couple of pages, maybe even the first, I acknowledged my ass-umptions. The writing is astute in its observations, visceral in its descriptions. And the narrator is all messed up, which hear, hear. I actually stopped when I realized I'd read about 100 pages without looking away, and thought to myself: I should read more thrillers, huh? Well, no. Most of them that I have come across are not this confidently, this surgically composed. There is no fluffy stuffing here, just good, straight storytelling with the added bonus of cautiously crafted prose. Also, it's really fucking creepy, and me being creeped out by anything at this point in my life is a pretty tall order. I mean, aside from spiders and needles and being buried alive and over-sexualized pre-teen Lolita-types who collect and dress like that Bratz line of toy dolls. Now that shit is creepy. Fortunately, a couple of those things are directly addressed in this novel. My goodness, it must be terrifying having a daughter, or being an adult dude today. Or a human at all. Yeah, it is.

The story itself meanders in a way which is icky, thoroughly hammered out, and fairly unpredictable. I may be inflating the rating because my expectations were so low, but that doesn't change the fact that I will be reading another novel by this author because she isn't some hack; she just likes to slum a little, subject-wise. And that's more than okay with me, it turns out.

Cutters, Lolitas, Munchausen by Proxy, obsessions, family hatreds, drug abuse, scandalous sex, graphic violence, serial murder, wealth, poverty, popularity, bullying, hypochondria, crippling jealousy, police procedural bullshit, alcoholism, taboo masturbation fantasies, eating disorders, small town smothering, big city anonymity, career/life/love failures, falls from grace, the hell of being romantically idealized by someone and then seen in vivid, horrible detail for what you really are: all addressed in this slim little novel. It's pretty fucking good, to be honest. Just...don't loan it to your mother. And hope that no one in this novel reminds you of your mother. Don't be bothered if you see a little of yourself here and there, though. We're all headcases sometimes, right? Please just agree with me. ...more

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May 10, 2010 Tatiana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans of all things disturbing

Recommended to Tatiana by: Rachel Michaux

Shelves: mysteries-thrillers-horror, 2010, only-i-will-like, 2018

Update 10/2018
Doesn't seem that edgy 8 years later. We are not lacking in female anti-heroes now. The novel and the show complement each other rather well. Liked the neater ending of the book more though, but the show is a visual feast. Interesting how the show creators chickened out and made Amma older, to not offend our sensibilities? Amy Adams is fantastic as Camille.

Original review
If you ask me which words come into my mind first whenever I think of this book, my answer will be: nasty, dark, Update 10/2018
Doesn't seem that edgy 8 years later. We are not lacking in female anti-heroes now. The novel and the show complement each other rather well. Liked the neater ending of the book more though, but the show is a visual feast. Interesting how the show creators chickened out and made Amma older, to not offend our sensibilities? Amy Adams is fantastic as Camille.

Original review
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 crimes, we learn much more than we bargained for. The small town of Wind Gap, in the fashion of Twin Peaks, is filled to the brim with dark secrets, and not the least of them is the twisted dynamics in Camille's own family...

For me the most remarkable aspect of this book is that Gillian Flynn succeeds in creating a novel main characters of which are nasty women. I am so used to books where women are victims and all evil is committed by bad, bad men. Not so in Sharp Objects. Women of Wind Gap are both victims and perpetrators, they are promiscuous and abusive, self-destructive and violent. Men are only fixtures in their lives and pawns in their sick games. If anything, this is a refreshing twist on the old tired genre of murder mystery.

I liked the psychological aspect of this novel as well. Flynn skillfully portrays how differently people react to the abuse in their lives - some direct the pain onto themselves, some inflict it on others - and both ways are equally damaging to one's psyche.

