Sharp Objects: A Novel
by Gillian Flynn
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Book Reviews of Sharp Objects: A Novel
Book Review: "It is impossible to compete with the dead. I wish I could stop trying."
Summary: 5 Stars
Horror skates blithely through this novel, surfacing periodically in frissons of malice. This author enjoys a special talent: the painful excavation of the female psyche. Women receive no special treatment, are expertly dissected, demystifying the myth of kindness and comfort associated with females. As in Dark Places, Flynn's female characters are unpredictable, unlikable, often intimidating, sometimes violent. This grim view of womankind continues in Sharp Objects, as reporter Camille Preaker is sent on assignment by her third-rate Chicago newspaper, The Daily Post, to cover the death of a young girl and the disappearance of another in her home town of Wind Gap, Missouri. Staying with family, mother, step-father and thirteen-year-old step-sister, Amma, does not make for a happy homecoming. Rather, a tension-filled, antagonistic atmosphere permeates the family home, a pristine Victorian house filled with expensive objects and bad intentions.
Clearly, Camille has private demons, not the least of which is a dependency on alcohol to soften the edges of reality and a compulsive scribbling of words on her wrist, as though to seal them in memory. As Camille works her sources, forced to confront her past in Wind Gap, one death becomes two when the missing child is found, both children bearing a common horrifying mutilation. Camille interviews old friends and former acquaintances, the reluctant families of the dead girls, a Kansas City cop brought in on the case. Here is troubled territory, indeed. Meanwhile, Camille's distant mother refuses to tolerate the ugliness her daughter brings into her carefully controlled environment. Under her mother's roof, a long dead younger sibling competes with an enigmatic half-sister, a changeling who is a sweet, compliant daughter at home, a wild, cruel creature in the world. Menace bubbles just beneath the surface, a thin veneer of domesticity hiding family secrets deep and dark.
Not for the faint of heart, Flynn writes with the ferocity of a feral child. Reduced to the helpless pawn of a controlling mother, Camille flails about, discovering facts about the murders that threaten to unravel her hard-won peace of mind. While the police favor a transient or the brother of one of the victims, Camille is pulled in an entirely different direction. At one point I found this dance on the dark side nearly unbearable, a nightmare of past and present, unresolved issues and night terrors, Camille's only defense to drink herself into oblivion. In Flynn's disturbing, unforgettable thriller, every place has its own brand of violence, comfort is transient and terror waits patiently on the other side of the door. Luan Gaines/2009.
Book Review: Hated it
Summary: 2 Stars
A well-written fake.
None of the characters (or the crimes, for that matter) are believable, especially Amma, protagonist's 13-yr old half-sister. The teen culture described by Flynn is especially laughable. Kids don't feel like that, don't behave like that, and don't talk like that.
Camille, the seriously messed-up narrator, is tremendously irritating and unpleasant. I have little sympathy for psychotics, and her character, the way it was developed by Flynn, does not have a lot of depth. Camille is tediously dull, monotone, and inept as a reporter. Basically, she takes baths, drinks burbon, throws up and cries A LOT throughout the story. It is unclear to me why she keeps staying at her monster-of-a-mother's house, while her Chicago boss keeps reminding her that she could go home at any time if she feels uncomfortable. But no - Camille passively chooses to wallow in self-pity and misery. She is clearly a masochist.
It is equally unclear what exactly makes her so attractive to the "chicklet-toothed" detective Richard (another unlikable character who has no substance).
Camille's sexual promiscuity does not make me like her more, though I am no prude. I guess that has to do with how cold and detached she is. Maybe she is supposed to be "tough" in the face of evil, and I am supposed to feel sorry for her, but somehow I just don't. IMHO, Camille is simply morose.
The story comes to this: a freak girl comes to freak town and deals with a lot of freaks, headed by her freak immediate family members.
I am not debating that the novel is well-written. It is rich in detail, very visual, and has better parts. However, upon reading it, I was left with sort of a bad taste in my mouth. The book is really nasty and revolting, and when a female writer comes up with something like this, I think that there is something really wrong with her.
This view of life is depressing and dark, and I really don't appreciate writers whose flair comes to naturalistically describing their character's vomit and other bodily secretions in detail. The beauty of storytelling evaporates, leaving the reader slightly nauseous.
