Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. ‘Good editors don’t see bark, they see leaves’ What do you think the author means by this when she introduces us to Frank Curry, Camille’s editor?
  2. ‘The Victorians . . . needed a lot of room to stray away from each other . . . to avoid rapacious lust, to wall themselves away from sticky emotions. Extra space is always good.’ How much does Adora’s home add to the problem? Would a two-room apartment have helped?
  3. ‘Natalie was buried in the family plot, next to a gravestone that already bore her parents’ names. I know the wisdom, that no parents should see their child die, that such an event is like nature spun backward. But it’s the only way to truly keep your child. Kids grow up, they forge more potent allegiances. They find a spouse or a lover. They will not be buried with you. The Keenes, however, will remain the purest form of family. Underground.’ Macabre but true?
  4. ‘Outside on the porch I saw a changeling.’ How do you feel about Amma? Is she a changeling in the traditional sense of the word? Or a chameleon forced to adapt to her unnatural environment?
  5. ‘When you die, you become perfect. I’d be like Princess Diana. Everyone loves her now.’ Is Amma right? Does this apply in the world of Wind Gap? In our lives is this also true?
  6. Do you think there is any significance to the letter A in Sharp Objects? Think of Camille’s family in particular.
  7. ‘I’m here. I don’t usually feel that I am.’ How has Camille’s past shaped her? Do you agree with her shrinks that her ‘weightlessness’ is due to her ignorance of her history?
  8. ‘“Oh, now look what you’ve done. I’m bleeding.” My mother held up thorn-pricked hands, and trails of deep red began to roll down her wrists.’ What does this image in Camille’s mind tell us of her view of her mother?
  9. ‘I jammed a floppy blue teddy bear under my head, then felt guilty and returned him to the foot of the bed. One should have allegiance to one’s childhood things.’ How else does Camille’s allegiance manifest itself? Would she be better without it, or do you agree with her?
  10. How important do you think the outward appearance of the people in Sharp Objects is to their personalities. Ugliness and beauty are themes throughout the book, but are they the key themes? Or do the characters rise above the visual?
  11. ‘A ring of perfect skin.’ One on Camille’s back, and another on her mother’s wrist. What significance does this have do you think? How alike are they?
  12. ‘Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom.’ How far do you agree with this? Can you see how Camille has come to think this?

Current Reading Group Titles

  1. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
  2. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
  3. The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
  4. Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
  5. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
  6. Testimony by Anita Shreve
  7. Home by Marilynne Robinson
  8. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
  9. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  10. Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  11. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
  12. Lies by Enrique de Heriz
  13. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
  14. Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
  15. Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  16. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  17. The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
  18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  19. The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
  20. The Return by Victoria Hislop
  21. A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
  22. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
  23. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  24. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
  25. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  26. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  27. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  28. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  29. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  30. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  31. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  32. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  33. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  34. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  35. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  36. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  37. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  38. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  39. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  40. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  41. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  42. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  43. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  44. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  45. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  46. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell