Sharp Objects: A Novel
by Gillian Flynn
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Book Reviews of Sharp Objects: A Novel
Book Review: Whoa, what a story!
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is incredible. It is like nothing I have ever read before and I am completely in love with it. :D I could not stop reading it until I finished it, it just grabbed me and wouldn't let go. This is a real page turner.
The main character is Camille, a reporter, who has a troubled past thanks to her EVIL mother. Her next assignment for the not so popular Chicago newspaper she works for, is to go to her home town and find out about the strange little girl murders that occurred there. She has a really hard time as she tries to do her job in this place that brings bad memories of her dead kid sister and seeing her mother just makes it worse since Adora (her mom) is EVIL, ehem, um since Adora never loved her and things are not changing any time soon.
Camille goes through so much and reading about this is just too interesting you want to read faster and faster in order to find out what's going to happen next.
I have never read anything by Gillian Flynn and now have got to get me some more of her other works. I loved her writing and this just was not enough, I need more!!!
-tvandbookaddict.blogspot.com
Book Review: I wouldn't really recommend this....
Summary: 2 Stars
Unless you're interested in reading yet another book about a "damaged" heroine. Someone who's tragic and scarred and traumatized by emotional/sexual hurts from childhood that dictate that she can't possibly live a halfway functional adult life. I wanted so much to like Camille but her behavior (acting out in her 30s) ticked me off as did the attitudes of just about everyone in this quaint, little Missouri town. What a toxic place! No wonder the heroine is such a train wreck between the seething malice of everyone she encounters and her nut-job family (i.e. a thoroughly unbelievable, highly sexualized/manipulative 13-year old sister and a hateful, one-dimensional mother)! Anyway, I did finish this book because I so wanted this novel to move past the abject hopelessness. But, unfortunately, that never really happened. I truly wanted Camille to have some redeeming qualities, but, ultimately, I couldn't connect with a grown woman who characterized a little girl as "the piggy middle child, who now waddled dazedly into the room, [who] was destined for needy sex and snack-cake bingeing."Book Review: Excellent from Page 1
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm perplexed by the couple of reviewers who talk about having to stick with this novel for the first 30 pages, coming close to folding up early. I thought Gillian Flynn's debut was excellent from Page 1. I especially love how Flynn's narrator, Camille Preaker, slowly reveals little things about her semi-sordid past and her not-too-hot present. As an example, there's a quick early line from Preaker about how she prefers baths because the shower stings her skin. A short while later, we start to learn a little about said skin & you recall that earlier line. Nice writing. Flynn's got heaps of these little nuances, which show some great attention to detail. It's a real treat to read something this well thought out.
The interview with the author that appears here on this page is most revealing. Flynn says "when I wrote Sharp Objects, I wasn't even sure who the killer was for a bit." That shows. But the book isn't so much about the killer as it is about 'Miss Preaker' and her coming to grips with demons of her past. Ms. Flynn aces that part.
Book Review: One of the few times I didn't mind being kept up at night...
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't often submit reviews here, but then again, it's not often I devour a book within just a few days--when that happens, however, I feel compelled to pay a compliment.
This book kept me turning pages late into the night. Crisp writing, compelling characters, and sharp, witty observations make it a must read. Flynn is a much-needed breath of fresh air. No near-perfect protagonists, no over-inflated egos. Not here. Camille Preaker is flawed ... seriously so, which in my opinion, makes her even more endearing. She is wonderfully complex, vulnerable, and deeply multi-dimensional--in other words, very, very real. You can't help but find her fascinating. But it doesn't end there. The other characters follow suit-- kind of like rich desert at the end of a satisfying meal. Some will make you laugh, others will make you reflect, but none will disappoint.
If you like dark characters and even darker stories, this novel is for you.
Flynn has a new fan. Can't wait to read the next... and whatever follow
Book Review: 3-1/2 Stars For Scandalous Mystery
Summary: 3 Stars
Gill Flynn has written a great small-town book. In other words, she writes of a pretty little town with very unpretty people. Every character in this novel is psychologically scarred or trying to scar someone else. Are people really this bad?
Two fourth-grade girls have disappeard from this area where everyone knows everyone. No mysterious strangers off their psych meds have wandered through the neighborhood, so the denizens of the town have to admit the perpetrator must be one of their own. A 30-year-old who got out in time to make a life (of sorts) for herself in Chicago comes back to town to investigate the crimes for her paper. She gets involved and manages to dredge up a solution.
The story is fairly compelling; and even if you already have an idea who the bad guy(s) is/are by the end of the story, the payoff is palpable and satisfying. Ms. Flynn writes simply, straightforwardly, and well. I would definitely consider reading her next work of fiction.