Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn – Episode 19

The Buddies work through the dark twisted world of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. The twists and turns of this one had the buddies reconsidering many of their life choices.  They found themselves asking questions that have plagued many of this generation: How much meat should they be consuming? How much laxative is too much laxative? What are the pros and cons of pool table sex? Listen to get to the bottom (or top) of these serious questions.

Intro: (0:00-4:05)
Favorite Scene (4:06-8:25)
Stock Up/Down (8:26-22:40 )
Favorite Character/Potent Quotable (22:41-25:17)
Love/Hate (25:18-46:17)
Listener Mail (46:18-49:38)
Casting the Movie (49:39-52:31)
Conclusion (52:32-54:40)

Next Book: HACHET by GARY PAULSEN

Transcript for SEO Purposes 🙂

All right. Welcome to the Book Club. I’m Dylan here with The Wizard of Words. Keith, what’s up, buddy? How are we doing? We’re doing great. You know, things are moving. It’s the end of the year, Christmas time. The house is covered in Santa Claus. What else do you need? Well, here at the Buddy Book Club, we’re breaking down some best sellers. This week, we’ll be discussing Gillian Flynn’s debut novel, Sharp Objects. If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us about any past or future episodes, you can visit our website, buddybookclub. Com or slide into our DMs on Twitter or Instagram Buddy Book Club podcast. You can listen to us on itunes and Spotify, so please download and subscribe. We’re going to be talking like I said about Sharp Objects. I’d like to do a brief Disclaimer, if that’s okay with you. Keith, please. So this book focuses on the relationship between, mostly, like, a mother and daughter and her half sister. There’s a lot of mental health issues in this book, and we are by no means really qualified to talk about any of this mother daughter relationships or mental health issues. We’re really here to have a light hearted and fun conversation, so I’ll speak for myself. I took a Psych 101 class, so I’m pretty much an expert. I don’t know what you’re talking about, D Man. People come here for our expertise, D Man. So you can’t just throw out these arbitrary like, oh, I’m not an expert this modesty that you have. We’re both experts in the field. Shout out to Greg Hall, my Psych 101 teacher. I wrote my thesis on mushrooms, magic mushrooms, but I just wanted to put that out there, considering we’re just having fun with this and we’re not trying to offend anyone. So apologies if you get offended. Yeah, just preapologies. Good start. Sharp Objects focuses on Camille Preacher. She’s a journalist for Mediocre Chicago newspaper and gets sent home to report on a missing girl home being a small community in Southern Missouri. She has a tumultuous relationship with her mom and no relationship with her half sister. And that’s pretty much the focus of the book, along with the crime of not only the disappearance of one girl, but also the previous murder of another girl. With all that said, I’d like to get a libation going, especially after the Disclaimer. And this book is a good book if you don’t have a full bar at the ready because you could just grab about anything. There’s constant alcohol abuse and consumption in this book. So whether you want just straight up vodka, ideally out of a nip, as we call them in the Northeast. But one of the small little airplane bottles feel free to do so if you want something a little more sophisticated, potentially an Amaretto sour. Those were mentioned, and they sound nice. I feel like Amarillo sour. You can’t offer that up without a Southern accent, though. Oh, Hi, Camille. You want Amarillo sour? Yeah, exactly. That’s pretty good. Yeah. Thanks. Which region was that? That was northwest Georgia. Okay, I saw that hint of dialect there. Or even if you don’t have anything in the bar, you could head straight to the medicine cabinet. You know, some Apple cider vinegar with horse tranquilizers and a dash of industrial strength. Laxative delicious goes down real smooth. Where would one find industrial strength laxative asking for a friend? Not for me. I actually didn’t really even understand that because especially with the laxative. Can’t you just take more? And it makes it industrial strength. Full disclosure here. I’ve had to take a lot of laxes at one point for a medical procedure, and they just say they don’t give you anything. They just say, go to CVS and buy the biggest bottle and drink the whole thing. So there’s not, like, a pharmacy that’s like, oh, here’s a