Synopsis
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.
Review
TRIGGER WARNING: This review contains information about sexual assault, self-harm and/or violence which may be triggering to survivors.
“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.”
I gotta say, this has to be the most compelling story I’ve read this year. It was dark yet I can’t stop turning the pages. All the characters have their own story to tell. There was a lot of drama but the author managed not to let the characters over power each other. I loved how the turn of events had me guessing as to who really did the crime. I’d think I have it all figured out but then a twist of the story will let me doubt my inference. It was just so brilliantly written. I wonder why I put off reading this for so long.
Over the years I’ve made my own private jokes. You can really read me. Do you want me to spell it out for you? I’ve certainly given myself a life sentence. Funny, right? I can’t stand to look myself without being completely covered. Someday I may visit a surgeon, see what can be done to smooth me, but now I couldn’t bear the reaction. Instead I drink so I don’t think too much about what I’ve done to my body and so I don’t do any more. Yet most of the time that I’m awake, I want to cut. Not small words either. Equivocate. Inarticulate. Duplicitous. At my hospital back in Illinois they would not approve of this craving.
For those who need a name, there’s a gift basket of medical terms. All I know is that the cutting made me feel safe. It was proof. Thoughts and words, captured where I could see them and track them. The truth, stinging, on my skin, in a freakish shorthand. Tell me you’re going to the doctor, and I’ll want to cut worrisome on my arm. Say you’ve fallen in love and I buzz the outlines of tragic over my breast. I hadn’t necessarily wanted to be cured. But I was out of places to write, slicing myself between my toes – bad, cry – like a junkie looking for one last vein. Vanish did it for me. I’d saved the neck, such a nice prime spot, for one final good cutting. Then I turned myself in.
Camille Preaker is a newspaper journalist who hails from Wind Gap, Missouri. Her boss, Frank Curry, wanted her to cover the story about a young girl who was found strangled near a river. Now as another child went missing, Curry thinks Camille should go back to her roots, write a good story about the murder and the missing child (which can be a potential serial killing) and to settle whatever differences she has with her mom and to unload some of her baggage.
“I always feel sad for the girl that I was, because it never occurred to me that my mother might comfort me. She has never told me she loved me, and I never assumed she did. She tended to me. She administrated me.”
Unbeknownst to people, Camille is a cutter. She has been out of the rehab for six months. Cutting calms her nerves. How Flynn described what goes inside Camille’s mind when she cuts was eminently done. It was like I finally understood why some people do it and she gave me a glimpse as to what’s going on in her head. I empathize with her – for what she went through, for not receiving the proper affection she must have received at such a young age, for not growing up in a normal environment, for not having the support system she needed. It must have been terribly difficult. Even as she recovers, she still has the urge to cut. Though it’s still wrong to calm her nerves by drinking, I guess she’s got to do what she’s got to do. She still needs a proper therapy and I think Frank and Eileen can help her in that aspect. I loved how the author tackled this issue and how she incorporated it in the story.
Adora Crellin is Camille’s mother. She looks so put together on the outside but she has some serious psychological disorder which needs to be dealt with by a professional. She can be pretty manipulating. She wants to be in control of everything and doesn’t want her reputation to be tarnished. She always wants to be seen as the perfect doting mother to her children.
“A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort.”
Amity Adora Crellin or Amma for short is Camille’s younger half-sister. She’s 13 years old who has mastered the art of alternating her 2 different characters – 1 for when she’s with her friends and the other when she’s around her mother. Known as the IT girl in their school, girls want to be her friend and they know not to mess with her. She has a mean side to her and likes to prey on weak girls. She knows she’s beautiful and uses it to her advantage. Her personality might have something to do with how she was raised. When she’s with Adora, she acts weak and loved to be babied and cared for. It sometimes confused me how she can just switch these 2 personalities on and off.
It’s too difficult to review this book as I may be revealing more of the plots that you’re meant to find out if you’re gonna read the book.
Anyways, to sum it up, I deeply regret not reading this book sooner. It’s so darn good! I loved the dark vibe, the guessing game, the psychological side of it, the characters, even the fictional Wind Gap City is already etched in my mind! I’m not a fan of violence, but how it was written in this story goes well with the plot. I think Gillian Flynn is part psycho. LOL! Kiddin aside though, I’m just amazed by how she weaves these kinds of stories. It’s like she went inside a character’s brain and studied how her brain was wired to think.
Manchausen and Manchausen by Proxy have always fascinated me. The first time I read about the disorder, I actually thought it’d make a good subject for psychological suspense novels. Oh hell, I’ve just learned about this a few years back. Imagine my surprise when I read this book. It had been sitting in my shelf all along. The subject I wanted to be explored by authors has been written by Gillian Flynn long before I learned about it!
I must say, I have found a new favorite psycho suspense in this book. This will forever remain in my list of favorites and it even tops Gone Girl. Ahhh. I’m in love with the story. Now, I’m gonna watch the TV Series adaptation. It looks promising by the way. Go look it up too.
Quotable Quotes
“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip. Women get consumed.”
“Sometimes if you let people do things to you, you’re really doing it to them,” Amma said, pulling another Blow Pop from her pocket. Cherry. “Know what I mean? If someone wants to do fucked-up things to you, and you let them, you’re making them more fucked up. Then you have the control. As long as you don’t go crazy.”
“Problems always start long before you really, really see them.”
“I just think some women aren’t made to be mothers. And some women aren’t made to be daughters.”
“Safer to be feared than loved.”
“People got such a charge from seeing their names in print. Proof of existence. I could picture a squabble of ghosts ripping through piles of newspapers. Pointing at a name on the page. See, there I am. I told you I lived. I told you I was.”
“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip. Women get consumed. Not surprising, considering the sheer amount of traffic a woman’s body experiences. Tampons and speculums. Cocks, fingers, vibrators and more, between the legs, from behind, in the mouth. Men love to put things inside women, don’t they?
Rating: 5/5
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If you or someone you know struggles with self-harm or substance abuse, please seek help by contacting:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Website: https://www.samhsa.gov
Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
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The Jed Foundation (JED)
Website: https://www.jedfoundation.org/
Helpline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
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National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
Website: https://www.nami.org/
Helpline: 800-950-NAMI
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Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)
Website: http://online.rainn.org/
Helpline: 800-656-HOPE
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Shatteproof
Website: https://www.shatterproof.org/
Helpline: 1-800-597-2557
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If you’re outside of the USA, visit this page: https://www.hbo.com/sharp-objects/resources
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Check out my other Gillian Flynn Book Reviews:
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