Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Camille Preaker is a second-rate journalist working for a second-rate paper. One day her editor sends her back to her small hometown to write about what is potentially a serial killer starting out - one girl was found dead a few months ago, the second has gone missing. But this is not an easy task for Camille. She does not want to be reminded of the past, nor to see her mother.

Sharp Objects is a brilliant and twisted ride. It is not a fast paced ride though. The psychology of the characters in the book are explored more than the crime and clues. In fact, in many ways, the crime takes the back seat. This is not a criticism; it is an observation. I think that many people who have been disappointed with this book were expecting something else. Although I have shelved Sharp Objects as 'crime', it is much, much more. It is part family drama, part small town drama, part crime and part coming to terms with one's self (not that that is actually a genre).

Being a 'word' person, there were aspects about the narrator that really touched me. I'm not going to claim that it gave me warm fuzzy feelings; in fact the opposite was possibly more likely. But I appreciated the idea of it, and I loved how that aspect worked in the book.

If you are picking this up as a crime novel, you will probably be disappointed with the pacing. The crime was a part of it, but I did not feel that it was the main theme of the plot, and as a result there was so much else going on that was much more subtle.
Sharp Objects is a good read, but don't go into it expecting Gone Girl. Go into it expecting slow and twisted.

This is the 12th book read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.

I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads because I did enjoy reading it.