GILLIAN FLYNN is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Gone Girl; the New York Times bestseller Dark Places, which was a New Yorker Reviewers' Favorite, Weekend Today Top Summer Read, Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009, and Chicago Tribune Favorite Fiction choice; and the Dagger Award winner Sharp Objects, which was an Edgar(R) nominee for Best First Novel, a BookSense pick, and a Barnes & Noble Discover selection.
"A first novel that reads like the accomplished work of a long-time
pro, the book draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of
a pure but nasty addiction...Flynn's book goes deeper than your
average thriller. It has all the narrative drive of a serious pop
novel and much of the psychological complexity of a mainstream
character study. All in all, a terrific debut."
– Alan Cheuse, The Chicago Tribune
"A compulsively readable psychological thriller that marks [a]
dazzling debut...[Flynn] has written a clever crime story with
astonishing twists and turns, and enough suspense for the most
demanding fans of the genre. But it is the sensitive yet disturbing
depiction of her heroine that makes this an especially engrossing
story...Flynn's empathic understanding of her major characters
leads to storytelling that is sure and true, and it marks her a
write to watch."
– Chicago Sun-Times
"To say this is a terrific debut novel is really too mild. I
haven't read such a relentlessly creepy family saga since John
Farris's All Heads Turn as the Hunt Goes By, and that was thirty
years ago, give or take. Sharp Objects isn't one of those
scare-and-retreat books; its effect is cumulative. I found myself
dreading the last thirty pages or so but was helpless to stop
turning them. Then, after the lights were out, the story just
stayed there in my head, coiled and hissing, like a snake in a
cave. An admirably nasty piece of work, elevated by sharp writing
and sharper insights."
– Stephen King
"Not often enough, I come across a first novel so superb that it
seems to have been written by an experienced author, perhaps with
20 earlier books to his or her credit. I'm extremely excited to
discover my first debut blowout this year, a sad, horrifying book
called Sharp Objects...[Flynn] is the real deal. Her story, writing
and the characters will worm their way uncomfortably beneath your
skin...But this is more literary novel than simple mystery, written
with anguish and lyricism. It will be short-listed for one or more
important awards at the end of the year...Sharp Objects is a 2006
favorite so far. I doubt I'll ever forget it."
– Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A deeply creepy exploration of small-town Midwestern values and
boasts one of the most deliciously dysfunctional families to come
along in a while...[Flynn] handles the narrative with confidence
and a surprisingly high level of skill...Wind Gap ends up the sort
of place you'd never want to visit. But with Sharp Objects, you're
in no hurry to leave."
– San Francisco Chronicle
"Brilliant...Powerful, mesmerizing...A stunning, powerful debut
from someone who truly has something to say."
– San Jose Mercury News
"One of the best and most disturbing books I have read in a long
time...Flynn never stoops to the gratuitous, and the torment
produces haunting characters that hung around my imagination long
after I had finished the book. Her skillful blending of old
tragedies with new culminated in an 'oh-my-gosh' moment that I
never saw coming. This book simply blew me away."
– Kansas City Star
"Don't look here for the unrelenting self-deprecation and the
moping over men common chick lit...I promise you'll be thoroughly
unnerved at the end."
– Newsweek
"First-time novelist Flynn is a natural-born thriller."
– People Style Watch
"A witty, stylish, and compelling debut. A real winner."
– Harlan Coben
"Flynn delivers a great whodunit, replete with hinting details,
telling dialogue, dissembling clues. Better yet, she offers
appalling, heartbreaking insight into the darkness of her women's
lives: the Stepford polish of desperate housewives, the
backstabbing viciousness of drug-gobbling, sex-for-favors Mean
Girls, the simmering rage bound to boil over. Piercingly effective
and genuinely terrifying."
– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Fans of psychological thrillers will welcome narrator/Chicago
Daily Post reporter Camille Preaker with open arms...As first-time
novelist Flynn expertly divulges in this tale reminiscent of the
works of Shirley Jackson, there is much more to discover about Wind
Gap and, most of all, about Camille."
– Library Journal
"This impressive debut novel is fueled by stylish writing and
compelling portraits...In a particularly seductive narrative style,
Flynn adopts the cynical, knowing patter of a weary reporter, but
it is her portraits of the town's backstabbing, social-climbing,
bored, and bitchy females that provoke her sharpest and most
entertaining writing. A stylish turn on dark crimes and even darker
psyches."
– Booklist
"[A] chilling debut thriller...[Flynn] writes fluidly of smalltown
America."
– Publishers Weekly
"[Flynn]] offers up a literary thriller that's a doozy...and she
does it with wit and grit, a sort of Hitchcock visits Stephen King,
with plenty of the former's offstage and often only implied
violence, and the latter's sense of pacing and facility with
dialogue...This is not a comfortable novel of touchy-feely family
fun. Rather, it is a tough tale told with remarkable clarity and
dexterity, particularly for a first-time author."
– Denver Post
"A tense, irresistable thriller...Flynn's first-person narration is
pitch-perfect, but even more impressive is the way she orchestrates
the slim novel's onrushing tension toward a heart-stopping
climax."
– Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Darkly original...Flynn expertly ratchets up the suspense...A
disturbing yet riveting tale."
– People
"Skillful and disturbing...Flynn writes so well. Sometimes she dips
her pen in acid, sometimes she is lyrical, but always she chooses
her words deftly...She has an unsparing eye for human imperfection
and for the evil that moves among us."
– Washington Post
"Using understated, almost stark prose, Flynn paints a jagged,
unflinching portrait of the vise-like psychological bonds between
women, and how their demons lead to the perpetuation of cruelties
upon themselves and others. The end result is an unsettling
portrait of how long emotional wounds can last- and how deeply they
hurt."
– Baltimore Sun
"More in the tradition of Joyce Carol Oates than Agatha Christie,
this one will leave readers profoundly disturbed. But from the
first line...you know you're in the hands of a talented and
accomplished writer."
– The Boston Globe
"[A] breathtaking debut...Written with multiple twists and turns,
Sharp Objects is a work of psychological prowess and page-turning
thrills."
– Richmond Times
"As suspenseful as the V.C. Andrews books you shared in high
school, but much smarter."
- Glamour
“Sharp Objects is one of the freshest debut thrillers to come
around in a long while. It's a gripping, substantive story,
stripped of cliche, and crafted with great style. The characters
are refreshingly real, burdened with psychological issues that
enrich the story. And the ending, which I was positive I could
predict, is unpredictable. Sharp Objects is, indeed, quite
sharp.”
--Augusten Burroughs
“Sharp, clean, exciting writing that grabs you from the first page.
A real pleasure.”
--Kate Atkinson, author of Case Histories and One Good Turn
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