huge pill. It’s like, no, get a giant bottle, drink it all piss out your ass with our horse tranquilizers in hand. Let’s see if we can make it through the podcast before passing out. Keith, what’s your favorite scene from Sharp Objects? It wasn’t necessarily a scene, so to speak, but it was when things start clicking and spoilers. Obviously ahead here, but things basically start clicking for Camille, and she realizes it’s her mother. There’s a dark feeling you get. I don’t know if you’ve gotten this in movies before. I remember the Six sense, but similar idea. Six is where the girl was getting poisoned by her mom or stepmom in that. Yeah, Montreal and is by proxy. So she was poisoning her there. And then same thing for the movie seven when you’re like, what’s in the box. Yes, it’s so dark, so twisted. Your mind just goes to a place that’s so fucked up when that starts happening for her, too. That was the best feeling. Very hard to do that in this day with so much fucked up stuff and so many plot twists, because I didn’t see that necessarily coming. I think there was definitely signs pointing to that. That’s interesting that you didn’t see that coming. Not that I’m one of those people like, oh, I saw it the whole time, but her mom was off, and her mom obviously did some weird stuff with her sister. Well, you thought she killed her daughter. Well, they were, like, pretty cagey on that, which was good, because if they kind of gave that away, it would be obvious. But there was something weird going on with that. For sure. There was something very odd with and the fact they were keeping that secret. I was like, okay, we’re going to get some more information on what happened with the sister that’s going to be revealing. But I also think it was unfair because I listened to this audiobook, and it was on the Libby app, which shows the cover of the book. And the mom’s sitting in the back with a big white dress on. And the kid who’s telling the story says, oh, a woman grabbed her and she was in a white dress. And so I kind of like, tied those two together. It was like, oh, was the mom involved in this? To clarify, I always thought the mom was the prime suspect, but the turn of she’s been poisoning them this whole time. That’s always the turn. Yeah, I would say. I mean, I know you’re used to that kind of thing. You’re into it, but I wasn’t. Yeah, that’s my mojo. Google search mom killing daughter. So since this book, I feel like it’s so heavy. There’s so much going on at all times in terms of emotional turmoil. I kind of thought my favorite scene was when Camille hooked up with the brother of the dead girl. And not that this is funny necessarily, but the way that she gets caught by Richard, because Richard, her mom has been looking for. And so Richard, for some reason, is on the case, and he shows up and she’s, like, in a bathrobe. And she already said the room smelled like sex. And whatnot? And to be fair, she’s a 30 year old woman. And this is an 18 year old man. So not a great look. But then on top of that, she just says to him, this is not what it looks like. I know that sounds cliche, but it isn’t. But for Richard, it probably looks like a grown woman in a cheap motel having sex with an 18 year old boy. That is exactly what happened. I appreciate that. She was like, I know that sounds cliche, but it’s true. No, it is cliche. And it’s true in the sense that that’s exactly what you’re doing. So I didn’t really understand that part, but I had a good chuckle. And considering there’s so few chuckles in this book, I appreciate it. I was just thinking of that scene if it were from the other perspective, if the 32 year old guy, he’s on the scene as a writer, he shows up to a bar. There’s an 18 year old female who’s, like, blacked out drunk, and he’s like, let’s get her more drunk. Let’s get her more drinks and I’ll open her up and we’ll start chatting. And then I want to make sure she gets home safe. So I’m going to bring it to the Shady Hotel. This is kind of very creepy. Makes Camille not very likable, after which I think is great, because there’s really not many likable characters other than that one dude. Well, hold on. We’re not a favorite character yet. All right, slow down. All right, don’t go too early here. All right, pretend is the 30 year old woman. Don’t go too early. You’re 18 year old boy. Let’s get into stock up, stock down, stock up. What do you have? Stock up alcohol, not counting in certain places. Go on. I’m a huge fan of this. So Camille basically says her alcoholism or the reason she’s drinking so much at her mom’s place