A Little Blunt: Sharp Objects

As an avid watcher of television crime shows, I often find myself spurred to find novels that will quench the same thirst for fast paced mystery and the quick, but twisting logic of solving crimes. Unfortunately, though I have a mother who somehow manages to find great, satisfying reads in the genre, I somehow always manage to be disappointed in my own selections. Either I find the detectives, and other characters involved with the crimes whiney, boring and irritating, or I find the crimes themselves too easily solved. Or, even worse, neither the crime, nor the eventual solving of it make any sense because of a lack of decent planning on the part of the author

So, anticipating my inability to select decent crime novels, when I had the urge to buy the bestselling Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, I stopped myself. Better, I thought, to save money by buying one of her older (cheaper) novels (Sharp Objects) first to make sure that I actually liked her writing. And, like most of the novels of this kind that I’ve read, I found myself on the fence about this one.

To start off with, though, I’ll tell you what I liked about the book, because it definitely wasn’t an overdone cop-mystery-thriller, and her main character was not whiny, boring, or irritating. In general, there was a lot that Flynn accomplished in terms of character depiction. I especially appreciated her treatment of the small town mentality and its detrimental effects on those who find themselves ensnared by it. And although this book didn’t always have me on the edge of my seat, like I wanted it to, it did have its own different allure pulling me in. The mystery was more in the main character, Camille’s, development and the effects of the killings on her and on the town where they took place (and where she grew up).

I think the reader should be aware before they read this though, that it’s not really a “chase-down-the-killer” type book. If you’re expecting to be hunting down a killer while simultaneously finding yourself running from them and being scared and shocked towards the end, this will probably disappoint you. Really I think that’s the main reason it disappointed me: I came in with the wrong expectations, and really Flynn shouldn’t be faulted for that. If you do choose to read this book, you’ll have to appreciate it more for the web of characters Flynn has created and the revealing of secrets and twistedness within those characters, rather than the unearthing and capturing of some terrible bad guy.

I will say, what I liked a great deal about this particular structure, is the look it gave you of Camille’s and her sister, Amma’s, contrasting personalities. Because less time is devoted to crime solving and so much time is spent hashing out the past and present events of Camille’s life, you get to see how Camille and Amma’s upbringing, by the same woman, Adora, yielded such similar, and different girls. They both missed out on genuine caring in their lives, but their ways of dealing with it are, at times, vastly different, but on a deeper level, they are always surprisingly alike.

In terms of execution, though, the main problem I think I had with Sharp Objects is that you can feel that it’s a first novel by Flynn. There was definitely a level of originality and planning on her part, but there was also that somewhat unformed feeling you get from reading something that maybe could have done with a little more work, or a second glance to make sure everything was cohesive. Unfortunately, because this was such a book about characters and their relationships and connections, there wasn’t that layer of quick action to distract you from any missteps that would have otherwise been overlooked in the frantic turning of pages.

The main character, Camille, certainly was not boring, but there were times where certain parts of her personality didn’t quite seem to fit—as though Flynn had a bunch of ideas about personality quirks Camille should have, but she may have been too attached to some of them to do away with the ones that didn’t work so well.

For example, Camille’s past habit of cutting, which now leaves her body marred by words that hum, burn, and sing to her in times of stress, though it definitely was a character flaw I haven’t seen before and it was certainly interesting, I think it could have been better incorporated in the rest of her personality. Certainly Flynn takes the time to keep reminding the reader that Camille’s scars make an impact on her. But, what could have done with more fleshing out, I think, might have been the briefly mentioned motivation behind those scars—the compulsion to write everything down. I think Flynn started to do this earlier on in the book, with Camille absent-mindedly writing words on her skin in pen, but as the story moved on, I almost feel Flynn forgot to follow through on that. And, although the reader can figure out what spurred Camille's drinking, sexual attention seeking, and other destructive behavior, I was left wondering where this fear of forgetting things came from.

Which brings me to my next point: the lack of follow through in general—more specifically, the book just kind of drops off at the end. I don’t want to give away the ultimate culprits of the story, nor the twist at the end, but I will say, that the twist was barely even given its own chapter. We spend the whole story building up, trying to figure out who the killer is, when really we already know, deep down, just like Camille does. But the actual catching of the killer is mentioned almost as an afterthought. Flynn doesn’t give the reader enough time, nor enough reason to be afraid of the killer. It’s almost anticlimactic how quickly it’s over, despite the fact (or maybe because of the fact) that Flynn spends so long constructing Camille’s own realization of who the killer is. It’s almost as if Flynn either should have made the whole ending quick, rather than have Camille’s slow foreboding about the identity of the killer, or there should have been more time given to the solving of the case and the arrests. The way it stands, the culprits almost felt like an afterthought—even though the horror of who they are and what they’ve done should have stood out more. And it’s described so quick and to the point that it didn’t fit in with the rest of Flynn’s idiosyncratic descriptions of things and events. Besides a mention of the goddess Artemis, that section of the book had almost the quick, purely functional writing of a report or a resume.

So, in the end, I’m still going to have to buy Gone Girl and her other book Dark Places, because I definitely felt like Gillian Flynn’s writing had real potential in Sharp Objects. I have the feeling she probably just gets better, which is nice to see in a writer because, as we discussed in one of my writing classes, it is often the case that a writer’s first book is their best, and the rest only disappoint (should I bring up The Hunger Games again?). So, although Sharp Objects will not make it onto my shelf, you’ll have to stay tuned for my future readings of Gillian Flynn’s other works.