Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn

Alphonse Mucha, Medea, 1898

(January 1) Got this (Flynn's first novel) because I liked Gone Girl so much. This was a little harder to love.

It seems to me from both books that Flynn's not sure if she wants to be a horror writer or a mystery writer -- there's a lot of random monstrousness from the get-go, with hints that the randomness is maybe not so.

Even though gross, this book's first part is engrossing... heh heh heh... but, halfway or two-thirds through, the pacing suddenly changes and the whole thing ends very abruptly. To me, it felt like the classic author-just-wanting-to-get-this-done rush (there’s a little of this in Gone Girl, too, actually: there's initial enthusiasm for the great idea, but the momentum dies away).

I was also lukewarm on the Southern Gothic elements. Macabre Southernness is so popular: why?

Third strike for me: Sharp Objects tries to be triple-x-rated sexy, which is weird when mixed in with the grotesque elements of the story.

And yet: overall not so terrible that I didn't want to finish it!