Sharp Objects

I watched the series, so I had to read the book

I know you’re supposed to do it the other way around; as a general rule I never saw myself as the kind of person who enjoys thrillers. However, the tv series is incredible (and I will recommend it to everyone, even those who are not planning on reading the book) - and I have since learned that I apparently do enjoy Gillian Flynn’s work.

Camille Preaker, a not very successful journalist/reporter who is sent by her employer back to Wind Gap, her Missouri hometown where one young girl was brutally murdered and another has gone missing in the past few months. Her employer sees this as an opportunity to have their newspaper shine - it’s such a small town that no one is really invested in telling this story, and he’s thinking that Camille might get some special insights as she knows the people.

What she isn’t telling her boss, however, is that she is estranged from her family and that going back to her hometown, a place with such an engrained violence that has broken her, is the last thing she wants. She had left it as soon as she could, and had never gone back; going to visit her mother Adora, stepfather and half sister Amma, and reconnecting with not only her family but the people from the town, at the same time as she wants them to see her as a serious reporter and not “the Preaker girl”, is mentally draining.

So, as Camille is trying to get more information about the murders - those of friends of her 13 year old half sister! -, she is dragged back in to her own family drama. Flynn reveals Camille’s past as the book goes on and the book gets increasingly uncomfortable. There are nasty revelations and nasty characters all over.

My mother poured recklessly but perfect, capping off my glass just before it overflowed. Still, a trick to get it to my mouth without spilling. She smirked a little as she watched me. Leaned back against the newel post, tucked her feet under her, sipped. “I think I finally realized why I don’t love you,” she said.

It is very hard to like any of the characters in this book - so if you need to like them, I would skip this (as well as Gone Girl, which I will talk about sometime soon). Even Camille, our protagonist that we should maybe feel sorry about - she has been abused, is very mentally fragile, has several demons and heavy baggage to deal with - makes several bad decisions that are hard to relate to. But all of this makes for a truly crazy story that had me on the edge of my seat wanting to read more, even if, having already watched the series, I was already familiar with the all the plot twists and the ending.

The mother/daugther relationship(s) on this one are very extreme. Adora - a lady who is almost worshipped in her hometown due to her old money, family heiress status - managed to damage all three of her daugthers in different ways and still is defended by the community. It is Southern Gothic in a way - the very dysfunctional family raised on generational wealth, living in a Victorian mansion built on slavery and coming apart, the true horror of the complicated relationships and horrible people, the sexism and class differences. It feels a bit unreal, maybe because it is so horrifying.

If nothing else, I truly recommend the tv series with great acting by Amy Adams.

If you’re in Portugal, you can get a physical edition via wook, in Portuguese or in English.

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