Sharp Objects

A Novel

By: Gillian Flynn

Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

NOW AN HBO® LIMITED SERIES STARRING AMY ADAMS, NOMINATED FOR EIGHT EMMY AWARDS, INCLUDING OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES FROM THE NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF GONE GIRL

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 13-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.

Praise for Sharp Objects:

“Nasty, addictive reading.” (Chicago Tribune)

“Skillful and disturbing.” (Washington Post)

“Darkly original...[a] riveting tale.” (People)

©2006 Gillian Flynn (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Mystery Writers of America 2007 Edgar Nominee, Best First Novel by an American Author

"A witty, stylish, and compelling debut. A real winner." (Harlan Coben)

"Flynn delivers a great whodunit.... Piercingly effective and genuinely terrifying." (Kirkus Reviews)

"To say this is a terrific debut novel is really too mild. I haven't read such a relentlessly creepy family saga since John Farris' All Heads Turn as the Hunt Goes By, and that was 30 years ago, give or take. Sharp Objects isn't one of those scare-and-retreat books; its effect is cumulative. I found myself dreading the last 30 pages or so but was helpless to stop turning them. Then, after the lights were out, the story just stayed there in my head, coiled and hissing, like a snake in a cave. An admirably nasty piece of work, elevated by sharp writing and sharper insights." (Stephen King)

Gillian Flynn is amazing

What did you love best about Sharp Objects?

This book kept you wondering and wanting to read on. A dark tale with many twists. I loved it.

Dysfunction doesn't even come close

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes...I love the way this girl writes. Its a twisted tale of dysfunction and and mental illness.

What did you like best about this story?

The suspense and the characters in the book are flawed. The narrator is a cutter and as the book progresses you understand why.

Have you listened to any of Ann Marie Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not but I loved her reading this book she did an excellent job

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES!

Any additional comments?

I just really enjoyed this listen. I love audible

Twisted & Addictive

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, if you like dark stories this is another good one from Gillian Flynn.

What did you like best about this story?

Its a good example of how mental illness in a family begets mental illness. Its a cycle that continues and continues.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not at first but after it got going, yes.

Any additional comments?

This book is disturbing in a lot of ways, but look past that and its a good story. The characters are mostly deplorable, but you want to like them and give them the benefit of the doubt. Camille, the main character, is probably the strongest character but she has deep wounds that have been scantily patched up and going back to the home of her mother and dealing with the murders, the revelations and her horrid sister proves to be her undoing.

DARK ...but GOOD READ

Like most of Flynn's books, it's a great mystery read. The characters are disturbingly dark but that's what makes this mystery a more interesting to read. You might think you see the ending coming but it's that plus a hundred times worse. Also, I'm very picky about narrators but Lee does a great job with all of the characters.

Another great read by Gillian Flynn

I enjoyed the southern accents of the narrator. The author does a good job of capturing the small town feel and personalities of the residents.

Disappointing if read after Gone Girl

I got into the book after reading Flynn's awesome Gone Girl thriller. I would not recommend the book, even if you loved Gone Girl. I'd say, though, that the book may be good for a certain type of audience who likes a certain type of thrillers.

If you are of the type that likes the Agatha Christie type of philosophy to novels, where clues are scattered in a way where ex-post you say "I should have known!", then this is a book that fails completely there. The clues that are given point you in no direction and you feel, as the reader, that things are not connecting on a way to go.

If you like the tension thrillers, like, say Grisham, this is, yet again, not the book you'd like. The entire book is claustrophobic, set in a small town with cliche people and not much going on.

The style here is perhaps closer to the detective type thriller, for example like the recent Tanya French's In the Woods. Like this general style, the story appears to randomly errs through testimonies, clues that may not be clues, and darkness as to what appears to be going on.

Love Gillian Flynn

I've listened to all 3 of Flynn's novels and have loved them all. I don't want to give away any of the story, but I'll say that the story, characters, and narration are great.

When it's good, it's very good; but when it's not, ugh

I find Gillian Flynn frustrating. There's passages and observations that are brilliant, devastating, cutting (no pun intended) - but she follows them with parts that are so obvious and lazy, they make me curse out loud. Overall, I can understand why this book has critical notices: the writing elevates the book within the true crime genre. But the actual true crime component is much too obvious. It's a solid summer read, but I wouldn't say I recommend it to discerning readers.

Chilling.

Sharp Objects is the story of very troubled women.

The story takes place in a town that is hard to believe exists anymore in the US. A place where the values of patriachy are so ingrained in the entire culture that women, even from young girls, are treated as only as valuable as their bodies. These values are instilled in the girls of the town at an early age, not by their fathers but by the females in their lives who learned the same rules of behavior when they were young. And in the midst of this sick, backward way of looking at gender roles, there is a psychopath. This person has taken their ideas of how little girls should behave to the point that they are killing the little girls who don't fit that mold.

This story is absolutely chilling, difficult to listen to at times, but definitely worth your time. I took a bit off on the performance because the reader sometimes sounds less emotional than the story calls for, but overall it was done well.

weird

messed up story. I knew there would be a twist in the end but it was not as good as Gone Girl.