NAME: Sharp Objects
AUTHOR: Gillian Flynn
GENRE: Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Thriller
PUBLISHER: Shaye Areheart Books
COUNTRY: United States
PUBLICATION DATE: 26 September, 2006
PAGES: 328
My Rating: 9/10
FAVOURITE QUOTES: ” They always call depression the blues, but I would have been happy to waken to a periwinkle outlook. Depression to me is urine yellow, washed out, exhausted miles of weak piss.”
” I’m here, I said, and I felt shockingly comforting, those words. When I’m panicked I say them aloud to myself. I’m here.”
” Sometimes I think I won’t ever feel safe until I can count my last days on one hand.”
” Sometimes if you let people do things to you, you’re really doing it to them.”
NOTE: This is a spoiler free review. The views are strictly original and authentic.
Sharp Objects, a 2006 debut novel by an American author-Gillian Flynn, is one of the most sombre, gory and thrilling narratives that I’ve read in a while. The story is well sustained with eerie and jittery scenarios which will make you dwell deep within the pages of the book. Sharp Objects has been adapted into a television limited series created by Marti Naxon and directed by Jean Marc Vallee. It stars Amy Adams and Eliza Scanlen as Camille Preaker and Amma Crellin, respectively. The story is basically about a Chicago based journalist, Camille Preaker (the narrator) who has been sent to her hometown Wind-gap, Missouri to report on the sudden disappearance of a 10 year old girl, Natalie Keene, and the recondite murder of another little girl, Ann Nash, about an year ago.
Plot summary and a brief analysis of the main characters involved
While Camille visits Wind-Gap,one of the crummiest towns prone to miseries, after eight long years, she is persistently haunted by the memories of her dead sister Marian, whom she seemed to love so much. In the book it’s stated that Camille Preaker is not much intimate to her family. Since when she was a child, Camille’s mother, Adora Crellin, didn’t feed her with the required compassion and warmth that a little girl evidently deserves. Adora had always been way too obsessed with Marian, who frequently remained ill and was constantly plied with medicine and pills by her mam. In the novel, Adora tells Camille that how wilful and noxious she was as a young girl and that this was the very reason why Adora couldn’t love her the way a mother is supposed to love her child. According to Adora, Camille’s repulsive and reluctant nature had never earned her the desired endearment. However Camille’s sister, Marian, loved her impeccably. Despite being ill most of the time, Marian spent an ebullient and a jocose moment with her sister, Camille. Marian had been the only one in the family with whom Camille shared a warm and a harmonious relationship. Marian’s illness which led to her untoward death had affected Camille in an extremely detrimental way. The summer when Marian died marked the beginning of Camille’s self harming session. She had been a wild cutter. She would exploit every “sharp objects” wildly and carve perceptible nonsensical words on her skin. By the time she found herself in the hospital being treated with dozens of anti-depressants and psychotherapies, her entire frame was covered with wounded and lacerated epidermis. It took her years when she gradually tried to pull away from her habit of self harming and slicing.
While visiting her home-town after eight long years, Camille for the first time encounters with her 13 year old half-sister Amma Crellin. Now Amma is the most interesting character in the novel who has grabbed my attention from the very beginning. Amma is a queer character, really. When in close proximity with her family, especially her mom, Adora, Amma behaves like a literal 13 year old child who continuously needs to be pampered and fed with all the love, care and affection that one can afford. She is way too clingy and evidently an attention seeker. However when Amma’s with her friends, she’s a drug addict, an unconventional hooker and a badass honcho of the girl gang. She’s too wild for a 13 year old. There are several instances in the novel which show how eccentric and quirky this girl is. Nevertheless, she soon finds herself a warm place in Camille’s heart since Camille finds Amma familiar to her yearning long lost sister Marian.
Besides, reacquainting herself with her family especially Adora and Amma, Camille encounters and meets with several people hailing from Wind Gap and participates in the investigation and probe into the disappearance and murder of the two little girls and eventually it’s found that there’s a similarity in the way/pattern the brutal murders take place. While the police and the detective, Richard Willis, a profiler from Kansas city suspect the killer to be someone from outside the town, Camille believes that the killer is local and evidently someone who knows everything about Wind Gap.
The darkness in the novel is the foremost thing that will astound and stun the readers. Besides the horrendous ways in which the little girls are killed, the vivid descriptions of self-harm, substance abuse and animal abuse will equally add to the tenebrosity and the savagery of the story. Such portions of the novel can only be sensed and discerened if read with an inquisitive and an avid mind. Not all readers will be able to digest the darkness and gore in the way the story is presented. The readers feel the shock when Flynn quite startlingly deviates and twists the plot at the end which leaves us in a permanent state of flabbergastation. The plot twist is one of the most horrifying and abrupt things that I’ve come across in the novel.
Is the killer really an outsider or is it someone from within the town? What if the killer is someone from Camille’s family itself? Well that is for you guys to judge and discern!
Gillian Flynn is an extremely talented American author and this being her debut novel has gained immense popularity. She is mainly known for her book ” Gone Girl” which has earned immense international and global success. The movie, also titled as “Gone Girl”, starring Ben Affleck (which makes it even more interesting) has recieved numerous awards and nominations. Check it out here. It’s a must watch!
I am surely looking forward to reading more of her enthralling works. If you are a thriller fanatic and especially someone who relishes gore and suspense, then you wouldn’t want to miss this book. Brace yourselves and tighten your nerves before you plunge into it and start an icy and a thrilling journey, exploring Camille and her distressing family, an adventure which will leave you completely peturbed!
Thank you all for cooperating and keeping the patience all the way long
If you have already enjoyed reading this book then don’t forget to share your thoughts with me. If you are yet to read the book then HURRY!
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