Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

“A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over people you hated every day. People who knew things about you. It’s the kind of place that leaves a mark.”

― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

Summary: 

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the unsolved murder of a preteen girl and the disappearance of another. For years, 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 in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

My Thoughts: 

I have mixed feelings about this book for sure. It touches on a multitude of intense topics. Please check any trigger warnings before embarking on this story. With that said, I thought it was extremely interesting. It had so much going on it was impossible for me to put it down.

Flynn does a fantastic job of challenging the notion that women are weak. In a world where women are always portrayed as victims, this is an interesting look at the other kinds of women who do not fit that stereotype. It is programmed into us to believe that women are safer, kinder, and built with an instinct that makes it difficult for them to be cruel or cause pain without reason. That is not always the case.

I would recommend this to anyone who looks for dark and twisted stories. The topics that are dealt with are heavy, however it was all shocking in an entertaining way.