I definitely wouldn't recommend Sharp Objects to squeamish. There is a lot of disturbing stuff in this book - promiscuous young girls, self-mutilation, sexual abuse, drugs. This is not a comfort read by any means. However I found it fascinating (in a I-can't-stop-watching-this-train-wreck way) and hard to put down. I will certainly read Flynn's other novel - Dark Places. Well, as soon as I psychologically recover from Sharp Objects. ...more

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Sep 04, 2015 Mohammed Arabey rated it really liked it

عالم النساء..معقد، متشابك، صعب فهمه..مضطهدا سواء كان المجتمع شرقيا أم غربيا
وهذه الرواية الكئيبة السوداوية تقتحم جانب مظلم من هذا العالم

كتبتها أمرأة..تقتحم جوانب نفسية معقدة لثلاث شخصيات رئيسية من النساء بأعمار مختلفة..شخصيات قاتمة ، مظلمة
قد تجد بعض تصرفاتهم كريهة، بغيضة..صعبة ،مريضة.. لكن من أنت لتحكم عليهم، بالاخص من مكاني بعالم الرجال
فالرواية تعرّي ايضا استغلالنا لهم احيانا، تعرّي المجتمع ونمطية نظره وتمييزه ضد المرأة

هناك روايات تتعايش مع أحداثها ، كأنك في موقع اﻷحداث وتعرف اﻷبطال جيدا..قليل ...more

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Jan 02, 2017 Kaylin (The Re-Read Queen) rated it did not like it

Shelves: finished-but-wish-i-hadn-t, mystery-and-thriller, why-the-hype

1 Star

Overview:

I should have known better. I don’t have an excuse.

I read Gillian Flynn's other book, Gone Girl, last year—and wasn’t a fan. Everyone raved about it, but I found the characters shallow, the plot twists weak, and the narrative so busy being cynical it didn’t seem to know what it was trying to say.

Nevertheless, I’d heard great things about Gillian Flynn’s writing. So I went into this with an open mind--- maybe I had just started with the wrong book!

But I really should have known ...more

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May 25, 2018 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Disturbing story. Disturbing characters. This book will make you feel uncomfortable, that's what Gillian Flynn does best!

I'm not sure I loved it but it's definitely the best written thriller I've read so far this year... still only getting 3.5 stars though!

I did suspect the right people but the twists were still... well disturbing!

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Nov 02, 2016 Elyse Walters rated it liked it · review of another edition

Update - NEWS ABOUT the HBO mini-series of "Sharp Objects". Who else has seen it?
What are your thoughts? Which did you enjoy more? The book or the series?
Amy Adams was outstanding!!! One of the best acting roles I've seen her play.
VERY creepy show -- 'excellent' -- All the actors were great. In many ways --I liked the HBO show more than the book. I know --weird --right? --Or??? maybe I was more prepared for just how disturbing this story is! The ending in the HBO series -- was ................ ...more

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May 25, 2018 Lola rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, adult, family-relationships

3.5 stars.

I’ll be honest, I was scared to read this book.

It gave me horror vibes, and because I do not read horror – with very few exceptions on Halloween – I didn’t even want to think about reading this book.

But then an opportunity fell into my lap, and so here we are.

Turns out, it’s not scary. But it is quite disturbing. I can’t wait to watch the series with Amy Adams. It has got to be pretty captivating and I am curious to meet all of these characters on screen, perhaps they will be far more ...more

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Aug 04, 2017 j e w e l s [Books Bejeweled] rated it it was amazing

Shelves: twister-hall-of-fame, books-bejeweled

“I just think some women aren't made to be mothers. And some women aren't made to be daughters.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

This is one of the darkest, most disturbing books I've ever read. And I love it. Well, today I love it. I picked it up years ago, started reading and was like "no way Jose". I had read Dark Places and Gone Girl and, of course, thought I could handle Sharp Objects, the Gillian Flynn debut. I wasn't ready at the time for this little monster of a book.

The extremely creepy p ...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Samadrita rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommended to Samadrita by: Jill's rating

Shelves: suspense-thrillers, crime-noir, spookfest, mystery-detective, disturbia, not-worth-it, real-issues-fake-people

When I had first come across rave reviews of Gone Girl, I was bowled over by the fact that there's after all a woman who is brave enough to try her hand at a genre rarely ventured into by women writers. And apparently, she excels at it too. Surely, she couldn't have hoodwinked hordes of unsuspecting readers into giving her books such high ratings.
So I had decided I'd devour Gillian Flynn's entire oeuvre starting with her first published work.

Needless to say, that it is with obvious disappointme When I had first come across rave reviews of Gone Girl, I was bowled over by the fact that there's after all a woman who is brave enough to try her hand at a genre rarely ventured into by women writers. And apparently, she excels at it too. Surely, she couldn't have hoodwinked hordes of unsuspecting readers into giving her books such high ratings.
So I had decided I'd devour Gillian Flynn's entire oeuvre starting with her first published work.

Needless to say, that it is with obvious disappointment I'm giving this book only 2 stars. I had high hopes for Flynn's first published novel.

Sharp Objects comes off as a classic case of trying too hard. The set up feels too contrived, the world building, shabby and the writing, unimpressive and awkward. ('bucolicry' Ms Flynn? is that even a real word?) And to heap on to the negatives, Flynn rushes us through the scenery, the murders, the facts with such alarming speed that few things get time enough to make a powerful impact.

The eerie, secluded little town of Wind Gap never comes alive for the reader. All the characters appear to be caricatures of stereotypical suspects in a murder mystery novel.
Even the central characters seem to be rather blurry outlines of real people instead of full-fledged human beings of flesh and bone. My mind failed at conjuring up even a single image of Wind Gap, its inhabitants or Camille and that's when I knew things were going downhill. After I had made some headway with the book, my attention kept drifting away and this doesn't usually happen with a thriller novel.(Proof of my steadily dwindling interest in thrillers maybe?)

Neither did I care about the murders nor did I think much of the disturbing imagery that Flynn shoves right in the reader's face from time to time. Even if you keep the somewhat macabre murders of pubescent girls aside, there are themes of self mutilation, sexual abuse, descriptions of horrific serial killings, slaughtering of pigs and chickens to make you cringe and wince as you read every alternate passage. Still I wasn't repulsed.
Instead what I felt acutely was Flynn's desperate desire to create a truly unsettling narrative. You can tell she is trying to offer you a blend of all things gory, disturbing and wicked just to titillate your senses. It's as if the central story became secondary to Flynn somewhere while she was writing this and only the deeply perturbing elements assumed primary importance.

Even the ending fails to pack in a punch, because if you have read a slew of whodunits at any point of time in your life, you will sort of guess the culprit.
The only part which successfully creeped me out was the protagonist's tendency to inflict injuries on herself as a way to purge herself of emotions. But that one feeling doesn't help you sail through a book which is, otherwise, ceaselessly dreary and simply put, lacklustre in every way.

Hence, 2 very unsatisfied, very bored stars.

I am holding out hope for Gillian Flynn though. Maybe my opinion will change after reading Gone Girl or Dark Places. ...more

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Apr 30, 2009 karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sshh-family-secrets

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 figured i would just never read ...more

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Feb 11, 2015 Maxine (Booklover Catlady) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: 2015-reading-challenge, books-i-own, could-not-put-down, creepy-books, 2015-five-star-books

Squee! This is coming out on TV on Sky Atlantic. I cannot wait! (2018). I don't know about you, but in my opinion this is WAY better than Gone Girl, I think this one is a hidden gem.

It's a lot more subtle but that's why it works more. This is one spine-chilling disturbing and dark book and I absolutely loved it. Some of the scenes in this book literally just stunned me. Very clever writing from Gillian Flynn.

When two girls are abducted and killed in Missouri, journalist Camille Preaker is sent Squee! This is coming out on TV on Sky Atlantic. I cannot wait! (2018). I don't know about you, but in my opinion this is WAY better than Gone Girl, I think this one is a hidden gem.

It's a lot more subtle but that's why it works more. This is one spine-chilling disturbing and dark book and I absolutely loved it. Some of the scenes in this book literally just stunned me. Very clever writing from Gillian Flynn.

When two girls are abducted and killed in Missouri, journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her home town to report on the crimes. Long-haunted by a childhood tragedy and estranged from her mother for years, Camille suddenly finds herself installed once again in her family's mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and the half-sister she barely knows - a precocious 13-year-old who holds a disquieting grip on the town.

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.

If you have not read this one yet but have been meaning to, please do it. This sat on my bookshelf for over a year, what a waste, it was one of my most memorable reads of the last few years.

Camille, who is a Journalist is sent back to very small town USA where she grew up to get the juice on a story of young women going missing and turning up dead - with their teeth pulled out. Her big Chicago boss is hoping her home connection will give her the inside scoop.

The characters in this book are bloody EXCEPTIONALLY done, both Camille's mother and her half-sister, Amma are some of the best written, most disturbing characters I have read in a book in ages. I had goose bumps with both of them, a lot of goose bumps. Did I say this book has a dark overtone?

Camille is a flawed and damaged character, what you see is not always what you are seeing, I really grew to like her and her tenacity for the truth no matter what the cost. Once she gets it, it changes everything. Amma got under my skin in a very uncomfortable way, Flynn portrays her in a way that makes an impact on your psyche.

The town doesn't just welcome Camille in and for a while nobody is talking but she is determined to keep digging and what she uncovers is just wrong, so wrong, so darn wrong. Is she even on the right path? Can she see clearly what is right before her eyes.

With scenes (pig farm) that just churn you inside and sentences spoken that literally make the temperature drop in your body, this one has subtle yet so blatant shock factors all the way through it. It creates atmospheres that you feel part of from awkwardness to sheer terror. I could not put this book down because each bit rolls into the next and I had to know what was really going on.

Just who is taking these girls and killing them so brutally? The whole town believes it's one of their own and everybody has their theory, fingers are pointing everywhere. In the uncovering of the truth Camille is forced to face demons from her past.

For me this is a 5 star read because I won't forget it, I devoured it and could not put it down, it's well written and it's cleverly done.

LOOK! I asked for this way back and this year, 2018 it’s going to be on Sky Atlantic!

I wish they had made this one into a movie instead of Gone Girl, would have been so much darker on the screen. ...more

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Aug 06, 2007 Laura rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Chuck Palahniuk fans

Shelves: borrowed-from-public-library

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 couldn't enjoy the main character. I found the scene where she was 12 years old and in someone's hunting shed, full of dead, bloody animals and por ...more

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Apr 29, 2017 Ninoska Goris rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: leido-2017, epublibre

Español - English

La protagonista tiene fallas como todos la tenemos, pero tiene una forma de narrar que te intriga a seguir leyendo.

Cuando era solo una niña murió su hermana y desde entonces escribía palabras con cortes en su piel. Motivo por el cual estuvo ingresada en un hospital psiquiátrico.

Trabaja como reportera y se ve obligada a ir a su pueblo de infancia a cubrir un reportaje de una niña asesinada y otra desaparecida.

Es realmente perturbadora la relación que Camille tiene con su madre, ...more

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Jan 20, 2016 Suzanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: donated-owned

Finally I climbed out under my rock to read my first GF novel. I was happy I did. Camille got under my skin, zero pun intended, and I enjoyed the whole ride. Whilst graphic, I wasn’t bothered, and whilst dark this was fine too. I was impressed with the writing of this book and understand why this author has hit it off worldwide.

Camille is a very troubled young woman, a mediocre journalist and a recovering cutter. Self harming herself in the most dreadful way, by inscribing words into her skin. A ...more

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Jun 28, 2007 Troy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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 outfits tha ...more

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Jun 24, 2014 Laz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: thriller addicts

Shelves: thriller, mystery, crime, all-time-favorites

“Sometimes if you let people do things to you, you're really doing it to them.”

