Sharp Objects Review

By Gillian Flynn

Rating: 4/5

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 unsolved murder of a preteen girl and the disappearance of another. 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 her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

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A dark, sinister read that truly got under my skin and into my head.

Camille loses her at the age of 13, from the grief of her sister and the fact her mother never loved or was there for her, she turns to cutting. However, she doesn’t just cut, she carves words into her skin. All areas of her body that she’s able to cover with clothing. After 15 years, she runs out of skin and finally admits herself to a psychiatric hospital. Shortly after being released, she’s given the assignment to return home to report on the case of a missing girl.

Once home, the secrets of her past come back. Fighting with herself, her mother, and a half-sister she barely knows. As Camille digs deeper into the investigation, she teeters on the edge of her sanity.

“Some women aren’t made to be mothers”

I honestly really enjoyed reading this it was filled with so much suspense that I became completely invested in the story. I thought for sure I knew who the killer was. I was about half right, I guess. I didn’t expect the additional twist that occurred.

There’s so much to say about this book. Overall, it’s very well written constantly keeping me engaged. It was able to hold my attention. Even when I wasn’t reading it, I was continually thinking about what truly happened. I was pleasantly surprised by the twist that occurred, it was something I didn’t expect. I can’t wait to read more by Gillian Flynn.

I think anyone who enjoys a suspenseful thriller would enjoy this one. It had me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. Keep reading for more of my thoughts on Sharp Objects.

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Warning! Spoilers :)

With Camille, all grown-up, returning to a home that is clearly not welcome to her even though her mother tells her she is. Her stepsister being an entitled self-centered, self-absorbed bitch. Even throwing in Camille’s face that she’s the unwanted bastard of the family. Amma wishes she’ll be killed next to be forever loved like Princess Diana.

I’ll admit I was deeply disturbed during the majority of this book. The mixture of the characters, their past, their actions, the murders, it definitely made it hard for me to read. I was captivated, invested, wanting to know more, but I couldn’t plow through it as I usually do when reading a book I’m this interested in. I was only able to read about 40-60 pages in a sitting before I needed to take a mental check and a break. A breather. To remind me, it’s just a story.

But I guess that’s also the scary part of this, there are real people out there that are like all these characters including the murderers. I couldn’t help but be reminded of my recent read Carrie, where Carrie’s mother wanted to maintain power over Carrie. Just as Adora poisoned her daughters to make them want her to take care of them.

There’s this idea throughout the story that a woman couldn’t have done the murders. Because it just didn’t make sense, it didn’t fit the profile. This didn’t make sense to me. Although we later learned the police never truly believed this, they would keep saying it. Like it would make it true the more they said it aloud. From the start, I believed it was a woman who had done the murders. So I felt that is was very rude to constantly read that. Not trying to condone women murderers, but the whole women have specific roles, and being a murderer isn’t one of them.

Overall, as I mentioned earlier, I thought this was a great read. I was completely captivated by all the characters and their pasts. Even though I was initially wrong with who had done the murders, the twist although deeply disturbing, made the ending that much stronger.