Is there an audiobook of Sharp Objects?

Yes. Sharp Objects has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Ann Marie Lee.

How long is the Sharp Objects audiobook?

The Sharp Objects audiobook runs 9 hr 34 min.

Is Sharp Objects on Kindle Unlimited?

No. Sharp Objects was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 23, 2026.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn book cover for the Book of the Day thriller book review

Our score

4.1/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Sharp Objects free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDSeptember 2006

Genres

Fiction Thriller Literary Fiction

Themes

Inherited damage between mothers and daughtersWhat a family will normalize behind closed doorsSelf-harm as a private languageThe gap between a hometown's surface and its history

Sharp Objects

Name: Sharp Objects
Price: 9.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Gillian Flynn

Gillian Flynn

Gillian Flynn's 2006 debut sends a fragile reporter back to her Missouri hometown to cover two child murders, and the real danger turns out to be the house she grew up in.

The Review

Our take

Camille Preaker gets the assignment nobody else at her Chicago paper wants: two girls murdered in Wind Gap, the small Missouri town she fled years ago and never planned to see again. Her editor thinks proximity makes her the right reporter. He's wrong about the reason but right about the access, because Wind Gap opens for Camille in ways it never would for an outsider, and that access costs her everything she'd built to keep the town at arm's length.

The murders matter, but they're almost a pretext. What Flynn is actually interested in is the Preaker house: Camille's mother Adora, a Southern matriarch running on control and denial, and Amma, the half-sister Camille barely knows, thirteen and fluent in a kind of social warfare that would unsettle an adult. Scenes inside that house carry a different pressure than the investigation scenes, tighter and more claustrophobic, and Flynn writes Adora's brand of care so precisely that it takes a while to register just how wrong it is.

Camille herself is the book's sharpest device: a narrator who cuts words into her own skin, one for every feeling she can't otherwise process, and who reports on the town's violence while carrying an entire vocabulary of it on her body. That conceit could have tipped into gimmick. It doesn't, because Flynn keeps the self-harm procedural and specific rather than poetic, part of Camille's discipline rather than a metaphor announcing itself.

Why you should read

Readers who liked Gone Girl's moral murkiness
Fans of small-town-secrets Southern Gothic
Anyone drawn to unreliable, self-destructive narrators
Readers who want family dysfunction as the real plot

What to expect

A slow-burn small-town mystery, not a fast procedural
Heavy themes: self-harm, child abuse, toxic maternal control
Thick Southern Gothic atmosphere
A rawer, less polished voice than Flynn's later novels

This was Flynn's first novel, and it shows in a good way: less polished than the plotting of her later books, hungrier, willing to sit in genuine discomfort instead of resolving it fast. The prose runs a little overheated in places, all that Southern-Gothic humidity working overtime, and readers who want a lean procedural will find themselves waiting through some atmosphere to get back to the case. But the payoff earns the patience. What Camille finds in Wind Gap isn't really about who killed two girls. It's about what a family can normalize when nobody outside is watching, and how long it takes a daughter to see her own childhood clearly enough to name it.

Reviewed by Quinn · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.1/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Sharp Objects free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Sharp Objects?: Yes. Sharp Objects has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Ann Marie Lee.
Listen to Sharp Objects free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Sharp Objects audiobook?: The Sharp Objects audiobook runs 9 hr 34 min.
Is Sharp Objects on Kindle Unlimited?: No. Sharp Objects was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 23, 2026.
How much does Sharp Objects cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $9.99, Paperback $9.49, Hardcover $29.40. Prices as of August 25, 2026 at 3:45 AM EDT and may change.

Filed underThriller Literary Fiction Browse the archive →

CollectionsShort Reads Book Club Picks Debut & First Novels Page to Screen Browse collections →

More by Gillian FlynnSee every Gillian Flynn book we've reviewed, with our scores.All Gillian Flynn books →

Common questions

What is Sharp Objects about?: Camille Preaker gets the assignment nobody else at her Chicago paper wants: two girls murdered in Wind Gap, the small Missouri town she fled years ago and never planned to see again. Her editor thinks proximity makes her the right reporter. He's wrong about the reason but right about the access…
Is Sharp Objects worth reading?: We scored Sharp Objects 4.1 out of 5. Gillian Flynn's 2006 debut sends a fragile reporter back to her Missouri hometown to cover two child murders, and the real danger turns out to be the house she grew up in.