It's freaky and twisted. It's terrifying and compelling. You'll sit down, grab the book and read it until you've reached the last page. No kiddings here. I read this in one sitting, no pause for water, no pause whatsoever. It'll creep you out and fascinate you and you'll connect with the story on many levels. I did. I connected with the character and I'm still having nightmares about it.

By all accounts, this is a Gi
“Sometimes if you let people do things to you, you're really doing it to them.”

It's freaky and twisted. It's terrifying and compelling. You'll sit down, grab the book and read it until you've reached the last page. No kiddings here. I read this in one sitting, no pause for water, no pause whatsoever. It'll creep you out and fascinate you and you'll connect with the story on many levels. I did. I connected with the character and I'm still having nightmares about it.

By all accounts, this is a Gillian Flynn novel. Having read all of her books now, I can safely say that she has a very dark mind. I cannot for the life of me understand how someone can put so much fucked-up in less than 300 pages. She will take the safest of things. The one thing everyone considers safe and regular, and she'll twist and turn it until there's a monster made out of it. I don't know if it's a curse or a talent.

Dark Places & Gone Girl were amazing, incredible. They both left me wanting for more. But this one really did the job from me. I was fascinated from the first page till the very last hence the five stars.

I think what mainly got to me was the fact that this book had a main character who was full of weaknesses and sensitivities. Camille has about one hundred insecurities and has only ever known hurt and betrayal and not for once in her life has she felt loved. And I mean, never. Not when she was a baby, not while she was growing up and certainly not now. In comparison with Mrs. Flynn's two other books, whose characters are more tough and more independent and sure of themselves and are just bad bad people, this one pictures a character who every reader can connect with and feel for and maybe identify themselves with.

Camille Preaker is a reporter, coming back from a psych ward she throws herself at her job. That's it until her boss sends her to her hometown where there seems to be a serial killer on the loose and has yet to be covered by the media. Her hometown is really secluded, not in the way of no nearby cities and that shit but in the way of secrets having the tendency to never get out of the town. People there turn their heads around when something bad is happening, denying having ever seen it. Is a girl having sex with 4 boys at plain sight and a neighbor sees it? No, it didn't happen. People have a short-term memory, like goldfish.

Having lost her younger sister at the age of 13 and having never known motherly or fatherly love, Camille was a teenage girl who'd let anyone take advantage of her. She'd harm herself in more than one way. She'd do it over and over again. No stopping.

What's terrifying is seeing the world through Camille's eyes. She chooses to see the best in people even when they haven't given her a reason to do so. That's what really got her to where she is, in the first place.

Dark is a word to characterize this book, twisted is another. The killings go way deeper that what you'll first imagine and think another "solve the mystery" novel. After every book of Mrs. Flynn I read I feel insecure and have a feeling of dirt, not the physical kind but the mental one. No shower will ever rid me of it. ...more

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Aug 30, 2015 Madeline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crap-tastic, no-judgements

This book was so stupid and hysterical and I loved every second of it.

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Sep 03, 2018 Johann (jobis89) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"I just think some women aren't made to be mothers. And some women aren't made to be daughters."

Journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her hometown, where one girl has been brutally murdered and another one is missing.

Dark and twisty and fucked up characters are my FAVE, and Gillian Flynn seems to be the absolute queen of creating them. Although one of the issues with having such car crashes for human beings in your stories is that you often don't have a character who you really root for or "I just think some women aren't made to be mothers. And some women aren't made to be daughters."

Journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her hometown, where one girl has been brutally murdered and another one is missing.

Dark and twisty and fucked up characters are my FAVE, and Gillian Flynn seems to be the absolute queen of creating them. Although one of the issues with having such car crashes for human beings in your stories is that you often don't have a character who you really root for or relate to. Usually I like having this sort of character in my books, but sometimes reading a book just for the sake of getting engrossed in the storyline and disentangling all the threads running throughout is all you need! Also known as… the perfect poolside read - which this was for me.

