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"Sharp Objects"

Name: Sharp Objects, published in 2006, a debut novel.

Author: Gillian Schieber Flynn, Born: 24 February, 1971 (Age: 49 Years)

Genre: Novel, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Suspense

Summary:

"The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you."

Camille Preaker, a girl from a small town, Wind Gap*, Missouri works as a journalist at a small newspaper. Not particularly satisfied with the job, she gets along well with her boss, Frank Curry. Sent on a murder investigation by Curry, a place where she hasn't been in a long time, is surprisingly her hometown, Wind Gap. Reluctantly agreeing to report the muder(s) taking place in a town as small as Wind Gap, she is made to meet her mother and her half-sister, Amma.

Camille has a very dark past, a disturbed family, history of violence, abuse and self harm, and meeting Amma, a substitute for her dead sister, Marian, threatened to tip her over the edge.

The narrator and the storyline don't dance with each other in a seamless, synchronized manner. This narrator isn't a shining heroine. She's very human, supremely fucked up, trying to make sense of the clam chaos around her and move forward. Maybe that's what makes Sharp Objects so interesting.

There is something deeply unhealthy about this book that nevertheless makes it more appealing to me. The words that come in my mind while thinking about this book would be: nasty, dark, twisted, disturbing and interesting.

All the characters were disturbingly good, even especially the children. As much as the characters annoyed and disturbed me, I enjoyed the story very much. It was shocking, unexpected, creepy and extremely well-written.

At initial stage of reading the book, I concluded, wrongly, that it was just another creepy story with the potential of giving me special nightmares, but by the end of it, the thought that preoccupied me the most was: What the hell did I just read..?

This is a book with extremely good "unlikable characters'' book. Majority people would not find a character in the book to label as their most-liked or favorite character. I didn't like Camille as a person, she is very unlikable and snobbish, but I certainly do like reading about her and delving more into her behaviorism.

Not only focusing on the positives of the book, the one big problem with this book was the ending and the "plot twist". Yes, I liked the twist, but I read through it, and it was written in such a weird way that I had to go back a few page, to reread again to understand what just happened. The ending was good but the presentation could surely have been better. It was a good plot twist buried by the writing and presentation. Nevertheless, a must read if you like murder mystery and it definitely is good considering it is a debut novel.

Rate: 7.5/10

(Wind Gap* - It is a fictional place created by Gillian Flynn, the author of this book)