my thoughts on reading all of Gillian Flynn's novels back to back
3 novels & 1 short story
When I was a Creative Writing Major at the University of Central Oklahoma, my community of writers were hit or miss. I struggled finding peers to talk about the thing I loved most in the world, books & writing, due to the setup of my classes, mostly workshops where we critiqued other’s works and wrote in silos. Where I truly found community was in my Minor - English Literature.
This is where people came that loved written words, that drank them in and wanted to study, truly study the great works. I took classes on Edgar Allen Poe, a whole class on John Milton & Paradise Lost, and of course a whole class on the Canterbury Tales. It was in the John Milton class I found a few friends (lost to the Ether now - or perhaps Facebook friends still) and I remember being with them was such a departure from the Sorority House common room where we would chat boys, clothes and Greek life drama (still important!)
One night a girl invited me to her house to watch an adaption of a novel we recently read, and served us freshly baked cookies and hard cider, and we got on the topic of books we just couldn’t put down. One of the guys that was there gleefully explained when he discovered the Harry Potter Books - long after they were all released. He talked about racing through them - returning to the library every couple days to get the next one, man these are so good. My friend talked about the same feeling with the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, just devouring them, ravenous, eating the words. Couldn’t get enough. What a beautiful moment. I felt adult, I felt literary. I still think about them, the cider (I was only 19!) and the conversation. And I still try to recreate that feeling whenever possible.
THIS, is how I felt reading Gillian Flynn’s novels over the past month. There is something so satisfying about reading an author’s full body of work, end to end. Now I’m not a square (although can you imagine reading all her books now and not knowing anything about them? Bliss) — I read Gone Girl about 12 years ago when it came out and it was the buzziest of the buzzy. I read Dark Places as well, maybe about 5 years ago? Of course I saw the screen adaption of Sharp Objects (multiple times - the cast!). But I had never read them in such short of time. I hadn’t actually read Sharp Objects, and had really never heard of The Grownup, Flynn’s short story.
Flynn is not without critical acclaim. Her books have been on the NYT best seller’s list for weeks and weeks in a row. Her book-to-screen adaptations are classified hits. She’s not a new or undiscovered young artist. But 15 million people can’t be wrong. They’re popular for a reason.
Unintendedly, I read these books in the order they were released (kind of). Sharp Objects (2006), Dark Places (2009), The Grownup (2016), and Gone Girl (2012). Reading about her career is interesting - she hasn’t released a novel since Gone Girl, and seems to be working on one currently, but claims to be a slower writer. And over here, we’re all fast readers.
So let’s break down my experience, shall we?
(Spoilers abound, friends)
Sharp Objects
Sharp Objects is set in Wind Gap, Missouri, where a one Camille Preaker returns home to write a story about girls going missing. Fresh off a stint of treatment for self-harm, she returns to her overbearing mother, two-faced half sister, and apathetic step father. As she digs further into the truth, she starts to discover things about her family and past that she can’t unlearn.
There is so much to this novel, I can’t believe it’s her first. I watched the HBO Mini Series when it came out, and LOVED it, but this was my first time reading the text. Complicated family dynamics, pig farms, missing and dead girls, and a nasty case of Munchausen by Proxy.
I think this is where I fell in love with Gillian’s sense of place. I have lived in Oklahoma almost my whole life - and the small town of Wind Gap, MO, reminds me so much of my home here. Gossips, drunks, unbearably hot weather. Pig and Cattle farms, old money and more.
Camille is obviously a tortured narrator - the whole story is told plainly from her POV. She recently returned to work in Chicago after seeking treatment for cutting - words all over her body - and her father-like figure and boss sent her on assignment to her hometown to write, and to possibly heal.
Flynn’s use of the words on her body flaring up throughout the book is so powerful. Her characters are real, and fleshed out. Camille is mourning her dead sister, and eventually after she discovers her mother has been poisoning her half sister with rat poison, and essentially killed her late sister by treating her non-existent sickness, at the very end discovers her half sister, Amma, was the murderer behind the torturous killings of the young girls in Wind Gap. Was it the rat poison that changed her brain, or was she born evil?
There’s so many times during this novel that I just felt uncomfortable. And as someone who was raised on Stephen King, I absolutely love that feeling. I think I have to claim this as my favorite work of hers. This is a true work of family drama. It gives so much Hereditary vibes (no decapitation) but on a grander scale.
Would be remiss not to shout out the HBO mini-series adaptation, which is wonderful and won lots of awards, starring Amy Adams as Camille Preaker and Patricia Clarkson as her mother Adora Crellin.
