Maria's Reviews > Sharp Objects

3.4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.”

Wow well this was... disturbing. And sick and twisted and depraved and degenerate. Possibly incest. I liked it! But didn't love it. Prior to reading this book, I had watched the mini series from HBO. And then naturally, I bought the book and didn't read it until now. Yes, the series came out 2 years ago and I'm reading the book in 2020, shut up. But let's talk about it.

Camille was a very interesting protagonist to read about. She has a very dark past, a disturbed family, history of violence, abuse and self harm and now after years of not being back to her hometown and having being "saved" so to speak, she ends up back in the rabbit hole. Which brings back many bad memories, awkward meetings with old classmates, gossip, and most importantly... a reunion with her toxic mother. I didn't like Camille as a person. She was very unlikable and snobbish to me. But I liked reading about her and delving more into her psyche. Finally a good "unlikable characters" book.

The storyline was pretty basic, two little girls are killed in a small town... reporter has to go there and write an article about it... but in this case the reporter is from the town. This fucking town man! Is this how people are like in small towns in America? Like honestly, 13 years olds acting like 18 years olds? What the fuck was that about? They could just up the ages a tiny bit... 15 would have been more realistic. Looking like that and acting like that at 13 does not happen often. Maybe they could have done this with Amma only, which yes was the most popular and mean girl in school blah blah blah, but the other girls don't really fall much behind. They are in middle school for God's sake! No. Couldn't buy it. Tell me please, if 13 year olds in America act like this, I truly want to know.

The mystery was thrilling but at times it fell flat. There are moments were the plot was backtracking I could say? I can't really explain it but I guess I could say some things felt very repetitive sometimes. Conversations and characters mostly. Also thoughts in Camille's mind and the way she expressed them. Maybe this book could be smaller and it would be more impactful and fast paced.

One of my biggest problems with this book was the ending and the "twist". The revelation was written in such a weird way that I literally had to go back to my audiobook and book (yes I listen to audiobooks at 2.3 while reading the book too to read faster, trust me it works, especially if you're bilingual) to understand what the fuck just happened. Luckily, I didn't remember the twist from the mini series and when I remembered it I got that "OH SHIT HOW DID I FORGET THIS" but the presentation could have been better. It was a good plot twist buried by the writing and presentation.

To sum up, this was a good but not great mystery thriller for me. If you enjoy mystery thrillers that depend mostly on abusive relationships and character studies, you will like this a lot more. If you want good world building and a nice plot twist, you won't like it extremely much. And before I go... FUCK THE MOTHER. K bye!