{"id":855,"date":"2015-02-16T11:50:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T19:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=855"},"modified":"2017-12-18T08:32:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T16:32:14","slug":"review-sharp-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/16\/review-sharp-objects\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sharp Objects"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sharp<\/a>
\n Sharp Objects<\/a> by Gillian Flynn<\/a>
\n My rating: 2 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

Look at me, turning in a Gillian Flynn scholar. A reluctant one. Like my read of Dark Places<\/i>, with Sharp Objects<\/i> I was in a situation where I was done with one book and nothing else to read, nor a handy way to get something new. Sharp Objects<\/i> already on the e-reader (my wife\u2019s). I realize I\u2019m repeating myself, introducing a review like this. But I think it\u2019s apt: some books are only to be read because there\u2019s nothing else to read.<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s see: I\u2019ve read the Flynn novels now in reverse order of publication. Oddly, this one, Sharp Objects<\/i>, is the best of the three, in my opinion. I\u2019m trying to damn with faint praise, here\u2014Sharp Objects<\/i> is only better because Gone Girl<\/i> has that terrible ending and Dark Places<\/i> is just gritty and mean and hateful.<\/p>\n

Sharp Objects<\/i> is a bit of a combination of the two. We\u2019re in Missouri, we\u2019re surrounded by people who justify the term \u201cfly-over,\u201d we\u2019re inundated with alcohol, drugs, and sex. What Bret Easton Ellis would have written if instead of a small college town in Vermont, he had pig-factory town in the Midwest to work with. <\/p>\n

Most of all, Sharp Objects<\/i> reaffirms my take from the other Flynn novels: misogynistic. Every female character is clich\u00e9, a stereotype. Here\u2019s a direct quote from the main character: \u201cillness sits inside every woman, waiting to bloom.\u201d Go ahead, tell me that this is a fiercely political point of view, more \u201cgonzo feminism.\u201d <\/p>\n

Maybe. If the writing was better. If the \u201ctwist\u201d ending wasn\u2019t so tossed-in-at-the-last-minute, if half the things the main character did made sense, if, as I mentioned above, the threadbare storyline was patched together with more than sex, and alcohol, and drugs.<\/p>\n

If you liked Flowers in the Attic<\/i> but are all grown up now, you\u2019ll love Sharp Objects<\/i>. Here\u2019s my prediction: Lena Dunham will star in the film version. Not the creative force-to-be-reckoned-with-Lena from Girls<\/i>. No, I mean the Lena Dunham who\u2019s been castigated for the terrible things she proudly, gushingly confessed to in her autobiography.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn My rating: 2 of 5 stars Look at me, turning in a Gillian Flynn scholar. A reluctant one. Like my read of Dark Places, with Sharp Objects I was in a situation where I was done with one book and nothing else to read, nor a handy way to get … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Review: Sharp Objects”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p24y52-dN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}