Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

[uoflfan]

On 8/27/2018 at 1:43 AM, peach said:

Also, did Adora KNOW that Amma was doing this?  Or maybe kind of know and pretended otherwise?

That was my biggest question from the book.  On the show, of course Amma says "Don't tell Mama" which leads me to believe Adora didn't know Amma was the killer.

[Butless]

I remember thinking those VC Andrews stories were like a teenager with a martyr complex's idea of a marysue.

To me, Affleck looks like Scott Petersen, who's crime story  GFlynn obviously took from for GG.

And I also never found GF's writing to be 'masculine.' I just noticed some of her dialogue is badly written.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Buttless

[TattleTeeny]

OK, because the show kind of left me with some WTFery, I decided this morning to read the book. I actually liked it well enough, having never read anything else by this author*. I think it kept the MBP under wraps much better than the show did; the latter, IMO, made that angle abundantly clear very early on, while leaving so much else nebulous, even stuff that would have helped in the story-telling. Some of the changes I don't quite get the reasoning behind, but whatever--that always happens in adaptations anyway. And it also seems like Camille drank less in the book, unless I was supposed to just infer that even when it wasn't specifically mentioned on a page, it was going on.

* Except that awful "cool girl" essay, which I also hadn't read until today. 

Edited September 1, 2018 by TattleTeeny

[izabella]

4 hours ago, paramitch said:

I found the ending horrifying, breathtakingly tragic, and... perfect. It was all right in front of us all along. 

I wonder if your reading the book before seeing the ending is informing your opinion.  Those of us who did not read the book and were confused and irritated by the ending didn't feel satisfied because we needed book readers here to fill in the blanks, as well as outside articles and cast interviews, especially if we did not wait to see the scenes strewn in the end credits.  I guess I can't speak for others, but I sure had a lot of trouble with it as a non-book reader.

[paramitch]

14 hours ago, izabella said:

I wonder if your reading the book before seeing the ending is informing your opinion.  Those of us who did not read the book and were confused and irritated by the ending didn't feel satisfied because we needed book readers here to fill in the blanks, as well as outside articles and cast interviews, especially if we did not wait to see the scenes strewn in the end credits.  I guess I can't speak for others, but I sure had a lot of trouble with it as a non-book reader.

It's absolutely true that it could be informing my POV, although I will say that I already was 100% convinced it was Amma who was the killer before reading. I wasn't entirely right because I actually thought it was Amma working with Adora as some kind of tacit support, but ever since the moments we met the girls cruelly stealing the memorabilia, toys and flowers left for the dead girls, to me it seemed obvious that they felt themselves deserving of whatever they wanted to take of them, even their lives.

Amma and the girls were just so obvious about not having anything to fear -- all the constant skating and mischief at night, with not a whiff of fear for themselves. The girls further tossed out careless comments throughout the show ("Not the cool ones" about the dead girls, or "Or she" in response to the Sheriff's admonition to watch out for a potential drunk driver) that felt very pointed to me.

And after knowing the ending via both book and show, I actually prefer the show's handling of the ending and revelation to the book's. For me, I feel like the ending was earned/deserved and fairly clearly telegraphed, so it was satisfying and logically drawn, if also incredibly sad. 

But I totally get that mileage may vary.

Edited September 5, 2018 by paramitch

[Jextella]

What I missed in the show is why Jackie didn't say anything to anyone about her suspicions about Adora and MBP.  Is this explained in the book?  Is it because she thought it was pointless because the heavies in the town hid all the medical records, etc.?

Is this explained better in the book?

[Schmolioot]

I just read the book and honestly, whatever problems I had with it, the show was better.

 I was shocked at how little Amma was actually in the book. The show also fleshed our the relationship between her and Camille/Adora. I also liked that the show showcased Vickery and Alan a little more. Alan is just completely oblivious in the book.

Still hated the ending and thought it was stupid, but at least Amma was shown as being prone to violence a few times. 

And one of the strangest parts of watching the show first was how they played Amma’s creepy/incesty feelings for Camille as being all Amma. In the book, Camille is super fucking creepy. She talks (thinks?) about Amma’s breasts and legs multiple times, says she’s obsessed with her and licks blood off her finger. Yeah, Camille’s mind is a weird place

[SarahPrtr]

On 8/29/2018 at 6:18 AM, uoflfan said:

That was my biggest question from the book.  On the show, of course Amma says "Don't tell Mama" which leads me to believe Adora didn't know Amma was the killer.

No, nobody suspected or knew.  Nobody would suspect another 13-year-old girl to murder other young girls and pull all of their teeth out.  Even the best detective in the world probably wouldn't think to go there.