Sharp Objects

I was craving some horror/thriller reading, and had seen Flynn's book Gone Girl just about everywhere, but this one felt more intriguing. I haven't read a page-turner like this in a while. Creepy as hell, interesting (and very flawed) protagonist. Something about the storytelling that I can't put my finger on just worked for me–I read it in a day, basically, which I haven't done with any book in a long time. It's definitely a book that should come with a bunch of trigger warnings–but if you like your thrillers sick and twisted, pick it up.

I'm still processing how I felt about this book. Don't mistake five stars to signify enjoyment, rather it's respect: Gillian Flynn is doing something different. As far as I can tell, she's doing something different and creative and she's the best in her genre. I've never experienced anything quite like it.

Do I like it? I mean, I guess. I mean, kind of. I mean, I definitely wouldn't torture myself by rereading this book. I found it compulsive reading. Literally – I would try to put it down, but I would keep thinking about it, about the characters, about the atmosphere, until I just had to pick it up and read more. It was the most disturbing thing I've ever read. You know how, when you're a tween/young teenager, and you and your friends tell gross out stories, because you've realized that the world can be dark and you're trying to figure out the boundaries? This book reads like this. Think of the most disturbing thing you can possibly think of, and that's this book.

On the one hand, that takes all the suspense out of the book, because you know the twist and turn to literally every mystery. On the other, there is all this tension as you read thinking: “Flynn cannot possibly be going there, right?” I was mostly relieved when Camille and Amma went home to Chicago, because I thought: thank goodness I was wrong and Adora was the killer, not Amma. And then I was a little disturbed that I came up with a more morbid ending than Flynn did. And then the final twist happened. And then the teeth went into the dollhouse, which was even more gruesome than I could have imagined

But honestly, I don't read anything just for the gross-out factor, psychological horror or the other type, so there's another reason that I stuck with this book, besides that it made me feel physically ill the way no other novel has succeeded. And that is, Flynn has something really interesting to say about female villains. Sharp Objects is an apt title – Flynn explores the weapons that women, socialized out of traditional violence, use against themselves and each other and the deep damage that everyone involved sustains as a result. There are literal sharp objects: the knives that Camille uses to cut, girls who scratch with their nails, women and girls who bit, scissors that one of the victims once used to stab someone; and infinite metaphorical sharp objects.

Flynn had said in interviews that [b:Gone Girl|21480930|Gone Girl|Gillian Flynn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406511734s/21480930.jpg|13306276] was the book in which she explored feminism by exploring female villains, but I didn't buy it when I read Gone Girl: Amy was too stereotypically evil and stereotypically female and I felt like it was derivative. But in Sharp Objects, Flynn clearly succeeds

This is the most disturbing and darkest book I've ever read.

I was looking for something different and since I saw Gillian Flynn's name everywhere, I simply knew I had to read one of her books, so instead of picking up the famous Gone girl, I went with this one.

The story was great. Not the fast paced suspense I was expecting but a mysterious one full of surprises and crazy theories.

The characters... Oh well, they all are messed up. If you're looking for a book with a great hero, then buy another book. This one doesn't have good characters. All of them are insane in some way. Probably Curry and Eileen are the only ones who are not crazy but they don't appear too much in the story.

Camille is definitely not your classic super heroine type. She only does her job and tries to live with her weird family. Also, she's not mentally healthy and sometimes I was wondering about her sanity too.

The ending was... I still don't know. I guess I'll continue figuring it out because it gave me the creeps.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll buy another book by this author.

I hadn't heard of Sharp Objects before the Golden Globe Awards this year. I was intrigued by the cast and decided to check it out - and I'm glad I did. The story follows a reporter on her journey back to her hometown to investigate missing girls. The story is a complete whirlwind that builds in ways I wasn't expecting, but upon reflection just made sense. I appreciate how well everything ties together.

Chicago reporter, Camille, has to head back down to her small town in Missouri to cover the murder of one little girl 9 months ago and another recently missing. Is this a child serial killer? Camille doesn't want to go home and the reader learns she left this small town with mental and physical scars she scratched all over her own body. Words. Hidden beneath her clothing. As she investigates she learns how much more dysfunctional her family is.
Creepy, chilling, and suspenseful novel. In this psychological thriller is a page turner filled with flawed characters trapped in a dark story. Solid writing. Guess the only problem I have with these type of stories is after you finish them. The story seems far fetched and the characters extreme but I feel it bring a lot to light a dark side to people's actions and personalities.

A psychologically troubled women returns to her dysfunctional small hometown, where she tries to uncover the story behind the abduction and brutal killing of two girls. And it's as bad as it sounds.

After reading and loving “Gone Girl”, this is my second novel of Gillian Flynn I started. And one thing's for sure: This women is a master in creating really really messed up characters. I don't know what she must have been through to come up with such terrible people, but I love it.

Sharp Objects it's a downward spiral of terrible people doing terrible things in a terrible town. Spending the few weeks alongside Camille in her hometown was no holiday. The overall atmosphere is intense and oppressive. There's wealth, poverty, broken families, broken feelings, alcohol, really messed up little kids, unhealthy sex as a coping mechanism and a lot of failure. It's a dissection of small towns that are somewhat been halted in time.

