A review by ceallaighsbooks
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

”Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip. Women get consumed.”

TITLE—Sharp Objects
AUTHOR—Gillian Flynn
PUBLISHED—2006
PUBLISHER—Shaye Areheart Books

GENRE—thriller / horror
SETTING—Wind Gap, Missouri
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—midwest (/tryna be southern) gothic, newspaper reporter MC, serial killer murder mystery, creepy small town america, scary society women, sinister children, meat factory farm, teeth, gender roles as implications of guilt or deserts, fairy tale themes & symbolism, mental illness & psychosis, childhood trauma, motherhood

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️
CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️
STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—All the connections and allusions to fairy tales throughout the story were a pleasant surprise!

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️
PREMISE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
EXECUTION—⭐️⭐️⭐️

”’…what's your favorite color, your favorite ice cream flavor, and your favorite season?’
‘Blue, coffee, and winter.’
‘Winter. No one likes winter.’
‘It gets dark early, I like that.’
‘Why?’
Because that means the day has ended. I like checking days off a calendar—151 days crossed and nothing truly horrible has happened. 152 and the world isn't ruined. 153 and I haven't destroyed anyone. 154 and no one really hates me. Sometimes I think I won't ever feel safe until I can count my last days on one hand. Three more days to get through until I don't have to worry about life anymore.”

My thoughts:
I read this book for writing research. It was interesting to see how Flynn handled some of her character development, and the treatment of certain themes, and the plotting—especially with where and how she set her clues—but, ultimately I was a little underwhelmed by the story as a whole. It was surprisingly predictable and all of the characters were very trope-y. Obviously this is a piece of genre fiction but I was under the impression for some reason that it was meant to be more literary than thrillers tend to be but I didn’t really find that to be true unfortunately.

However, at the risk of entirely contradicting myself and misleading y’all 😂, I would also say that I think this book was in some ways more subversive of usual thriller genre expectations than it seemed at first. For example I couldn’t figure out why, even though the author and MC are women, that all of the female characters are described as if through a male gaze. I thought it might just be a construct of the genre but it turned out to be an important element in the character arc of the MC.

There were also some interesting discussions vis a vis the meat factory industry (TWs galore!), motherhood & parenting, why smalltown white american midwest communities produce SO much violence, the responsibility of society to children & the sick & abused, and gender roles! Really really (possibly—depending on how you choose to read it) perceptive discussion of the severely distorting harm that the imposition of the gender binary fallacy and heteronormativity on people’s sense of self and their place in community can actually cause. Not sure if Flynn intended for that but that’s kind of how I read it and I thought it was pretty insightful.

Still not sure I’d really recommend this one though. Although perhaps the more I think about it the more my opinion will change so we’ll see how it marinates!

“A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️

CW // child abduction & murder, self harm (cutting, graphic), sexual content, a lot of fatphobia & casual (esp. internalized) misogyny, *nightmarishly* graphic animal cruelty & abuse (pig factory-farm stuff 👀), suicidal ideation, racism, drug use (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—
  • GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn
  • A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES, by T Kingfisher
  • THE SUNDIAL, by Shirley Jackson
  • CROOKED HOUSE, by Agatha Christie
  • “Is This You?” short story by Kathryn Harlan in FRUITING BODIES
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