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Sharp Objects: A Novel
Unavailable
Sharp Objects: A Novel
Unavailable
Sharp Objects: A Novel
Audiobook9 hours

Sharp Objects: A Novel

Written by Gillian Flynn

Narrated by Ann Marie Lee

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart
Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker's troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille's first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.

NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg
Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.

HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims-a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

With its taut, crafted writing, Sharp Objects is addictive, haunting, and unforgettable.

Editor's Note

Wildly addicting…

Women so rarely get to play the villain, and that’s what makes “Sharp Objects” so compelling. This is a twisted, disturbing book, yet wildly addicting — and now it’s one of your favorite HBO shows, starring Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 26, 2006
ISBN9780739340189
Unavailable
Sharp Objects: A Novel

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Reviews for Sharp Objects

Rating: 3.8908716346200536 out of 5 stars
4/5

4,119 ratings329 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm actually surprised to give this such a low score considering it's Gillian Flynn and typically I adore her works. I had really high hopes for this but it just never came together for me. I pretty much called the ending very early on so the shock factor wasn't there like in her other books. I really couldn't connect with the main character, Camille. I just didn't find anything about her to make me care about what she was going through. I will say that I tried to read this book but then switched to the audiobook, which read very quickly, but honestly if I wasn't listening to it on my commute in the car I'm not sure I would have finished it. I didn't feel the pull to find out the ending or to know what happened to any character because I just couldn't make myself care for them. There were parts of this book that were very gruesome and had me squirming. Images of cutting and self-harm are everywhere so just be ready to be uncomfortable if you plan on reading this. If you want Gillian Flynn, my suggestion is Dark Places. It's my favorite of her books by a long shot!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Another dark book by Gillian Flynn. This one as a murder mystery I found it slow and now really about the murders. It was all about the main character Camille and what she is going through. It did have quite the twist at the end which made me think I had read this before. If you like dark, creepy books, then pick this one up.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Young reporter Camille returns to her small hometown in hopes of getting a scoop on a possible serial killer of young girls operating there. As she investigates, we learn about her messed up family. This story was populated with unhappy, unpleasant, uninteresting people, and the plot was lackluster. By a third of the way through I wanted to scream at Camille, “Get away from your mother and Google Munchausen’s, for cripe’s sake!” I was certain from early on that the awful things happening were all perpetuated by Camille’s mother, her little sister, or some combination of the two. I was not wrong, and thus the only real propellent behind the story (would there be a twist?) turned out to be a nonstarter. Blech. If I hadn’t been reading for Book Club, I’d have quit before page one hundred.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Even thought it was written before Gone Girl, I found it both more satisfying and more troubling. The writing in Gone Girl was much tighter and the narrative more compelling, and so I would say it is a better book, but for this reader at least the humanity seemed missing. Camille was very compelling even if also completely maddening. But that is the thing, people who are caught in psychosis, who are the victims of abuse, act in ways that to the rest of us seem incomprehensible. Our towns and cities are full of such people, people whom we usually do not even deign to notice. Flynn is very good at uncovering the darkness that can lie hidden behind a veneer of civility and the comfortable stories we tell ourselves about our lives and our neighbors. Yes, perhaps the characters are overdrawn, but that drags us in deeper, disconnects us from our detachment. I suppose this novel also gave me some insight into the later one, in that similar themes are explored, but here we have the softer, more vulnerable underbelly, and in the later novel, a harder shell has been formed. In Sharp Objects there was much that made this reader squirm in both frustration and discomfort, but there was also hope, a hope that had already been sealed off in Gone Girl. You can see where my preferences lie.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Truly creepy and disturbing read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wow, I seem to be stuck on books about dysfunction. First Mother, Mother (recommend if you can handle the triggers) then this. Holy dysfunctional family! There's only so much I can say without spoilers, let's just say while I figured it out about 3/4 through (partially) the final twist was not something I expected. There are a ton of trigger warnings in this book (cutting just as a first- I don't consider this a spoiler based on the description and cover image) so if you are sensitive to that, this may not be for you. Not as violent as Dark Places, although it has its fair share of violence. This is more psychologically shocking with characters you just hate even while you feel sorry for them.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    From the start, I loved Gillian Flynn's gritty style and broken characters who set the stage for gristly murders. The atmosphere is perfectly cloying, sickly-sweet and depraved where love is thwarted to disease. I thought I had it figured out early in the book, gripped by the inevitable denouement. But I was wrong. It's a great read, beautifully crafted and a suspense until the end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I remember the stir in crime fiction circles when this novel was first published, but somehow never got around to reading it.And what a page turner it is!Camille Preaker's editor of the Chicago paper she works for thinks she will benefit from returning to her home town of Wind Gap, 11 hours south of Chicago, to cover the story of the murder of two young girls. After all he can save money in accommodation as she can stay with her mother whom she hasn't talked to for 8 years. He thinks also that because she comes from the town that it will be easier for her to pick up rumours and insider information, A real recipe for disaster.Camille feels neither safe nor welcome in her mother's house. She knows for example that her mother does not like her and there lies between them the memory of her younger sister Marian, who died a decade before. She is also haunted by her own memories of being a rebellious and hard to control teenager.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A book I'm quite fond of, and a pretty good TV show as well. This is a very competent thriller, but not for the squeamish. The reader samples mutilation, child murder, and a very odd three generations of mother-daughter relationships. The inbred small town is very well drawn, and the effect of that environment on the survivors is also on display.