is her mom’s place. It doesn’t count. Oh, you know what? I completely agree with this. Vacation. Alcohol doesn’t count. Wedding weekend, 4th July. Alcohol doesn’t count in those places, you know? So there’s certain places you’re allowed to say that completely. I go as short as 4 July. I just say all holidays, right? Doesn’t all holidays pertain? Yeah, I would just name the three places where alcohol doesn’t count in any sense of the word. I think all holidays can be wrapped into that. The one thing I will say, though, is she wakes up in the morning and is sipping warm vodka in her bed from a nip. I think you alluded to this. I mean, like, come on, that’s a little desperate. Just be an adult. Put it in your morning coffee or Orange juice with the rest of us. It’s kind of needy to be doing that. Come on, that’s a little too much. I’ll call that county place to stock up, though. It’s interesting that you say that because I’m at my mom’s place currently, and she lives on a Lake and in the summertime, if I’m on vacation, it’s like no Lake life. We’re doing Lake stuff, and you might be going water skiing, and it’s very common for everyone to have a beer, but it’s 11:00 a.m.. It’s Wednesday at 11:00 a.m.. And we’re hammering beers, so, yeah, I support this. I’m buying that stock. I’m buying. Thank you. I appreciate that. My first stock up is investigative journalism. Stock is probably pretty high. But without Camille, this case probably would have never been solved because Richard is completely inept. So it seems. And Camille goes in there and kind of figures the whole thing out. Although she doesn’t want to be the one figuring the whole thing out. That’s pretty much how it works. So good job on you, Kami. I thought Richard was like, yeah, I knew the whole time that your mom was a prime suspect. That’s why she was like, oh, you only dated me to get close to my mom and find more information on that. That’s why she was so upset with them at the end. Yes, that’s true. But her mom didn’t do it. Her mum murdered her sister, but her mom didn’t actually kill those girls. So all Richard was going off of wasn’t actually hard evidence. They found the horse tranquil, all the stuff she did to fuck with her daughters. And obviously the fact that she killed her other daughter, which is big, but that’s a cold case. Or actually not even a case. And they would have put her away. And really, even though he had, like, this pliers that were used to pull out the teeth, that’s kind of circumstantial, considering there’s other people that live in the house, like anyone could have come over and put those there. It’s not like her mom actually did it, and he would have put her away for the three murders and the sister would have gone free. So Richard, do better, buddy. Do better. That’s true. I’ll give you that. Okay. What else do you have for STOCKUP? I had stock up doormats. I love a good doormat. Listen, doormats serve a pretty important purpose. You go walk into the house, you wipe your feet. You don’t want truck mud through your house. They’re kind of important. But when I first was reading, I thought, you know, this Alan dude, he’s kind of a doormat. He dresses nice, doesn’t talk, just everyone walk all over him. But honestly, that’s just an insult to doormats, because this Allen dude is way worse than dormant, doesn’t become. He has zero. Absolutely zero purpose. Zero benefits. Let me go walk you through it here. Please do. Your first daughter dies mysteriously. No questions asked. There’s pill bottles lying around. We got horse tranquilizer lying around. Not a question of what is going on here. Why do you have these medicines in your cabinet? Why are our daughters getting worse every time you give them medicine? Why is it when she goes to the hospital, she’s fine. And then she comes back here and then all of a sudden sick. It’s just like, what’s up with this dude is like nothing going on in his brain. Is he just had zero up there and then a dog gets arrested, right? And naturally, the person that starts taking care of his daughter, Emma, is now Camille. Why? What’s going on? Camille, who doesn’t know her, just met her best day. Camille, that is an alcoholic and has done ecstasy with her and things like that. Why is she taking care of your daughter? Is he just the most useless person ever? He moved closer to the jail so he could be near his wife, as opposed to making sure his daughter was cared for after the mom poisoned her continuously for years. Yeah, he’s secretly the worst person in this book. He’s worse than Emma and Adora, in my opinion. So stock