Sharp Objects: A Novel
by Gillian Flynn
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gillian FlynnEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-09-26
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Book Reviews of Sharp Objects: A Novel
Book Review: Disturbing & mythos busting ...
Summary: 4 Stars
I finished this book a couple of days ago, but I took some time after reading it to digest & think about it. I liked this book a lot, although it wasn't a particularly pleasant or uplifting read.
There are a couple of stereotypes that I loathe. One is that the world would be a better place if women were in charge because we're all consensus driven peacemakers who would bake cookies together instead of starting wars. The other is that all children are little containers of angelic innocence & light. Right. That girlfriend that stabbed you in the back in high school by setting you up for public humiliation wasn't really a woman & that kid from your kindergarten that held you down on the playground & ground dirt into your face wasn't really a kid. You imagined all of that.
I loathe those stereotypes because they're just another way for us to avoid actually thinking about real people & allowing for & adjusting for differences of all kinds. They're a way of providing neat little boxes to stuff people into & to refer to when punishing those who refuse to conform. Women & children are, of course, sometimes peacemakers & sometimes innocent little angels. They are more frequently, however, many other things. In its own way this book makes that point.
It's not often that you read a thriller with villains who are female & complex - that one of the villains in this book is also 13 & pretty is a bonus. Add to this myth explosion the obsessive compulsive cutter who is the narrator & this book offers many different views of what women & children - people, that is - can be like.
Flynn is good at making the reader squirm & good at making you want to turn the pages. I absolutely knew what had actually happened within the first third or so of this book, but continued reading feverishly to the inevitable & gut wrenching conclusion with the perverse delight of someone watching a train wreck. You don't want to watch, but somehow you just can't look away until the images are seared into your brain.
As a thriller this book definitely succeeds, but I think it should more aptly be categorized as horror - if only for the creeping sense of dread it instills in its reader.
Summary of Sharp Objects: A Novel
WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heartWords are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker?s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille?s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.
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.
With its taut, crafted writing, Sharp Objects is addictive, haunting, and unforgettable.
As loyal Entertainment Weekly subscribers, we have been fans of Gillian Flynn for her smart, funny, and spot-on reviews of books, movies, and TV, but we were not prepared for her stunning debut novel Sharp Objects, a wickedly dark thriller that Stephen King calls a "relentlessly creepy family saga" and an "admirably nasty piece of work." We're calling it a cross between Twin Peaks and Secretary--sinister, sexy, and stylish. Perfect fall reading. --Daphne Durham
10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Gillian Flynn
Q: Do you prefer writing novels or reviewing?A: I think writing is more pure--and actually a bit easier for me. It's just me and my laptop, not me and my laptop and a TV show that 30 people have worked on. Reviewing keeps you sharp--I can hardly watch or read anything without taking notes now--but plain old writing I find actually relaxing.
Q: Do think your writing is influenced more by books that you have read, or shows/movies that you have seen?
A: My mom spent her career as a reading teacher and my dad is a retired film professor, so I was really steeped in both books and movies growing up. To this day, when I get my dad on the phone, pretty much his first sentence is "Seen anything good lately?" I love putting words together (I've never met a simile I didn't like), but when I write I often think in "scenes"--I want these two people, in a dirty bar, with this song playing in the background.
Q: I hear you are working on your second book...is it is too early to ask what it's about?
A: I'm still playing around with the whole plot--when I wrote Sharp Objects, I wasn't even sure who the killer was for a bit. But I can say [the new book] has to do with family loyalty, false memories, a wrenching murder trial, and a dash of good 'ole 1980s hair metal and devil worship.
Q: What is your writing process like? Have you changed anything about how you work since your first book?
A: My writing process is incredibly inefficient, and hasn't changed between books. I really don't outline: I know basically how I want the story to start, and vaguely how I want it to end (though like I said, with Sharp Objects even that changed!). Then I just write: Some characters I start finding more interesting, some less. I write entire swaths that I pretty much know I'll cut. I have an entire file of "deleted scenes." I guess the one thing that has physically changed is I moved into a new place since my first book--it has a great bathtub, and I'll prop my laptop up and write in the bath for hours. Which is, admittedly, weird.
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