Gillian Flynn - Sharp Objects

WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart
Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker's troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille's first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.

NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg
Since she left town eight years ago, 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 again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.

HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

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Camille Preaker is a news reporter and her latest assignment sends her to her hometown and her dysfunctional family. Camille's loss of her little sister years ago and the upbringing by a mother that didn't shown any affection towards her made her an alcoholic and cutter who used to compulsively cut words into her skin.
Now two girls have been killed and were found with their teeth pulled.

While interviewing Wild Gaps residents Camille also gets to know her little sister who seems at her young age of 13 to be the towns beauty and bully, described by everyone as being mean.

Camille is drowning in memories about her sister and her long way of suffering until she died when a terrible, terrible suspicion begins to form in her mind.

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I've recently read Dark Places, Flynn's second novel which reminded me I've got another one of hers on my shelf since like forever.I also remember there was a lot of hype about this book which I can't relate to.

First and foremost each and every person in this book seems to be more or less to be disturbed. It didn't make the characters likeable at all which might be difficult for some readers. The story unfortunately is very predictable and I remember I looked up around page 50 and told my husband it would be a shame that I already know who's the killer and how the story is going to unfold.
I do believe the novel has a lot of darkness in it and at times it becomes too much and too implausible.

I'm glad I read the second book before the first one otherwise I'd ever have picked up Dark Places which actually was entertaining besides it's flaws.
Sharp Objects though lacks something not every new writer has: sophistication. Regardless of the author being a more or less "famous" reviewer for Entertainment Weekly.

Rating:

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books (September 26, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0307341542
ASIN: B0028N729O

Gillian Flynn - Dark Places

I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ.

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnake, Kansas."
as her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer.
Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust fund created by well wishers who've long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details - proof they hope that may free Ben - Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she'll reconnect with players from that night and report her findings to the club ... and maybe she'll admit her testimony wasn't so solid after all.
As Libby's search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby's doomed family members - including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have drive3n him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town.
Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started - on the run from the killer.

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Libby Day's family was slaughtered when she was seven years old. Since then she's passed time living of a the fund well wishers built for her. 25 years is a long time and now the fund is at its end. With no education or working experience chances are that sooner or later she won't be able to pay her rent and what than ?
When Lyle Wright approaches her in the name of the The Kill Club, a society that of crime fans, approaches her and offers money just for talking in front of some people about her past she's more than desperate enough to accept the offer but soon learns that the majority of the club believes in Ben's innocence and thinks she was coached into her testimony against her brother.
Desperation brings her to agree to talk to people of her past for money and she soon finds herself thrown into a past she didn't know about. Beginning to believe that maybe she was coached she learns about the dark side of her brother's nature and the ultimate conclusion what really happened on January 2, 1985.

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Dark Places is an easy, conclusive read, with three main characters: Libby in the present, Ben and Libby's mother Patty Day in the past. It is difficult to find any sympathy for the protagonists except for the mother but the lack of character doesn't hurt the whole story which is a great mystery.
Some things add up strangely and make the book especially in the end very weak but ultimately it kept me reading probably because it was such an easy read where one got everything served on a platter.

Rating:
Visit Gillian Flynn.

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books (May 5, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307341569
ISBN-13: 978-0307341563