Sharp Objects

Sharp Objects is my first Gillian Flynn novel, but not my fist experience of her work. I watched Gone Girl and was hopelessly confused. Not by the plot, but I had read a review before seeing the film that desibed it as a feminist work of art. After seeing the film I had to conclude it was one of the greater thrillers I'd seen, but that blogpost about its feminist contributions must have been satire.

I read Sharp Objects for my bookclub, on my suggestion. I was expecting a typical detective style thriller where the big twist was that the reporter we were following was much more closely connected to the story that we expected. A lot of thrillers follow this pattern, but I really wasn't expecting the twists and flavour that Flynn put on that storyline. The plot took such a rapid increase in tension towards the end of the book that I flew through the pages. The story was captivating and horrifying; I almost didn't believe the ending once I had read it.

For this book, I would have to say that while I enjoyed the reading experience I would have preffered a longer book. I think that some of the plot elements would have benefitted from more time before the reveal, and that Flynn's writing was so gripping that I could have easily read double that pagecount. I'd like to go on to read all of her stories, especially as I hear so many great things said about her as an author.