SHARP OBJECTS

When two young girls are abducted and killed in Wind Gap, Missouri, Camille Preaker is sent back to her home town to investigate and report on the crimes. Long-haunted by a childhood tragedy and estranged from her mother for years, Camille suddenly finds herself installed once again in her family's Victorian mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and the half-sister she barely knows, a precocious 13-year-old who holds a disquieting grip on the town and surrounds herself with a group of vampish teenage girls. As Camille struggles to remain detached from the evidence, her relationship with her neurotic, hypochondriac mother threatens to topple her hard-won mental stability.

Working alongside the police chief and a special agent from out of town, Camille tries to uncover the mystery of who killed these little girls and why.

But there are deeper psychological puzzles: Why does Camille identify so strongly with the dead girls? And how is this connected to the death of another sister years earlier?

After reading DARK PLACES by Gillian Flynn, I was very interested in reading her first book.

This one is a raw and strange book that takes the reader on a very bleak journey into the horrible mystery of trying to figure out who killed two little girls. Yet, for Camille Preaker, returning to her hometown becomes a slow descend into its clutches.

It's often chilling to watch as Camille falls deeper into the horrid darkness of her teens. I couldn't help wondering if she'd eventually get lost in it. She's not exactly a sympathetic narrator - her life is plagued with emotional instability, she carries physical scars she can't escape, and doesn't exactly make the best decisions. But that didn't matter because I was completely drawn into her world, wanting to follow her as Wind Gap engulfs her. All the time, shuddering at the strange events that lead her closer to figuring out who killed the girls and why.

So many times I wished she'd just jump into her car and leave that horrid small town and its many secrets behind.

Camille's connection with most of the characters is shallow because she doesn't allow herself to open up to anyone. She feels she's not good enough for anyone's attention. Her mother is beyond creepy, her cruel words and even worse actions sickened me. But helped me understand why Camille was so damaged. And her half-sister, Amma, is spooky.

Sharp Objects is a very creepy, haunting story about a woman with many personal problems - most of them stemming from her bizarre and loveless past. A childhood that still haunts her and sends her spiralling back into all of the painful memories of losing her younger sister. And just when you think the mystery has been solved, but realise it hasn't, the truth will shock you.

I enjoyed this book very much, no matter how uncomfortable it made me.

Sharp Objects, February 2009, ISBN 0753822210, Phoenix Paperback