Once I started reading Sharp Objects I couldn't put it down.

A work colleague recommended this book to me and I'm glad that she did. If you want to read a book that is intense, plays with your mind and unsettles you at times then this is the book for you. When the main character, Camille, walks back into her home town, Wind Gap, after many years of being absent, you will soon realise that the small town with its small population isn't as normal as you'd expect it or them to be. Full of sexuality, murder, violence, and characters who suffer from psychological and psychiatric issues, this is a book that will stay with you for a long time and yes some parts of the book are disgusting and disturbing. There are also some underlying issues with the main characters that will become quite evident as you read on, in particular "mother" issues. Even though I read this book a while after it was first published, I highly recommend it.

If you had of asked me what I thought of this novel just after I finished, I would have said one thing: disturbing.

I went into Sharp Objects hoping for an engrossing, relentless murder thriller, filled with complex characters, and that’s exactly what I got. Gillian Flynn did not disappoint me with her first novel. It takes talent to be able to write characters that suffer from raw emotional issues that don’t come off as being melodramatic, but Flynn pulled it off easily, making the characters truly real.

Fresh out of a psychiatric ward and working as a journalist, Camille Parker returns to her home town to investigate the murders of two young girls. Moving back in with her neurotic, hypochondriac mother, ineffectual and absent step father, and step-sister who has bizarre grasp on reality, Camille finds herself becoming tangled in the world she’d left behind.

Sharp Objects is a deeply unhealthy book that is not for the light hearted. Exploring dark, somewhat frightening mental issues such as self harm and abuse, Gillian Flynn has written a deeply disturbing novel that will keep you on your toes. It’s a definite page turner; one that kept me guessing who the killer was up until the final pages.

What added more to my enjoyment of the book was the set of strong, independent women. Something rare in crime literature, as women are usually depicted as weak, helpless victims while the men are the abusers. This was definitely not the case. A large portion of the women in the book were promiscuous and abusive, self-destructive and violent. Men are only fixtures in their lives. It was a refreshing take on what is often written in thriller novels.

This book is incredibly unwholesome, but I would still highly recommend it. If you’re interested in reading about a mentally unstable mother-daughter duo I would pick up a copy. Although, maybe not if you’re squeamish.

Sharp objects is a book that should come with a caveat. I feel this strongly and it actually surprises me that I haven’t considered this for books in the past. You’re on the internet and there’s ‘trigger warnings’ about content, and indeed on tv as well, you’re warned that what you’re about to see may disturb some viewers.

I wonder why books get away with not having this?

Moving on, there’s a fair amount of disturbing content in this book that makes for uncomfortable reading for most, but especially for people who have been affected by, or know someone who has, suffered from self mutilation.

Camille Preaker is sent on assignment by her Chicago paper to follow the story of the murders of two small children in her home town. The first disturbing fact of this novel is that there’s already an element of unease for Camille, attending the site of her childhood, and yet she’s pushed into this by her editor. I also query the relevance of a small town murder story in a large city like Chicago? I would imagine there would be plenty of gory murders in the city to report on.

So Camille mans up and takes the job, and heads home to visit her mother, stepfather and 13 year old half sister, of which she hasn’t seen in 5 years. Her mother is neurotic and distant, and her stepfather, who has been married to her mother since she was an infant, is still known as ‘Alan’ to her, and a formal relationship continues to hold Camille and her stepfather at arms length.

Having not known her sister, Amma, growing up, Camille is not particularly enarmoured of the child, who she spots out in town, misbehaving, before she realizes that it’s her sister. An insensitive brat with multiple personalities, Camille is offered the chance to view a few of them as she monitors Amma’s behaviour both in and out of the home.

There’s not a lot to go on for detectives on the case of the murder. There’s no witnesses, no motive, and the hired help from Kansas is clutching at straws, attempting to piece the puzzle together. He sidles up to Camille for a ‘locals experience’ in the town, and they form a bond.

Written entirely from Camille’s first person experience, the book steers away from a typical crime book analysis of killer and motivation, and the emphasis is on Camille’s return to her childhood home, the relationships that she has with her family, and the community in which she lived. She interviews past friends of her own and her mothers. The most peculiar mystery for Camille is happening within her home. Why does she care what Amma makes of her ? Why does she want to be liked by this vicious, strange girl? And why are they falling sick, like her dead sister Marian when they are at home?

The familial threads of the story can be deeply unsettling, and you begin to wonder whether Camille is going to make it out of this story alive.

“Sharp Objects” is well written, and I would recommend the book to fans of thrillers, but for the reasons above, a bit of a warning for people who may find the content disturbing would be a kindness to some.

Many books start with characters in bad circumstances who escape those places. Sharp Objects looks at what happens when you return.

Camille Preaker is a reporter dealing with life after a stay in a psych ward (or the politically correct, mental health inpatient unit). Her alert editor smells a story, a potential serial killer on the loose in a small town, that will boost the papers prestige. The murders, however, are taking place in Preakers home town, Wind Gap.

Once back there, Preaker struggles to remain the adult shes become since she left and moved to Chicago. She finds herself deferring to her mother and wanting her sister to like her.

Like Preaker, I had a childhood filled with troubles I was sexually abused by two relatives and emotionally abused by another and while Ive resolved those things, whenever I return to visit my family, I find myself acting like a little boy.

Flynns story is gripping. One of the things I love most about crime novels is working out who did it. Flynn outwitted me and Im grateful. Her writing is sharp and fresh.

If you like crime books, then this is a no-brainer must-read.