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Another great book by Gillian Flynn, (although this was her first, I read it last), once again I thought I had it figured out and once again I was wrong. I kept wanting to jump ahead to see what was going to happen...glad I didn't because the ending caught me off guard. Highly recommend...warning...it is easy to get caught up in the dark characters she creates...sometimes I had to out the book down to keep from being drawn into that darkness.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Camille Preaker is asked to go back to her hometown on assignment to cover the two murders of 2 young girls and is reunited with her estranged mother, step father and step sister. To get the story and to figure out what is going on Camille must face her own demons. This story is dark and gritty. There were times that I physically felt uncomfortable reading this book. I can't believe this is her first novel. It is so good! I am half way through the new HBO series and I am really loving it. They're doing a great job bringing this suspenseful and creepy book to the screen. I would highly recommend this book!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sharp Objects written by Gillian Flynn published in 2006 is a psychological thriller about Camille Preaker, a Chicago-based reporter sent to her hometown in Wind Gap, Missouri to cover a story about the unsolved murder of a girl whose chase bears striking similarities with a murder a year earlier.I heard about this book when HBO started advertising their 8-part mini-series starring Amy Adams based on the book. I’m a fan of Amy Adams, so I wanted to watch it, but before watching it, I thought I’d read the rather short (less than 300 pages) book. Apparently this was the author’s first published novel. She is probably more famously known for writing Gone Girl which was made into a popular 2014 big screen movie.Sharp Objects is a twisted psychological thriller. There is a lot of getting into Camille’s (messed up) head. The story is more about her and her relationships with her mother and half-sister than it is about the girls’ murders. This story is fraught with all sorts of aberrant behavior: sex with teenagers, drug use, alcoholism, bullying, self-mutilation, child abuse, and murder.Throughout the story, Camille battles with her past and her inner mind to keep from succumbing to the vortex of despair brought on by being in the sphere of influence of her deranged mother.At first, I had a tough time reading and understanding the author’s writing style. Don’t use this text to teach proper English grammar! Once I grew accustomed to that style, the story was strangely gripping. Camille clearly has deep psychological problems. She is sucked into engaging in dangerous behaviors during her visit to Wind Gap.As a psychological thriller, there isn’t much action and there is not much to the core story. Most of the interest is generated by learning about Camille and watching her get caught in the whirlpool of buried emotions that swell as she relives her childhood. It’s torturous to watch Camille endure things that would send me screaming back to Chicagothat’. Instead, she sticks to it until she finds the real killer and reconciles with her past.The author does an excellent job of describing the setting and the characters. One noticeable writing characteristic is that she uses “like” (as in simile) in practically every other paragraph which, on the one hand, provides a way to poetically describe something and on the other hand, is annoyingly repetitious.One brief comment about the TV series (since this blog post is a book review, not a TV review). My suggestion is to either watch the TV series OR read the book; not both.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    After reading Gone Girl, I went to Barnes & Noble to find other books written by Gillian Flynn because I thought Gone Girl was brilliant. Sharp Objects was good but not as good as Gone Girl. It was quite dark and depressing in some ways but I did read through it quickly, curious about where things were going. I won't spoil anything but I did learn about Munchausen (and Muchausen by proxy) - horrific but interesting.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Camille Preaker calls a tiny dot on the map named Wind Gap her hometown. Over the years she has distanced herself as much as possible from this town and the dark memories of her childhood there. Fresh from a recent stay at a psychiatric hospital, Camille must make a personal sacrifice for the sake of her journalistic career. She must head back to the town that sent her to the psychiatric hospital.Wind Gap is known best for it’s population of wealthy families and dirt poor families. At the heart of the town is a slaughterhouse, owned by Camille Preaker’s mother, Adora. Living the high life in their Victorian mansion, the Preaker family is made up of Camille’s hypochondriac mother, her thirteen-year-old half-sister who runs the town’s younger crowd, and her quiet, reserved step-father. Camille’s family, much like all the other wealthy families in town, want to sweep the recent murders of two preteen girls deep under the carpet, along with all of their other secrets. Camille must work through her personal issues and put together the pieces of these troubling deaths in order to find out who killed these girls. Will Camille find out who the killer is or will Wind Gap consume her mind once more before she has the chance?Gillian Flynn is no stranger to penning a gripping thriller and SHARP OBJECTS is an excellent example of her abilities. Camille Preaker is a narrator with a haunting childhood, a family that defines the word dysfunctional, and a litany of bad decisions to keep her going for years. SHARP OBJECTS is a trip into each of these aspects of Camille’s life in order to get to the bottom of who is killing girls in her hometown. Throughout the book, the reader is exposed to various characters living in Wind Gap, some who want to help Camille and others that would rather spread enough venomous gossip to send Camille packing her bags and heading back to Chicago. Ultimately, at the heart of the book, is Camille’s family and the relationship she has with her mother. A traumatic childhood filled with the loss of a sister who battled sickness for years and the destruction that loss caused physically for Camille are recurring themes that tug on heartstrings, while raising red flags about Camille’s present situation. SHARP OBJECTS is creepy, unsettling, and a downright intoxicating read that will have you saying “did that really just happen” until you hit the last page.Note: I read this book back in 2014 and this time around I listened to it on audiobook in order to squeeze in a refresher before the HBO series launches. For those looking for a great narrator, I highly recommend giving SHARP OBJECTS a listen!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I mistakingly thought Gone Girl was a debut novel, cos it was so caught up in the hype around Girl on a train. This is actually her debut and makes more sense as one in a collection of fairly dark, female centred crime novels. It is set among a beleaguered community, with the whole culture of wild teenage behaviour laid bare. Having also read her follow up to this, I'd choose to read them interspersed with something a bit more jolly in between, but when you feel up to it, they are an interesting place to visit.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Camille Preaker is a reporter in Chicago. Her boss thinks it would be a good idea for her to return to her hometown in Missouri to cover the murder of two preteen girls before someone else gets hold of the story first. To say Camille does not get along with her mother is an understatement - she is a neurotic, hypochondriac who never showed her daughter any love. And she doesn't know her half-sister, Amma - a popular, mean girl who seems to run the town. But here she is back at her childhood home, staying in her old bedroom. And she uncovers one ugly truth after the other.

