Sharp Objects - Gillian FLynn

 

This is a kinda odd one...A Chicago reporters, who is also a self-cutter, returns to her small town in Missouri to cover a story on a possible serial killer. The killer targets young girls, does not molest them, but strangles them and removes their teeth. 

Camille, the reporter, stays with her estranged mother and step-father and their odd, precocious 13 year old daughter - her step-sister. The mother was always unusual but went over the top when Camille's previous sister died of a mysterious illness at a very young age. The mother is extremely unloving and downright rude, but Camille stays there out of necessity and gets to know the new, rambunctious, wildcat sister, while she tries to report of the case.

A hotshot, out-of-town detective becomes interested in Camille (an attractive woman who hides her word-cuts) and as they both work the case, they, guardedly, give each other some info. But Camille also becomes infatuated with the prime suspect, the latest victim's brother, considerably younger than her, but broken enough and with enough similar traumas in their lives to relate to each other.

She always felt herself an outcast in town, even though she was rich, popular and beautiful, and reacquainting herself with the townsfolk's proves to be as awkward as one would expect from someone who got out when they didn't. I truly can't imagine going back and trying to deal with the kids I went to high school with, myself. But Camille and her friends were the popular ones, who bullied the other girls and fucked football players and partied. No one really comes off as a good person that you can empathize with, which makes it all a bit uncomfortable.

Lots goes on, of course, and Camille discovers more than the detective, frankly, and, of course, there are plenty of Flynn's twists'n'turns, although the conclusion was a bit of a disappointment for me. Interesting, but not as good as some of her other works.