Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. 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. 

Sharp Objects is my first Gillian Flynn book. I became interested in her writing after seeing the movie adaptation of her novel Gone Girl. I wasn't sure what to expect from her writing other than it being dark and thrilling. 

I really enjoyed the tone of the book. It was, in fact, very dark and twisted. The characters are all flawed in some way especially the main characters. I sympathized with Camille even though I didn't agree with her actions half of the time. She seemed to bring about some of her issues because of the choices that she made. I couldn't blame her though since we get to meet her mother during the book and she is lucky she turned out as well as she did with a mother like that train wreck. I thought that Gillian did an excellent job of weaving the story and casting suspicion on different people. She reminded me of a darker Agatha Christie in a way. I was able to deduce who the murderer was fairly early on in the book but that didn't deter me from devouring the book. It was interesting to see the inner workings of a small town and family life in a small town that Gillian portrayed. It added quite a bit to the novel in that people in the town reacted differently whether they were born and raised there or not.

Like I said earlier, I haven't read any other books from this author but I believe that she is a lot like the director of Gone Girl (David Fincher) in that she doesn't necessarily wrap things up with a pretty bow. The endings of her stories seem to be different from the norm which makes them intriguing but hard to swallow. I see myself reading more of her work in the future due to the darkness and unique style that is all her own.