Bibliography: Flynn, Gillian. (2006). Sharp Objects. New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN: 978-0307341549
Plot Summary: With every fiber of her being protesting, newspaper reporter Camille Preaker returns home to Wind Gap, Missouri to get the scoop for her third rate newspaper on the kidnapping and murder of two little girls. Not exactly the return of the prodigal daughter, her mother doesn’t welcome her, the police don’t want to share, most locals don’t want to talk and her half sister Amma blows hot and cold. Being in her childhood home reminds her of the death of her other half sister years earlier. As Camille gets closer to the murderer of the girls, she starts to uncover secrets from her own past Can she confront the ghosts of the pasts to stop the horrors of the present? Her survival may depend on it.
Critical Analysis: I had picked this book up before and never made it past the first couple of pages. Hence the power of an audio book–I found myself thinking about listening to this book even when I was not in my car. I considered driving around the block a few times just to get to the end of the story.
What made this title so compelling? I think it is the combination of characters and the slow building and layering of the plot. Camille is someone that many of us recognize–she was suffocated by her upbringing and her small town life but she managed to make it out. She has literal and figurative scars to show for it, but she survived. Going back to that place, her family is like a test–is she strong enough to survive now? As for the plot, this book starts like a run of the mill mystery but becomes a Southern gothic with one of the most awful terrible and fascinating mother-daughter relationships I’ve ever encountered in contemporary fiction. The slow discovery of current facts combined with the memory of past events lead to a train wreck of an ending from which you won’t be able to turn away.
Real people doing awful things to one another have always scared me more than monsters or men in hockey masks carrying chainsaws, and that is the case here. You want Camille to leave and yet you want her to stay, thinking that she can uncover the real truth unlike the outsider policeman. You want her to be strong enough to stand up for herself and you want her to leave and never come back. Flynn has created a unique set of characters in a story so unbelievable at times that it must be true. Older teen girls will love this title and come back to ask for more.
Readalikes: This title reminds me a little of The Heat of the Moon by Sandra Parshall, another twisted gothic triangle of mothers, daughters, sisters and an unremembered past.
Review Excerpts: “Fans of psychological thrillers will welcome narrator/Chicago Daily Post reporter Camille Preaker with open arms….reminiscent of the works of Shirley Jackson….confidently recommend this title to readers of the genre, who will, no doubt, return asking for more. Highly recommended for all public libraries.”–Library Journal
“A savage debut thriller that renders the Electra complex electric, the mother/daughter bond a psychopathic stranglehold….a great whodunit, replete with hinting details, telling dialogue, dissembling clues….appalling, heartbreaking insight into the darkness of her women’s lives: the Stepford polish of desperate housewives, the backstabbing viciousness of drug-gobbling, sex-for-favors Mean Girls, the simmering rage bound to boil over. Piercingly effective and genuinely terrifying.”–Kirkus Reviews
“[G] ives new meaning to the term “dysfunctional family” in her chilling debut thriller. The horror creeps up slowly, with Flynn misdirecting the reader until the shocking, dreadful and memorable double ending.”–Publisher’s Weekly
Reviewed from public library audio book copy. Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.
