Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn - Book Review

Sharp Objects is one of the most thrilling and terrifying novels I've ever read. 

Gillian Flynn's debut novel tells the story of the journalist Camille Preaker. She's a cutter, who carves words onto her skin using knives and other sharp objects. She can barely cover the words sliced onto her skin, a permanent reminder of her troubled past.

Camille is given an assignment to cover a pair of murders. Two preteen girls have been abducted and strangled in the small town of Wind Gap. All their teeth are missing.

Camille must now return home and face her neurotic, hypochondriac mother (Adora), her beautiful half-sister (Amma), and the memory of her dead sister (Marian) She must confront her childhood traumas.

As she delves deeper into her investigation, we learn more about her, her family, her friends, and her hometown. Wind Gap is a town filled with horrifying secrets, but who hides the biggest secret of them all? Will Camille survive her homecoming or will she be driven over the edge?

If you've read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and are terrified of Amy Dunne, then you've got Amy times three with the Preakers: Camille, Adora, and Amma. Flynn's got a knack for writing crazy women. It's refreshing to have them portrayed as intelligent, headstrong, and crazy--instead of damsels in distress.

I disliked Adora, the way too overly loving mother. I believed she was the murderer, especially near the end. Of course, Flynn wanted readers to believe it was Adora. That's why all the evidence was against her.

Amma was second on my list, so I'm alright with it being her. I just didn't expect a twist happening so late in the novel. I was wondering why she liked her dollhouse so much. She seemed a bit too old for it.

It would have been nice for Camille to have a happy ending, but I wasn't expecting that in a Gillian Flynn novel. Camille's destruction seemed complete, when she cut the only remaining smooth-skinned portion of her back. She even tried to cut her face. But the last line of the novel seems to imply a glimmer of hope.

Sharp Objects is a haunting read. I give it a 5 out of 5.