Title: Sharp Objects
Author(s) Name(s): Gillian Flynn
Published in: September, 2006
Why You Might Like This Book: Read this book if you enjoy
- murder mystery,
- female protagonists,
- suspenseful plots,
- criminal profiling,
- family drama,
- small town violence,
- slow-paced, character-driven stories, and
- serial killer stories.
Who Should Avoid This Book: Avoid this book if you are triggered by or dislike
- serial killer plots,
- high-school bullying,
- drug abuse,
- murder,
- depression, anxiety, and trauma,
- kidnapping,
- suicide, or
- grief and loss.
Camille Preaker is a journalist in her 30s, who works for Chicago’s fourth biggest newspaper “The Daily Mail”. Her boss Curry, an old man, cares about her, he is a good boos, but he is also not happy with the pieces she has been writing – mostly some slice-of-life or pop content and only rarely some murder investigation content – so he sends her to her hometown Wind Gap to write a piece on shocking, recent events there. Last year, a young girl had gone missing and her body was later found; this is unusual for that small town. Recently, another young girl has gone missing. Curry is convinced that this is a case of a serial killer who has been targeting specifically young girls. Also, since the other big magazines are all focused on other popular events and incidents, nobody else has covered this yet, so he inisists that Camille cover this piece and give something useful and interesting.
Camille has not visited her hometown in years; she has not even spoken with her mother in a long time, so she is uncomfortable, yet she cannot disobey Curry, so she unwillingly goes to stay with her mother Adora, who lives with her stepfather Alan and their daughter Amma. Just like she guessed, her mother is not too happy or welcoming, her step-dad Alan, who always looks sick, is as nonchalant as he always was, and her stepsister is mean. Nothing has changed. Until she uncovers what is with these events and writes and sends a satisfying piece to Curry, she has to be stuck here with them.
Last year, a thirteen-year-old girl called Ann Nash had gone missing and was then found murdered. Now, the girl who had gone missing is Natalie Keene. There are no major clues, so Camille goes with the flow. The small town has brought together a team of volunteers who would search through the woods and the town to see if they can find the missing girl Natalie. There are posters of the little girl’s face with some contact details. Camille joins the group of volunteers and connects with a localite, trying to understand what has been going on. She learns that Ann wasn’t just killed but the killer also removed all her teeth after killing her, and that is how her body was found her dead. Who would want to do that to a young girl?
She then connects with Bob Nash, the father of Ann Nash, and he is surprisingly willing to talk to her. Bob’s wife is nowhere around on that day, so it’s just Bob and three young children, siblings of Ann that day. Bob says that Ann was just cycling around in their neighbourhood, on her way to meet her friend, and that was the last time anyone saw her alive. Someone had kidnapped the girl in a public place? Also, while only her body was found, her bicycle was nowhere around the body and was not found. When Bob says that the killer must be a gay man, Camille gets curious and asks him why he thinks so, then he says that her daughter was killed but there were no signs of sexual assault.
To learn more about the case, Camille pays a visit to the Wind Gap police station, but the local policeman in charge of the case, Bill Vickery is in no mood to talk. The man seems upset, frustrated with himself, and refuses to give any comment. When Camille joins the search party, along with others there, she sees the body of Natalie. Again, the girl had been killed and all her teeth were pulled out. The same pattern. Are the cases connected? Who had done this? Is there a serial killer in Wind Gap? As it is a typical small town, news spreads fast, so everyone is aware of these two crimes. Her own mother, Adora is deeply upset and says she knew the young girls because they are from their own town. News also spreads that Camille is back in town after a long break, so unwillingly, she connects with many others, and in the chapters that follows, Camille learns something eerie and new about the case through different people. Soon, she finds out that even though there is not much to connect these two different cases, just that they both were young girls, there seems to be something in common: both of these girls were guilty of hurting others; one had killed their neighbour’s pet with a sharp object that she herself sharpened and another had attacked her classmate’s eye with a sharp pencil, which is why her family had to move here, to Wind Gap. Also, both of them were tom-boyish, not like the traditional, stereotypical girl child.
Interesting Quote: “A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort.”
She also connects with Detective Richard Willis, a criminal profiler from Kansas City, who was assigned to this case because Bill and his team couldn’t solve it themselves. Richard, unlike Bill, is more open to talk and share what he thinks and what he knows about the case so far, provided she would also share her thoughts and spend time talking to him because she is a local, unlike him. Like one could guess, the two get intimate and genuinely like each other, but because of the secrets Camille’s been hiding, could they actually get into a relationship? And with time, she starts regretting coming back home because nobody in her family feels comfortable since she has arrived. She can’t wait to go back to Chicago, but there is something that keeps her here: unsolved cases and mysteries, questions she wants answers for.
Sharp Objects is not just a serial killer crime investigation story; it is also about Camille herself and a dark past. She was born when Adora was just barely an adult. Adora is a pretty and popular woman from a rich family. Camille’s father had died when she was still a baby, and she never knew her father. Adora never spoke of her real father or her grandparents. Soon after her father had died, Adora had married Alan, who is also from a rich family – they had their first daughter, Marian, who was born sick, with illnesses, and she died when she was young. Adora had kept to herself for a while, then the couple had Amma, who is now a mean, bold, wicked thirteen-year-old girl, popular in high school, who likes to insult and humiliate others, including Camille.
Camille herself had strange issues when she was young: she used to cut her skin to carve some words on her body, and for that, she spent twelve weeks in a psychiatric institution. The more she investigates and talks to people, darker stories are revealed. With dark humour and unexpected twists in the story, Gillian Flynn definitely delivers what a fan would hope for. Most of the book goes deep into the quirks and oddities of different characters, with all that weirdness revolving around death, murder, sickness, drugs, sexual desires, past relationships and dark secrets. This way, the book seems to significantly deviate from the main murder plot, as the questions move from “who could have committed these murders?” to “what justifies these people behaving the way they do?”. As if the reader is presented with two books inside one, but the narration still keeps you going, even if nothing thrilling happens for the most part. Towards the end of the book, though, you get what you signed up for if you were hoping for a dark, compelling thriller. I would give this a 3.5-star rating, even though the story istelf was unique and interesting but it was too slow-paced.
