Women in Horror Month: One for the books with these memorable authors

4. Gillian Flynn – Sharp Objects

Women in Horror Month – Gillian Flynn – Sharper Objects – Courtesy of Fox -HBO

Before the HBO mini-series with the amazing Amy Adams, there was Gillian’s book. Her plots are more intricately wound together then a road in the Hollywood Hills. She is fearless in her willingness to explore the darkness that exists in all of us.

The main character of Sharper Objects is Camille Preaker. She is an adult who can’t seem to shake her self-destructive wild child side. But that is her protective shield against the secrets that she would rather not keep.

Now a writer for a prominent city paper, she finds herself having to confront the ghosts from her past when her editor sends her back to her hometown to cover some disturbing murders. We meet her seemingly genteel mother Adora who is at the root of all of her issues.

To forget the pain of the death of her constant companion and beloved sister, Marian, young Camille resorts to promiscuity, self-medication through alcohol and cutting herself. The torment that she feels is so palpable and visceral, that sometimes it is hard to read.

As you delve deeper into the past with Camille, you get an understanding of just how depraved certain individuals can be and how the need for attention and adulation can be so overpowering that you would risk someone’s life to attain it.

Without giving too much of the intricate storyline away, sometimes it is the devil you know that you should be the most frightened of and not the devil you don’t know.