From the book jacket:

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 thirteen-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.

My review:

This is by far the deepest, darkest read of the Gillian Flynn “trilogy,” and as disturbing as it was I couldn’t put it down. I have no idea where Flynn’s headspace was at when she penned this one, but whoa…

The characters are all NOT OKAY, from 30-something year old Camille to little Amma and her cronies, but I still was desperate to know how much more messed up these individuals would become. (Answer: Waaaaaaaaay more.) I was able to kind-of-sort-of figure out who commits the murders, but the twist (because there has to be a twist) was perfect, not over the top, and explained a lot of the characters’ behaviours.

One relationship I had a bit of trouble understanding was the one between Camille and her boss, Curry. Overall, Curry seems genuinely concerned about Camille’s well-being given her past, so I struggle with why he’d give her this assignment. I understand that she has an “in” as the events being covered happened in her hometown, but did he now realize the damage this place had caused Camille growing up?

Aside from that, the remainder of the relationships in this story are beyond healthy, creeping me out in an oddly-satisfying way. I don’t even think Dr. Phil could handle the crazy of these characters.

In all honesty, I’m not certain Sharp Objects is for everyone. It’s extremely dark and a lot of the content I think would make your average reader extremely uncomfortable. Still, I was absorbed by it and thought it was disturbingly good.

My rating: ★★★★★/5.