Sign in with Facebook
Laura's Reviews > Sharp Objects
Sharp Objects
by
by
From the first page, I felt the author had just finished a Chuck Palahniuk novel and decided she wanted to be like him when she grew up. Sentence fragments can be fun if you're in the mood for things like "A belly. A smell. He was suddenly standing next to me." (Not exact quotes, but pretty close.) I wasn't in the mood, and it was irritating. Also, I couldn't enjoy the main character. I found the scene where she was 12 years old and in someone's hunting shed, full of dead, bloody animals and porn irritating. I get that I was supposed to think "oh wow what a messed up home life she has to be masturbating in a shed full of dead animals", but instead I thought " I have no interest in this, or her."
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Sharp Objects.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Finished Reading
August 6, 2007
– Shelved
August 11, 2007
– Shelved as:
borrowed-from-public-library
Comments Showing 1-18 of 18 (18 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Jordan
(new)
-
rated it 1 star
Aug 19, 2008 07:45PM
yeah, and even if those things somehow did compel her to masturbate, what would that mean to the story? There was some line in the book about a phase of her life during which she was masturbating compulsively and constantly. But it's just stuck in there, with no relation to anything. It's completely gratuitous.
reply
|
flag
I know you read this back in 2007, but I'm just now about mid way through. When I saw your review I cracked up. I had the same thoughts...Though I loved her "Dark Places" I'm really finding Sharp Objects hard to slush through. -F
F wrote: "I know you read this back in 2007, but I'm just now about mid way through. When I saw your review I cracked up. I had the same thoughts...Though I loved her "Dark Places" I'm really finding Sharp O..."Yeah, I was really disappointed by it. Maybe I'll have to read "Dark Places"!
I will warn you that both books are a lot of the same. She really loves these wretched flawed (albeit attractive) women as her protagonists...so you will see a lot of similarities but somehow Dark Places tends to execute with more sincerity than Sharp Objects. Just a better texture to the overall story...in Sharp Objects I'm really finding it hard to give a crap about Camille, she just seems way too whiny and instead of coming off as troubled she just seems too bored.
"I'm really finding it hard to give a crap about Camille, she just seems way too whiny and instead of coming off as troubled she just seems too bored.I'm really finding it hard to give a crap about Camille, she just seems way too whiny and instead of coming off as troubled she just seems too bored." That's funny because I thought the same of her protagonist in Dark Places, a character that really has no redeeming qualities.
F wrote: "I will warn you that both books are a lot of the same. She really loves these wretched flawed (albeit attractive) women as her protagonists...so you will see a lot of similarities but somehow Dark ..."Camille at times did bug the sh__t out of me. I liked Camille for all of her flaws, confusion and darkness. I may have slightly maudlin tendincies myself so that's why I was so enthralled.
The purpose of the blood, carnage and how that drove her to masturbate speaks to her confusion about sex, love, relationships, etc. That demonstrated to me that she saw her own body as shameful or disgusting which would also lead to self mutilation.
I think the porn/masturbation thing was completely believable and important in telling us about some of the abusive homelife she endured. Thanks to her mother, her relationship to sex and to her body were warped from an early age.
I agree with Tony. I found Dark Places difficult to read, not due to subject matter, but due to the characters. They were all stagnant and creepy. Unlike Libby or Amy I could relate to Camille. She's a lot more f*cked up than I am, but considering where she came from she's actually a very strong woman. Look at how the rest of her family turned out. However, the reason I am responding to your review is the premise that a woman wouldn't do that. After reading all three books in a week, I feel sick. Sick of Gillian Flynn, her self loathing misogyny (we are all catty, evil, twisted, vile, cruel and friendless) and her dismissal of men as inconsequential - always weak and in the background, horrid, whimpering, mewling useless creatures.
I found the book disturbing and disgusting after 65 pages. Waste of time to fill my head with this kind of crap so stopped reading.
I hated this book so much
I read both Gone Girl and Dark Places back to back this week. I'm having a tough time with this one.
I'm in the middle of Gone Girl, which I love so far, but Sharp Objects is firmly on my list of top 3 books I hate. It's interesting they both came from the same author.
I somewhat felt (even though, like most everyone, I suspected who the killer was right away) like she put all that in their so we would possibly think she had something to do with the deaths. But she was in Chicago so she couldn't be. Why else would her gritty, gross, personal pastimes be important to the story? I kept wishing she would just get to the point.
Great review and I agree, I loathed this one!
This is so interesting! I loved sharp objects the most out of all three of her books. I found it psychologically accurate, and although I hated the main character (camille? Been ages since I read) I also thought she was exactly how she should be in terms of her history and psychological development. I also found this one was more like a horror than the other two books...I remember being frightened when I was done with it.
I lol'd at this review. I guess I never thought of how random and unnecessary the masturbation scene was.
One thing I couldn't understand is if her editor knew she was a cutter, why would he send her to the exact place that made her cut in the first place? Makes no sense. If she wasn't messed up enough before she has no hope at the end.