Perhaps one would argue that it's the whole point of a crime novel - to make it as dark, naturalistic, and disturbing as possible - but take Harris's "Silence of the Lambs", for example. Yes, it is very dark, but brilliant, and I could re-read it again and again.
"Sharp Objects" somehow resembles "In the Cut" by Susanna Moore. I threw it out of my house immediately upon reading it, I disliked it so much.
Something is missing in Flynn's novel. It is too cold and unpleasant on every level - if you enjoy these emotions, read it.
Book Review: Leaves one with 'rotten feelings'
Summary: 1 Stars
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 looses 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.
by Simon Cleveland
Book Review: Dark, Gritty, Disturbing, and Brilliant!
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading Flynn's second book, Dark Places, earlier this year I couldn't get enough of her and wanted to read her first book. Like I said in my review of Dark Places, if Flynn writes more (and I hope she does) then she has a loyal fan in me. While Sharp Objects doesn't quite have the intensity that Dark Places showed us, it's still just as good.
In it, we meet Camille Preaker, a Chicago reporter who returns to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri to look into the story of two young teen girls who went missing and were later found dead and missing all of their teeth. The local police have no leads and have called in help from Kansas City to assist in the investigation. Locals have their own suspicions and small town gossips abounds.
But Flynn doesn't serve us just another cookie cutter mystery. Much of the book is about Camille attempting to reconnect with her well-to-do Mom who owns the local pig abattoir, Mom's stiff squeaky husband, and her bizarre attention-hungry young sister named Amma. As Camille jumps head first into the case and attempts to get a good quote on record from the parents of the deceased or the Kansas City investigator, she rediscovers what she reminisces of her years growing up in the smalltown of Wind Gap and we learn more about her and the pain she has lived. Camille is a cutter, carving various words literally all over her body. And to make things worse, her Mom is a hypochondriac.
I had the killer pegged as soon as I met them, but constantly second guessed myself as Flynn leads you away from the mystery at hand and deeper into the psyche of Camille, her sister, and her mother. Camille pays visits to the girls she grew up with and went to high school with, desperate to break something in the case, but in the process it all comes back to her sad mother and her bully sister, who apparently rules the school with her pretentious attitude. Camille also develops a physical relationship with the investigator who refuses to budge on giving Camille something she can use in her story.
Just like Flynn's second book, the characters here are all ticking time bombs of emotion and turmoil. You love them. You hate them. You love to hate them. In fact, you become so emotionally attached to them yourself that you just can't put the book down. Throw in a gritty murder mystery to solve and you have the perfect recipe for a book that I just can't stop thinking about.
Book Review: Nothing impressive
Summary: 2 Stars
This first novel from Gillian Flynn, seems, in my opinion, to be reviewed mainly for it's "shock effect" and not for the actual strength of the writing style, plot, and characters. My choices of reading tend to be on the more literary side - novels that have won awards and are critically acclaimed. And, after reading some of the customer reviews, I decided to try it, regardless of the somewhat mixed nature of the ratings.
Taking all this into consideration, I really felt like this was a waste of my time. While, yes, there was interesting commentary on human nature and the psychological effects of emotional and physical abuse, the actual believability of the characters left much to be desired. They are uneven, and I seemed to often think as I was reading the novel that a comment or an action seemed out of character for the person being described. In other words, it didn't flow.
The reason that I may be judging this book so harshly is that I tend to gravitate towards "disturbing" or "weird" subjects. I've read many books with graphic violence in them, so maybe the shock value was lost on me. I am absolutely astounded to learn that this was nominated for an Edgar award for best first novel. It seemed like an amateur attempt at a who-dun-it shock mystery. I guessed at the "shock" ending, which was hastily thrown in at the end, and seemed to be completely without purpose. Story lines ended abruptly. The entire plot, while taking place at one location, switches hurriedly, without explanation, and seemingly just to facilitate a "shock ending". It lacked coherence in respect to the character development and pace.
If you're looking for a well written who-dun-it type of contemporary novel, I would recommend "Back Roads" by Tawni O'Dell. It's in the same vein as "Sharp Objects" (takes place in a small town, analyzes the psychological effect parents can have on children, contains a "twist"). It's a psychological thriller that I simply could not get out of my mind after reading. I had to read it a second time in a college course and found that it was just as shocking the second time around. It's "surprise" ending is incredible, shocking, and, most importantly, necessary to the story. And, it was MUCH more deserving of a nomination celebrating a best first novel... "Sharp Objects" doesn't even come close.