I'm a huge fan of Flynn's writing. Some of her descriptions and prose really wow-ed me. One woman she described as having "hips like antlers" in the way that the bones jutted out, and I just really liked that simile. There were a lot more instances like this where I would read a sentence or a paragraph and think "Oooh, that's GOOD!" I also loved a lot of the dark imagery that she included, it felt like quite a visual book and some of the scenes created will leave a lasting impression for sure.

Sharp Objects is full of twists and turns, a few of which I had predicted before they happened, but there were still a few that surprised me. The ending in particular! I thought I had it figured out, then it went one way and then another and I was just like WOOOAAHHH this is awesome.

Although that's not to say I had some issues. One of my major annoyances with this book was that it was extremely over sexualised at times. I am not a prude by any means, but it just felt like everything had links to sex in some way. EVERYTHING. And a lot of the time it seemed completely needless and tacked on. One event in particular… which I can't really talk about as I never include spoilers in a review, but it involved Camille's relationship with someone and it was just… completely unnecessary. In my view, anyway.

ALSO, also. I just do not buy that Amma is 13 years old! I just don't. I can completely understand that some kids are very mature and almost behave like adults at such a young age, but 13 was a bit of a stretch. Especially when you go on to watch the TV adaptation. I'm just not buying it, maybe 15 years old would be more believable? Some of Camille's opinions also rubbed me up the wrong way (that phrase would totally be made into some kind of innuendo in the book *rolls eyes*). In particular, there was one part where she discusses how women get "consumed" due to the "sheer amount of traffic" a woman's body experiences. I understand that this is merely Camille's opinion and I can't hold that against the book itself but the implication of it just grated on me.

That actually sounds like I had a lot of issues… but I still enjoyed the story a lot!! It's a page turner and it was exactly what I needed for my holiday.

4 stars. ...more

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Sep 01, 2017 Alejandro rated it really liked it

Shelves: novel, horror, detective

Grippin’ book!

WHERE EVERYTHING STARTED

Gillian Flynn is one of the most worldwide famous and popular authors nowadays with best-selling novels like Gone Girl and Dark Places, along with the short story The Grownup, but her debut novel was this one, Sharp Objects.

Flynn’s style features broken characters, nasty acts, gruesome crimes and plot twists, showing a face of American contemporary towns (not matter if they’re ficticious) that it’s not so common portraited…

…and a truly grippin’ narrative ...more

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Jun 27, 2018 Anne rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-german

I really liked Gone Girl, but was quite disappointed by Dark Places, so I had absolutely no idea what I would think about this book. I'm happy to report that this one was another win for me! It was a super easy and fast read with a solid plot and interesting characters.

In fact, I think the main character Camille is my favorite one out of all the ones Gillian Flynn has created over the years. Some actions of hers seemed a bit too hectic (?) for me though; I couldn't understand why the author dec ...more

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Aug 05, 2015 °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ʜᴇʟᴇɴ Ροζουλί Εωσφόρος ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° ★·.·´¯`·.·★ Ⓥⓔⓡⓝⓤⓢ Ⓟⓞⓡⓣⓘⓣⓞⓡ Ⓐⓡⓒⓐⓝⓤⓢ Ταμετούρο Αμ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Τα αιχμηρά αντικείμενα σκίζουν συναισθήματα,σχέσεις,σκεψεις,δεσμούς ιερούς και μη αφήνοντας ανεξίτηλα σημάδια και εμπειρίες ζωής!

Όσο και να εξωραΐζεται το κακό παραμένει πανταμεσα στις ψυχές και την κατάλληλη στιγμή στις κατάλληλες συνθήκες δείχνει το πραγματικό του πρόσωπο!
Το ψέμα η εικονική ανθρωπιά και αλληλεγγύη,η τοξική χαμογελαστή παράνοια προσπαθούν διακαώς να μας πείσουν για επίπλαστες ανθρώπινες σχέσεις !