I really enjoyed my time with Sharp Objects (as much as you can enjoy such depressive books), but sometimes I just couldn't understand the reason behind stuff that Camille did and didn't do. I wanted to shout at her more than a few times to grow up. Yes, you had a troubled life, but that doesn't mean you have to take this shit from a 12 year old Lolita.

A scary and depressive book. If you're sick of books full of unrealistic love and happiness, go on, Sharp objects is for you. I for one, need something full of unrealistic love and happiness now.

I'll let part of [a:Stephen King 3389 Stephen King http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1261866457p2/3389.jpg]'s blurb on the back cover speak for me:Sharp Objects isn't one of those scare-and-retreat books; its effect is cumulative. I found myself dreading the last thirty pages or so but was helpless to stop turning them. Then, after the lights were out, the story just stayed there in my head, coiled and hissing, like a snake in a cave. An admirably nasty piece of work, elevated by sharp writing and sharper insights.

Sharp Objects is a truly dark mystery/thriller which I think is rare. A lot of books discuss things that are dark (how can murdering children not be?), but this book is actually, genuinely, dark. It doesn't spare any sensitivities and doesn't shy away from anything graphic. Flynn really captures some of the most unpleasant features of small towns, sex, and mental illness. I'll have to take a break before reading Flynn's more recent novels to let the eerieness wear off though. Honestly, isn't that how you should react? This is not your Kay Hooper or Kathy Reichs author.

This is one of those books that feels like a guilty pleasure to me because it is, let's face it, a bit trashy. Everything is so sordid, twisted, and over the top. But it sure is entertaining. Each secret that was revealed surprised me.

I love the fact that Flynn is not afraid to write unlikable female characters. By which I mean, they do bad things and there is no excuse or apology for it. I feel like time after time I pick up books from a female character's point of view and that character is a victim we're supposed to feel sorry for or a female character that is SO perfect (brilliant, beautiful, strong, NEVER wrong). We want equality for women in literature, some women are going to have to be complex and even bad.

I hope Flynn never loses her nerve and continues to deliver the reader female characters that break out of the object/victim/Mary Sue/ mold.

One of the major themes in Sharp Objects is women doing terrible things to each other. Mothers to daughters, sisters to sisters, friends to friends, and in Camille's case to herself. The men in this book are mainly passive and ineffectual. If I'm a good little feminist, am I supposed to say, well these women are only behaving this way because they've been oppressed by men? I think Flynn is saying the opposite of that. Women need to take responsibility for their own behavior and how they treat each other. Part of being equal is already thinking that you are.

There are a lot of other interesting ideas in Sharp Objects that I could go on about but my main impression is that, while this does seem on the surface like a trashy, sensational story, there are so many complex issues, themes, and ideas that it brings to mind.

I struggled trying to rate this. It was hard to get into at first, but it was a quick read. I figured out the ending on page 67 and felt like I was trudging through a lot of unnecessary and repetitive descriptions of the people and history of Wind Gap just to get to the end. The main character is incredibly flawed, understandably so, and - though I love a flawed character - I'm so bored with the “unreliable alcoholic” trope. The sexualizing of 13-year-old girls was just uncomfortable too. The pacing at the very end was rushed, and it seemed like Flynn didn't know how to put the ending she wanted on the page. The reveal of the twist was a textbook example of telling instead of showing. I can still enjoy a book if I figure out the end as long as it is done well, but the emotionless telling led to a very anticlimactic reveal that didn't pack the punch the author was aiming for.

Ugh..and then bleh.

Summary: A reporter returns to her small home town in Missouri, to investigate the murder of 2 young girls. She realizes her family and old friends were not who she thought they were.

It's ugly. Uncomfortable. Often unnecessarily so. Just for the sake of it.

There is barely a plot. All you need for a story is in the first 2 and last 2 chapters. Everything in the middle is just filler. Dark filler. Everything is wrong. Everybody is awful. It's like something out of X files. Some radiation or something, made a whole town develop a mean streak. A town high on violence.

I don't think it's a badly written book (although there wasn't anything spectacular about the writing). It just wasn't for me. There is not much of a mystery to it, like in Gone Girl. Either you forsee the ending, or even if you don't, you can't really care when you do.

The book is about the people in it. The plot, probably was just a side-effect. And that's absolutely well done. If you like to read about evil deeds and evil people and why they do them, you might enjoy this.

Not feel good. Not one bit. Opposite opposite.

This is the second book of Gillian Flynn's that I have read and I was so pleasantly surprised to see how different this was from the first. I love that this author doesn't stay in the same box and is always changing but still maintains the eerie feeling that Gone Girl had alluded.

The characters in this book are so twisted and unique in their own ways. I was struggling to pin someone down as trust worthy because I felt like every character had their own agendas and alternative motives. They were all complex and had their secrets and dark pasts.

Sharp Object was a rollercoaster. It came with so many twists and turns that left me reeling. This will definitely be a reread for me.