A review by jaironside
The Complete Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl, Dark Places, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

5.0

Taut, pacey thrillers aren't my usual go to grab for a good read. I half expected to have to work at reading this. I didn't. It completely sucked me in and I found myself thinking about it when I should have been doing other things. I read it in two days. Another reviewer has noted that they did not finish in part because the to MCs were so thoroughly unlikeable. I can understand that. Ultimately there isn't much to really admire bout either of them but I found myself rooting for one then the other just as the author intended. It was this brilliant shift in sympathies that really made the book for me. I have to admit that with mystery thrillers, I either know who did it straight away (and I'm right) or I never see it coming at all. I knew what had happened by chapter two but I read on wanting to know why...and then the author made me doubt my own conclusions. As evidence started to pile up, I genuinely started to believe that I'd been wrong...

I really enjoyed this. It asked all the bone deep scary questions about relationships and how well you know your spouse. It shone a somewhat unforgiving light on how we all chameleonize personality trait to be more acceptable to others. And freakiest of all, in the toxic tangle that is the love-story at the heart of this book, comes the question - would you want it any other way? Who else would go to this much trouble over you? Wouldn't normal seem bland after this? We forget, I think, that often it is conflicts that lock people into relationships as well as commonalities. Scary stuff indeed.
I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a good story, delivered with no-holds-barred, hard honesty and wit.