The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
I thought I would like this book, I really did, but from page one of “Sharp Objects” I knew it wasn’t going to be as amazing as I heard it was going to be.
Granted, most of the hype was about “Gone Girl” but I thought a different book by Gillian Flynn with less hype wouldn’t annoy me so much. Maybe I should have read “Gone Girl” because it was the main character I had a problem with.
Camille Preaker is a journalist at a Chicago newspaper and is sent back to her hometown to investigate the murders of two children who had been found strangled with their teeth pulled out.
She had originally escaped the town because it was draining both mentally and physically and has to deal with this aspect on top of the stress from the case.
The journalism aspect actually was my main problem, not to sound pretentious.
Two of her articles are written out and there were so many things wrong with them.
The reader is taken through most of the interviews she does, and she misquotes at least one person. Giant pet peeve, just a couple chapters into the story. Then, later she gives blatant bias in a news piece. I wanted to shake her and scream “Why would you do that?”
Her ethics are horrible and the writing in those articles is worse, I really wanted to ask her if anyone in the newspaper industry read this prior to release. I could go on a rant pages long about this, but I’ll spare the rant.
The other thing that annoyed me was how this novel is written in first person. Yet, it was mainly description.
Until later in the novel there wasn’t much feeling. It was as though I knew what happened, but I didn’t know the main character at all.
This made me feel so disconnected from the story that I didn’t care about her at all.
The thing I did like was the descriptions. Flynn is a master at that.
Every time she described something, whether it is a hotel room or the vivid dreams she has, these descriptions are so cringe-worthy.
I found Preaker’s past to be very interesting.
Her little sister died from sickness when Preaker was thirteen. Before and after that her mother never loved her, and admits to this. After her sister’s death, Preaker began cutting words into her skin.
Her mother is a very interesting character to say the least, thinking she can do best for her children and control their every move. It was a very dysfunctional family and gave another layer of mystery to the novel. Yet, it didn’t overshadow the rest of the novel.
One thing is for sure, this book will definitely be memorable. Unfortunately, it receives a two out of 10 murders.
