15/4/19 12:01
Hi friends! So I can't stop stewing over this Gillian Flynn novel and I had to write a quick review - I finished it just last night and I've never been so relieved to part with a book.
In theory this book was right up my street: unsolved creepy serial killer case - brilliant, sign me up! Unfortunately though, I had a bunch of issues and I think in parts I might have actually hated it? :)
It's very rare that I find a book in which I dislike every single character - some I warmed to slightly, but without fail I hated them again soon after. Amma can actually piss off, she's a nasty piece of work; Camille tries so hard to be edgy that she's actually frustratingly boring; their mother is just insufferable and I cannot comprehend why Camille would continue to stay in her house after even an hour of her company. (Alan can also do one, what a wet wipe!)
I don't know how many times I eye-rolled at Sharp Objects, it was just unrealistic and totally unrelatable - a thirteen year old whipping a tab of ecstasy out of her bra? And her much older half-sister, who has openly stated that she doesn't trust said thirteen year old, being so easily persuaded into taking the aforementioned ecstasy? Really? There were weirder things in the book, but this was the thing that just made me want to close the book and never open it again. It happened around two thirds of the way through and even before that I'd felt bored. I couldn't be bothered to read another 100 pages of Camille going on about how oh I've had sex with someone and everyone will be able to smell sex on me, better buy some strawberry lotion to hide it (?) and quick someone get me a bourbon, ooh what's going on with my creepy mam and blah blah blah. I couldn't relate to her at all, so this character development (which the book was filled with) was just boring to me.
The pacing was off for the majority - parts which had some actual impact felt too rushed and I had to backtrack several times to get to grips with what had happened, and the dull parts seemed to be drawn out forever. It may as well have not had chapters because nothing happened in them, there weren't really any cliff-hangers and I never closed the book thinking 'oh I can't wait to read what happens next'.
There was also an unexpected gore factor - I'm not a big gore fan so I struggled to get through the cutting pages and the strange part about Amma at the pig farm. Flynn must have a steel stomach!
The 'big reveal' of who the killer is wasn't so big, more underwhelming than anything - I noted down when I was around a third of the way through "everything pointing to X". Even the additional Marian storyline wasn't really a surprise. Don't get me wrong, it's clever and I was surprised by some of the details but it felt like a good idea poorly executed, and definitely read like a debut novel.
I'll give Gillian Flynn another chance; perhaps I'll try Gone Girl, but I won't be recommending this book to anyone. 2.5 Stars.