Dark Places
Dark Places was also a re-read too. In fact, seeing the news that Flynn was working on an HBO Limited Series of this novel was what spurred this streak in the first place. (that and, I’d like to write my own thriller/horror novel soon). Set in alternate timelines between 1985/Now, it follows Libby Day, the sole survivor of the Kinnikee, Kansas Massacre, for which her brother, Ben Day is currently serving time.
The POV jumps from Libby, to Ben, to her mother Patty, who was killed during the massacre. Libby, running out of money, decides to finally explore what happened that night by linking up with a kid named Lyle who is president of a Kansas Murder Club, who are all actively investigating the murder on their own time.
Honestly, I still really liked this book, but it ranked last for me. The switching POVs made my head spin, and the details were always murky. She excels in the sense of place, which was an old Kansas farmhouse.
I always love her true blue supporting characters which in this case was Lyle Wirth, and in Sharp Objects Camille’s boss “Cubby”, I think Gone Girl, Boney and Go tie out the first place for that role.
One of the aspects of the book I loved was the Satanic Panic tilt. I find that time in America so thrilling, and honestly in the year of our lord 2024, I still see a bit of it in Oklahoma. There’s such a fear and misunderstanding that it can really scare the 80’s common folk of Kansas, and I still see that truth here today. Also, who else doesn’t appreciate a cow sacrifice to Satan?
There is a film based off this book, which I haven’t seen due to the reviews being TERRIBLE, but I will absolutely be tuning into Flynn’s adaptation, and I can’t wait.
The Grownup
This one was such a treat. I blew through it one Saturday on the couch, using my Kindle app on my phone, not even getting up to use my Kindle. I loved it. The Grownup (originally titled “What Do You Do?”) was written for a short story anthology edited by George R.R. Martin and is Flynn’s take on a Haunted House story.
The Grownup follows the Narrator, who is a con artist reading palms, and her desperate client who wants to rid her house of a poltergeist-type spirit. This short story digs into what Flynn knows best- unreliable narrators. Her client, who is a wealthy housewife, has a disturbed young stepson, Miles, who could be possessed, or could be crazy.
This one was short, but I liked it for a quick read, and loved how she played with the open ending. The premise is fun, I loved Miles’s quirks (vomit in the handbag!) and the twist and turns at the end.
I believe this is also up for a screen adaptation, which I would love to see.
Gone Girl
Gone Girl is set in the fictional town of North Carthage, Missouri, inside Nick and Amy Dunne’s tumultuous marriage. Amy goes missing on her and Nick’s 5th wedding anniversary, and the story begins, told through first person POV and Amy’s diary entries. Set in modern times, it’s commentary on marriage, love, desperation, and selfishness.
Let me just say, this one is a classic to me. The dual first person POV is such a skill, and the twist in the middle of the book had me quaking in my 22-year-old boots when I read it for the first time.
Flynn is just totally in her bag here. She mentions in interviews that it was hard to sell this book - the story is told from unlikeable characters - and for me I think that’s what makes this story compelling.
The characters are so MEAN to each other. Throughout the whole thing! What have we done to each other? What will we do? I think when I read it for the first time, it felt so much like a cheap ending, or cash grab, maybe even an easy way out I remember lots of people were upset after all Amy and Nick went through, they decided (were forced?) to stay together. But now with some space from the text, it’s so interesting to me. They really were terrible people, and my mind goes back and forth trying to find a winner, protagonist, hero. But the story plays so much outside of those lines, my mind can’t even flirt with an answer.
I would be remiss to say that this is such a transformative text within the publishing industry as a whole, looking back this gave us The Gone Girl Effect, Cool Girls, Unlikeable Female Characters. Novels since then put Girl in the title just to try to get a shred of the fame and acclaim Gone Girl has. Re-reading, to me, it still holds up.
I also rewatched the film adaptation, directed by David Fincher and Gillian Flynn wrote the screenplay. If you haven’t seen it, Fincher and Flynn did an amazing job with the film, and even revisiting it recently, I still absolutely love it. Special shoutout to the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The cast is also stacked, with Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck playing Amy and Nick Dunne, respectively.
What did I learn here? Or maybe, what did I love here? Flynn’s settings, first of all. Her unreliable or even unlikable characters. The folds to those characters - the good ones, and the fact that a book can take you to places you’ve never been. You can get lost in it. You can keep turning the pages even though you have to be at work at 7 am. The bath water going cold while you’re reading, the thoughts you have after. It’s a great privilege and pleasure to get to read books, and especially by authors you love. And I LOVE Gillian Flynn.
What books and authors gave you that can’t-put-it-down feeling?
Mal xoxo
I looove Gone Girl & Sharper Objects, but this makes me want to reread and read the others!
I just blew through Sharp Objects. So tasty. I’m thinking Gone Girl next. Thanks for sharing!