Sharp Objects

An investigative journalist with a troubled past and self-destructive tendencies goes back to her hometown to investigate a murder. Gillian Flynn writes masterfully to the point where you can almost smell the vodka on the main characters' breathe and see the horrific scene of finding the little girl with her nails painted and teeth pulled out. Blending some of my favorite troupes, the destructive main character, murder mystery, family trauma, and an idyllic town where everything isn't as perfect as it seems.

Camille Breaker goes to her hometown of Wind Gap to write a story about a murdered little girl with another girl missing. However, it is not only the murdered and the missing that she uncovers, instead, she has to face her family demons with her southern charm mother, wild stepsister, and the looming memory of her sister who passed away. Through the past mixed with the present, she helps the FBI agent who is investigating the case in exchange for information on Wind Gaps vivid characters to help close the case. All of the evidence points to a young man in the town and the wild town gossip has everyone talking about who did it over their amaretto sours and gin martinis. The deeper she investigates the deeper she uncovers the past of the town and the memories of her family that she has buried away. Overall, I read this book in about a day and a half, and now I am searching high and low for more Gillian Flynn and her masterful writing. I highly recommend this book and you will not see the ending coming.

Memorable Quote: “I am a cutter, you see. Also, a snipper, a slicer, a carver, a jabber. I am a very special case. I have a purpose. My skin, you see, screams. It's covered with words - cook, cupcake, kitty, curls - as if a knife-wielding first-grader learned to write on my flesh. I sometimes, but only sometimes, laugh. Getting out of the bath and seeing, out of the corner of my eye, down the side of a leg: babydoll. Pull on a sweater and, in a flash of my wrist: harmful.”