Review of SHARP OBJECTS (Shaye Areheart Books 2006)
Author, Gillian Flynn
SHARP OBJECTS appealed to me right from the start. Just the little bit I'd heard about it intrigued me--a Chicago reporter returns to her hometown to write about the murder of two adolescent girls. Along the way, she must deal with her own demons and tragedies from her past. All in the slightly creepy confines of the small town she grew up in.
That got my interest. But then I'm a big fan of David Lynch and that whole creepy small town thing.
The protagonist, Camille Preaker, works for a paper that's pretty low on the Chicago media food chain. Her editor sends her off to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri (from the Windy City to Wind Gap--I kept wondering if that was intentional), to investigate one girl's murder and another girl's disappearance. The second girl is also found murdered, and the killings may be connected. And no one else in Chicago is covering them. (Why would the Chicago papers cover two maybe-connected murders in a tiny town way down south in the Missouri bootheel?) So it would be a coup for the paper and Camille to break the news. (It would? Well, okay.)
One of Camille's issues is that her sister, Marian, died very young--a horrible wasting death that left its mark on Camille's psyche (and . . . shh, don't say it). Camille's big problem is not completely disclosed until around halfway into the book. Suffice it to say, you get clever little clues about what that problem is, but they aren't obvious. So when it was finally revealed, I went, "Oh . . . now I get it."
Another one of Camille's problems is her family situation. Her mother, in particular. Camille's mom, Adora, is quite the piece of work. Very la-de-da and rich. Very proper and ever so solicitous. Camille's step-father, Alan, constitutes little more than a thin, quiet presence in the house. He's so thin, Camille says, "I wanted to administer an IV when I saw him." (The book is full of great lines like that.) Together, the two have produced Camille's half sister, Amma. (All those A-names. That must have been intentional.) Amma seems to hold a special place in Adora's heart. She loves Amma in a way she's never loved Camille. The way she also loved Marian.
Amma, age 13, is quite a piece of work herself. She rules over a small group of bitchy, blonde preteens. Think "Mean Girls" in middle school. Camille is initially repulsed by her, but later gets to know her and harbor all sorts of feelings about her.
Meanwhile, there's still an investigation and articles to write. Camille strikes just the right balance between hard-nosed reporter (with her witty, blunt observations) and vulnerable victim (with her emotional baggage). The narrative unwinds at an unhurried, but relentless, pace. And the suspense builds.
Gillian Flynn writes beautifully. Her prose is so polished it just about shines. She can turn a phrase like nobody's business and makes you feel like you're inhabiting Camille's skin (which is . . . don't say it). Makes you feel Camille's reluctance to stay at her mother's house. Makes you feel how conflicted she is about doing her job and having to be in Wind Gap. Makes you smell the stink of the local hog farms and slaughterhouses--the ones off which Camille's mom made all her money (talk about filthy rich).
The story is an artful blend of suspense and whodunnit. The last thirty pages pour on the revelations and build to a climax that will hold you until the very end.
My only real nit-picking problem was with the Big Clue that starts the rush toward the climax. It's a thing from the past, but I can't say what it is, because it's a spoiler. I'll just say that maybe this kind of warning would go unheeded, even as recently as 20 years ago, in the boonies of south Missouri. Maybe.
Chalk it up to my big city ways, but I strained a bit to suspend my disbelief about that. However, I didn't mind.
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