    Wow. What a messed up family. Something definitely was not right within the walls of the Crellin's old mansion, you could feel it. I really liked Camille, I felt sorry for her having to grow up like that and the actions she took to try to cope or punish herself. And I did like Amma. She felt very three-dimensional to me. The pace of the story was great. We get clues here and there. But I did not expect that ending!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Gillian Flynn's first book happened be my last one but I have to say her typical dark mood is already fully grown here. A journalist traveling back to her birthplace to write about some horrible child murders. Here she has to cope with her own problematic family as well. And every day becoming more strange and sinister....
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wonderfully weird.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Liked the authors' writing but the book made me ill toward the end. I must say every character repulsed me....but I couldn't put it down so I have to say it was a good read. Maybe, just a little more than I had anticipated.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My mom recommend this book to me because she loved it and I would have to agree. Mom's praise was important, but the Stephen King quote on the back was impressive and made me very excited to get started.
    This was the first book I've read by Flynn, the start was fantastic and I can see why she is a bestseller!! The book was amazing and the main character caught me by surprise. I was so involved in the sorry that I didn't even try to figure out what was going on faster than Camille - nor could I have. The ending was thrilling and I couldn't stop reading the last 30 pages even though I needed to go to bed!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was pretty dark, but it made you keep reading until you reached the end. I read it all in a 24 hour period, because I couldn't put it down for more than a couple hours at a time.
    The only downfall I found with this book, was that I guess the bad guy almost from the beginning. I've read Gillian Flynn's other books and they both kept you guessing until the very end, which was what I found lacking in Sharp Objects. Sure, there was a red herring or two, but it was clear (at least to me) who committed the crime from very early on.
    All in all it was a great read and I would definitely recommend it to those who enjoy mysteries. I wouldn't recommend to the faint hearted.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Not surprised that this novel has won awards. Damaged Camille returns to her small home town as a journalist to investigate child killings. And Gillian Flynn dissects the characters with a a cool scalpel. Assured, with vivid, claustrophobic characterisation.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love all of Gillian Flynn's books but I think this one was my favorite.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Let me first start of by saying that this book was one of the craziest books I have ever read. That being said, it was also one the best one I have ever read. This is a story about a woman named Camille Preaker, a journalist from a small-time Chicago newspaper. She is assigned a story in her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, where some little girls are missing. The thing that surprised me the most about the story is the relationship between her and her horrible mother. Sadly, it reminded me of my own relationship with my mom. This book made me reflect on my own life and my own psyche. Camille is a woman with a dark past and is very strong because of it, but she has moments of weakness which tends to cause her problems with her family and local acquaintances. This book is definitely a must read for people like me who suffer from some sort of a mental illness/disorder or someone with sound mind and body, as a way to better understand what its like to deal with those types of problems and find a way to function in the real world still.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Never in my reading life have I ever been so creeped out, generally disgusted, or had so many heebie jeebies than I did reading this book. I loved every minute of it. I would highly recommend this book to any lover of horror or murder mysteries. The best part? Didn't figure it out till the very end
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Disturbingly brilliant.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great story, it was suspenseful, and had me guessing to the very end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Quite predictable but I enjoyed it regardless.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wow! What a story!!! Can’t believe this was her first book out the box! Wonder how good the series is.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book, you think you have it all figured it out for a while...