I’ve read a lot of good books since I started my monthly book review posts last year, but this month my luck ran out. Sharp Objects was my least favorite Gillian Flynn book and the only reason I kept reading The Glass Castle was to see if it got any better.
I know other people liked these books, so please set me straight with your comments!
The Glass Castle Book Review
I think Amazon suggested this book to me based on others books I’ve read. I had the free sample on my Kindle for a long time before I finally downloaded the whole thing in preparation for my trip to Europe. (I enjoyed the other books I read on that trip much better!) I still have the free sample of the prequel, Half Broke Horses, but I doubt I’ll ever read it.
The Glass Castle is Jeanette Wall’s harrowing memoir of her life growing up with an alcoholic father and detached mother who always insisted that they were doing right by their children. While the events of her childhood are recounted with a sense of adventure, they get bleaker as she gets older, and both of her parents seem less and less forgivable as one horror story gives way to the next. I won’t give away how the story ends (no spoilers here!), but the ending is tidier (and happier) than I expected–maybe too tidy to believe.
As a memoir, this could be brilliant. I can see how the tone during her childhood may reflect how she saw the events at the time–with the innocence and trust that most children have for their parents–while the progression to grittier and grittier retelling may reflect her own coming of age and loss of those rose-colored glasses. But, I feel like The Glass Castle is missing the how of how Jeanette survived with her self-esteem in tact and thrived at school despite the dire circumstances at home, and apparently became a normal, productive woman. Maybe it’s because I missed the how that I was left wondering why I spent so much time reading this book. 😉
The Glass Castle has lots of positive reviews on Amazon and Good Reads from people who found Jeanette Wall’s memoir to be gripping and inspiring, so don’t let my review discourage you from giving it a try. And if you read it and liked it, I’d love to know why. (Just kidding!)
Sharp Objects Book Review
I enjoyed Gillian’s Flynn’s Gone Girl and Dark Places, so I assumed that I would like Sharp Objects. It was OK, but not nearly as good as the others. Given that Sharp Objects was her first book, it’s understandable that I found it to have a few rough edges.
(click this affiliate link to see Sharp Objects on Amazon)
The synopsis on Amazon gives this “no spoiler” summary:
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.
It’s hard to pinpoint why I didn’t like this book as much as the others–maybe the story had too many clichés, maybe the plot twists weren’t as unexpected, maybe the characters weren’t as believable.
If you liked Gone Girl and Dark Places don’t let my Sharp Objects book review keep you from reading it. It was still a good page-turner with enough surprises to keep things interesting.
Do you have a favorite author whose books you always try to read as soon as they come out?
What are you reading now?
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I only thought Gone Girl was so so, especially the ending, but I LOVED The Glass Castle! I thought it was an incredible (and true) story, from the opening scene where she’s an MSN news anchor driving in a limo and sees her mother, like a homeless person, picking through the garbage in a NYC alley. I found the entire story so riveting — and Dickensian in her parents’ and others’ behavior. And inspirational in how she handled it and overcame that horrific childhood. I’ve read another of hers since then (Half Broke Horses) and have a third on my Kindle. The second was good but not as great as the first. All three of my 20-something daughters also loved the Glass Castle — one of our top reads that year.
I’ve now just started Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch — dark and gripping, you should try it! Her first and only previous book, The Secret History, was a tour de force, especially since she wrote it right out of college. This is her much-anticipated next one, after a 15 year gap.
Thanks for sharing a different view! I’m debating the Goldfinch. I’ve heard the first part is hard to get through ….
Im reading and NOT LOVING Where’d You Go Bernadette.
and everyone everyone everyone said it was hilarious.
hmmm. not so much for me 🙂
I enjoyed that one. Not my favorite (maybe I don’t like books with moms that check out?) but not my least favorite either.
i love jodi piccoult books!
Oh, I haven’t read hers in a while. Let me know if you have a favorite recent one.
I really liked The Glass Castle. But, I don’t think I specifically asked the question about how she made it through that childhood. I was so amazed that she did. I read her other book about her mom’s childhood (has the word ‘horses’ in the title) and it was just okay. Not as much intensity to the storytelling.
I still haven’t read Gone Girl. It’s on my list.
I just finished Sharp Objects last week. I knew that it had a different feel from Gillian Flynn’s other books that I’ve read but I didn’t realize it was her first. I liked it – just almost felt like a different author wrote it.
Yes! That’s how I felt. Not surprising that her writing evolved if you think about it.
Sharp Object sounds like a winner!
I was not a fan of Sharp Objects either. But it WAS the 3rd of her books that I read, so the bar was probably set a bit high?
I just finished, and was underwhelmed by, The Goldfinch. It started off well enough; a compelling back story, I was initially sympathetic to the character. But something happened about 3/4 of the way through and it was like pulling teeth to finish.
I hate not finishing things that I start. Even books. Even when I doubt that they’re going to get better.
That’s how I felt about Glass Castle. I stuck it out to see if it got better — and so I could write a legitimate review. 😉
I am currently reading The Opposite of Maybe, and just finished The Idea of Him (on the blog tomorrow). I am actually intrigued in your first book now, I had a pretty tumultuous childhood so I am interested to see the ending.
I seriously hope your childhood was nothing like hers, but I know people can overcome quite a lot. I will look for your post tomorrow!
These are both on my to read list. Glad to hear your reviews.
I agree that this one was my least favorite GF book — nothing touches Gone Girl in my opinion!
I thought Sharp Objects was fantastic. So dark and twisted! I didn’t like it as much as Gone Girl. But still great.
Yes, it did nail the dark and twisted!
I read Glass Castles years ago and really liked it. I guess I loved that for the most part, these kids were able to pull themselves out of such a dire situation and make good. I also read Gone Girl and enjoyed it, but I don’t really have a desire to read more of her stuff–not sure why!
As to authors I wait for with bated breath: Barbara Kingsolver, James Frey, and Jonathan Franzen. None of them writes that often, sadly, but maybe that’s what makes them so good.