Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

 Sharp Objects
by Gillian Flynn
Hardcover, 254 pages
26 September 2006, Shaye Areheart Books
5 stars

Gillian FLynn is the undisputed master of dark and twisty - and I think I liked this one even better than I did Gone Girl.

Camille is a cutter.  She’s spent some time in some psych wards to deal with her self mutilation, and is now working at a paper in Chicago as an entry-level journalist.  Her boss assigns her a case that sends her home to Wind Gap, Missouri to investigate and report on the murder of one young girl, and now the disappearance of another.

Camille doesn’t want to go - because clearly if you have a history of self-abuse and an ugly childhood, who wants to re-visit that?  But of course, news is news, and having a reporter with such an unquestionable in is too much for a paper to resist, so Camille has little choice in the matter.  She returns to her home town and gets re-acquainted with her younger half-sister Amma, who is 13 (town mean girl, mama’s baby) and her mother Adora, who holds the cash and the keys to much of the town’s inner workings.

Camille helps unwind the mysteries of the current case, and is also forced to learn the truth of her own past in order to move forward and write her story.

This is a fascinating, dark and twisty book, and is perfect for fans of Law & Order SVU - after all, isn’t that where most of us get all our vocabulary for the worst criminals?

Cheers,
- Karli