Τελικά οι άνθρωποι που δεν αγαπήθηκαν και διαταράχθηκαν ψυχικά απο αυτη την έλλε ...more

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Aug 13, 2015 emma rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned, dark, mystery-thriller-horror-etc, non-ya, recommend, auto-buy-authors, 4-stars, reviewed, reread

BEST GILLIAN FLYNN BOOK. By a mile. Sorry, Gone Girl, you are no longer welcome here. (Just kidding I'm probably going to reread it in one absolute second but will it be as good as this book? No, it will not.)

This is so CREEPY and the writing is so visceral and it's so unique. There have probably been thrillers like this one since this one, but definitely not many before.

There are so many characters that are just hopelessly fascinating. Like, all of them, basically. Any time the protagonist get ...more

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Sep 21, 2009 Maureen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

i'm not sure what to say about this book because while i think it reads like a bestseller should, i didn't enjoy it. the prose is compelling in that i felt compelled to finish it, and i did. i couldn't put it down but i wanted to get it over with. i think the writing is engaging but i will remember no turns of phrase, or kernels of wisdom.

i can say it seemed pretty obvious to me who would turn out to be guilty of the crimes in the end, and i was right. all of the characters in this book except i'm not sure what to say about this book because while i think it reads like a bestseller should, i didn't enjoy it. the prose is compelling in that i felt compelled to finish it, and i did. i couldn't put it down but i wanted to get it over with. i think the writing is engaging but i will remember no turns of phrase, or kernels of wisdom.

i can say it seemed pretty obvious to me who would turn out to be guilty of the crimes in the end, and i was right. all of the characters in this book except for the guilty and the protagonist seemed clear stock types to me: the out-of-towner cop, the sheriff, the older brother of one of the girls killed, his girlfriend, all of the women of the reporter protagonists generation, of her mother's, of her sister's.. i have seen all these characters on sicker episodes of law and order or some other crime procedural, which for the record, i usually have no trouble anticipating the conclusions of either. i won't say i was surprised when i read that author, flynn, was a former television critic for entertainment weekly, in addition to holding a film degree. she has a very firm hold on characterization, and tropes, and she knows just when to serve up something that seems contrary to what you expect, to turn it on its head, and sufficiently creep her reader out. certainly, i exclaimed "this is disgusting" in a crowded subway because i couldn't help myself.

if you are looking for a dark and shocking read that includes shades of southern gothic, perversion, and self-mutilation, this may be the book for you. having finished this book, i don't think i ever want to see it again because it didn't really give me anything. it grossed me out, yes, but it never really scared me, or enlightened me, or surprised me. i respect the writing crafted here but i don't admire it. i'm glad that it's finished and i don't have to read it anymore.

sharp objects had nuances of an elizabeth george book called missing joseph i once read that i liked better, probably because it was a lot less grotesque, and was more difficult to figure out. ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Kindle Book Club ...: SPOILER ALERT, Sharp Objects, Reading Completed	12	19	Mar 23, 2019 03:44PM
A Novel Idea Book...: Our April book will be...	1	2	Mar 06, 2019 08:55AM
Lovers of TV Series: Sharp Objects	1	2	Jan 29, 2019 12:46PM
Stephen King Fans: Sharp Objects- July	51	124	Jan 24, 2019 10:42AM
Around the Year i...: Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn	12	119	Jan 19, 2019 06:17AM
Did the HBO series inspire you to buy the novel?	23	50	Jan 12, 2019 05:28PM

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About Gillian Flynn

Gillian Flynn

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Gillian Flynn is an American author and television critic for Entertainment Weekly. She has so far written three novels, Sharp Objects, for which she won the 2007 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller; Dark Places; and her best-selling third novel Gone Girl.

Her book has received wide praise, including from authors such as Stephen King. The dark plot revolves around a serial killer in a Mi ...more

Books by Gillian Flynn

The Complete Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl, Dark Places, Sharp Objects

The Novels of Gillian Flynn: Sharp Objects, Dark Places

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Trivia About Sharp Objects

34 trivia questions

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Quotes from Sharp Objects

“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.” — 977 likes

“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip. Women get consumed.” — 362 likes

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