Book Review: SHARP OBJECTS

Title: Sharp Objects
Author: Gillian Flynn
Publisher: Phoenix
Pages: 321
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Camille Preaker, small-time reporter at a small-time paper, is assigned a case in her hometown, Wind Gap. Last August, a 9-year-old girl, Ann Nash, was found murdered, her teeth removed. Now in May the following year, a 10-year-old girl, Natalie Keene, has gone missing. Editor Frank Curry is convinced it is the work of a serial killer. Soon after Camille gets back home, the body of Natalie is found, with her teeth removed.

She’s also dealing with her own family issues, with her unresponsive mother, her detached stepdad, and a 13-year-old half-sister, Amma, she barely knows, who’s almost feral outside the house and dangerously dependent on her mother while at home.

Camille is determined to get an exclusive with the case, and help uncover the killer. But people are unwilling to talk to her. Each time, she finds a clue, it leads her down the wrong track. But maybe the answer is closer than she can imagine.

 

 

The book is written from the first person PoV of Camille

The author has the knack of handing out rare details, more expository than descriptive, that give us a deep insight into Camille. Alan is the opposite of moist told me more about her stepfather than a long paragraph of description could have.

In the same vein, we learn that Adora is a self-centred woman who believes that she grieves more fully than anyone else. Every tragedy that happens in the world happens to my mother. She is a woman who would not be distracted from her grief. To this day it remains a hobby.

 

Half-sister Amma, short for Amity, is a cross between innocent teen and grown woman.

Some of the details are gross. Other are too stark. Both kinds make for disturbing reading.

Many of these details emerge slowly, the ones that warn us not to believe Camille too much. She drinks to hide some horror in her past.

The information about the pig farm and its workers eating chicken tells us about the dynamics of small towns. It is an operation that Camille’s mother owns and earns over a million dollars of profits from. The other depravities and evils play out against the backdrop of this farm, and we learn that small towns are not immune to depravity. No place is.

The gossip sessions between the members of the school clique and how they act all pious even as they were bullies in their past and present lives shows the evil that continues.

I didn’t like Camille. Despite all the pain she’d been through, I didn’t feel any warmth towards her. Not even when Curry said that she was the most decent person he knew and that she treated people with dignity. I couldn’t see any evidence of that. I found her actions and reactions to be stupid.

On the contrary, I liked Frank and his wife, Eileen, more. I liked Frank Curry with the one telling detail about how he eyes toddlers from afar, while barking he didn’t want any. His kindness towards Camille is better seen in that light.

The romance between the Detective and Camille is weak and fizzles out.

The story has the mandatory twist, but I didn’t like the manner that Camille employs to get at the truth. It was weak and forced. I would have liked to see a greater number of suspects, but for the most part, we have John, and the reasoning around him was so lame, I couldn’t believe this book was praised by Stephen King.