Sharp Objects

A good thriller; twisty but not manipulative, I liked quite a few of the author's phrases and metaphors throughout, and a pretty good take on small town America (a little dramatic, but hey, it's a drama).

SPOILERS:

I thought the central reveals about her relationship with her mother and the younger sisters was handled really well; everything we know about this mom leads us to believe she's capable of things like this, but we don't see it coming. A good gradual reveal as the protagonist figures it out.

teeth? snatched

This book was so fucked up I loved every second.

pure nasty. one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever read.

I made a big mistake and read this book as I was also watching the Miniseries on TV. Kept picturing the actors in the TV series as I read the book! This was a good book & there are some strange characters! A bit of a surprise ending for me! If you like mysteries with great characters read this!
David

I feel pretty neutral about the book, I knew who the murderer was going to be and all the characters are pretty messed, it almost seemed like a contest on who could be the most fucked up person in this book.
What I really did love about the book was the atmosphere, it made me uncomfortable and I was just waiting for Camille to finally click in who done it. The book was an easy read where you can finish it in one sitting.
It just about reaches a 3 star (2.5). This book might not have blown my mind but I did like the writing style and I'm looking forward to her other works like “Gone Girl” and “Dark Places”.

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.

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.

Read a book that has been adapted for TV

Somewhere in between 3 and 4 stars, it was readable but none of the main characters were likeable.

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.

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.

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.

The rare instance where the TV series was better than the book.

Twisted. Tragic. Excellent.

Oh that was really good. I liked this one much better than Dark Places and even Gone Girl. What a good, interesting mystery.

⭐️/5🌟
I thought i would love this book. I was so wrong.
I didn't like any character and the killer... was so obvious.

3.5 stars. Well that was dark and disturbing.

Dear Gillian Flynn,

My introduction to you was 2012's Gone Girl; I was hooked from the get go and could NOT put it down. I have to say – it set the bar really high for your books.

Unfortunately, this one did not meet that bar.

You'd clearly grown as a writer by the time Gone Girl came out, but this one just fell flat. I bumped up my rating by half a star since it was your debut – but in reality, it was very meh.

I figured out who the killer was by chapter 8. It read more like a whiny diary about Camille's life than a crime thriller. I wanted to be kept on the edge of my seat and kept guessing who the killer was, but that's not what I got.

All in all, I was disappointed. I wasn't fully engaged, and the only reason I kept reading was in the hopes that I was wrong about who the killer obviously was. Spoiler: I wasn't.

I'll keep reading your books, but I'll definitely be a bit more choosier in the future.

“A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort.”

I don't usually go for the dark and eerie but Flynn's writing always pulls me in. It's easy to get lost in her stories of sweet decay and twisted minds.

Me ha gustado bastante, aunque es el libro de Gilian Flynn que menos me ha gustado. Lo cual dice mucho a favor de la autora porque, esta fue su primera novela y con sus obras siguientes se ve una evolución palpable en su forma de escribir y en la creación de los misterios.

A dark and at times creepy tale of small-town America. A sordid homecoming for the protagonist who isn't exactly on the up & up. No major mystery but with overly matured children and their antics is enough to worry you.

A lot of things I really enjoyed. SpoilerCutting, words, Munchausen's by Proxy, killer family, and much more!

I struggled a bit with this book because I found it predictable and still surprisingly disturbing. I think the characters are intriguing with so many issues unique to them. The characters make this story special. The mystery itself was rather full of tropes and, like I said, I predicted most of the surprises. Review on my channel to come.

Pitch dark and tragic thriller, well written and i liked it a lot.