Sharp Objects
by Gillian Flynn
★ Top 25 book of 2006 · #15 on Best Books of 2006
Reporter Camille Preaker, just out of a psychiatric hospital, returns to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. Staying with her difficult family, she must face her own painful past while chasing the truth about the crimes.
Best for: Readers who like dark psychological mysteries with a haunted, troubled narrator
Sharp Objects is #15 on BookWard's Best Books of 2006, out of 46 2006 books that cleared our data bar.
What Sharp Objects is about
Camille Preaker is a journalist at a small Chicago newspaper, and she carries a history of carving words into her skin. Just out of the hospital after a bout of self-harm, she is sent by her editor, Frank Curry, to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to cover the murder of one girl and the disappearance of another.
She stays in her mother's Victorian mansion, with her stepfather and her 13-year-old half-sister, Amma. Her mother, Adora, is heiress to the town's pork-farming fortune, and the family's old wounds, including the early death of Camille's younger sister, begin to surface. A Kansas City detective investigating a possible serial killer draws her closer to the case. Gillian Flynn's 2006 debut is dark, claustrophobic and unsettling, a Southern Gothic mystery about trauma, abuse and the violence women can carry.
Sharp Objects on the Best Books of 2006
Sharp Objects came out in 2006. Of the 46 books first published in 2006 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #15 on our Best Books of 2006 list.
Why it made the list: 539 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (33 ratings); 28 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2006 list
- Horus Rising Dan Abnett, #13
- Cell Stephen King, #14
- Fablehaven Brandon Mull, #16
- Lisey's Story Stephen King, #17
See all Best Books of 2006 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2005 Best Books of 2007.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 436 want to read it, 28 are reading it now and 75 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.8 out of 5 from 33 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 78 | 55% |
| Reader love | 28 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 76 | 20% |
Questions about Sharp Objects
When was Sharp Objects published?
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn was first published in 2006.
Was Sharp Objects one of the best books of 2006?
Sharp Objects is #15 on BookWard's Best Books of 2006, out of 46 2006 books that cleared our data bar. 539 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (33 ratings); 28 are reading it right now.
Why is Sharp Objects on the Best Books of 2006 list?
539 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (33 ratings); 28 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2006
- The Sea of Monsters Rick Riordan, #1
- The Book Thief Markus Zusak, #2
- Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #3
- The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne, #4
- The Secret Rhonda Byrne, #5
- Mindset Carol S. Dweck, #6
See the full Best Books of 2006, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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