up the doormats, though. Yeah, well, also more of a random, fun fact that we provide here at the Buddy Book Club. But before doormats were a thing, you know how every door has a threshold, like a little piece of wood that the door closed on top of. So that’s actually an old English thing. And because houses didn’t have carpeting or whatnot? And for heat, they would put straw on the ground, just lay straw on the ground of their houses, which is known as thresh. And so in order to keep it in the house so it didn’t track outside, they put these little pieces of wood at the doorframe. Hence threshold holds the threshold. Yeah, interesting. There you go. Other stock up for me. Multitasking. And this is more meta, I guess, because it’s for Gillian Flynn here. Gillian Flynn wrote the book, wrote this book, Sharp Objects at Night and over the weekends as she was working as a TV critic at Entertainment Weekly. And since then, obviously this book was a hit, but she’s come up with she’s now written three novels, one Gone Girl, which when I was commuting into work, I feel like every person on the train had a copy of Gone Girl, and all three have been adapted into either TV or film versions. So Gillian Flynn, if you didn’t hustle and multitask with your normal job and also work this one at night, I mean, we could say the same thing for JK Rowling and lots of other authors, but, hey, good for you. Yeah, I appreciate that. And she wrote the script for Gone Girl, right? I’m pretty sure she did. She also was like a showrunner for Utopia. I want to say she really has gone and done a lot of other things in the entertainment world because of this. So good for you shows that hustle and hustle and can get you somewhere. I had one more stock up First Instincts, and this is more of a Pat on the back for me, but I should have stuck with my first instincts. I knew Camille was a fucking crazy person. Not that she’s like crazy, but she’s just something off with her. Obviously, she went to the buffet with Richard and she got tuna salad at a buffet. She said that all the food was gross there, and then she got tuna salad. All right, that’s major. I thought she might be the killer after that, I was like, Holy shit. Yeah, big time red Flags. She’s like, all the food was gross. So I got tuna salad, some egg salad, put it together on a sandwich and finish it up with some Salisbury steak. Yes. Then I’d wash it out with some milk that may or may have been there for a couple of years whenever some warm milk. I also wrote initially that someone needs to throat punch Emma because she’s just the worst. And I thought she was basically Joffrey from Game of Thrones, and her mom was serious. That turned out to be true. Both of those things were pretty good. We’re spot on. So first instincts, you just got to go with them. I like it. That’s actually really good when you’re having a stock. Now, I think I’ve said this before, so we might be coming here at full circle. I always buy more stocks. Yeah. Serial killers stock down. I feel like I just haven’t heard any really legit famous serial killers anymore. Do they just not publicize them in the media or anything or what’s going on with that? It just seems like we haven’t seen a good serial killer any day these days. What’s interesting is that the FBI keeps. Obviously they’re on top of serial killer, supposedly. I mean, minehunters phenomenal Netflix show. If you haven’t seen it, but they assume I think this is the number. But you’d have to fact check me on this, but they assume there’s at least, like, twelve active serial killers at any time in the United States. That’s just the US alone. So it’s like, Holy smokes. To be fair, I think serial killers means, like, three killings by that person. So you’d think it’d be a little bit more, but at the same time, killing three people. Still a big deal. Like someone that ties, like a ribbon around the wrist of someone. Yeah. Little bone collector vibe or Ted Bundy? Yes. Some sort of calling card that I feel like makes the serial killer. They’re just doing it for shits and giggles. But I haven’t heard of anything about that. So I don’t know if that’s just kept under wraps or what the deal is. And I also think there’s a huge increase in serial killers in the Pacific Northwest for some reason, all that rain. Yeah. Serial killers are really interesting, especially. I think it really went downhill when people stopped hitchhiking. So maybe we should bring that back. We had hitchhiking as a stock up. That’s true. I guess we should buy that stock. And then once the seal of killers come back, we’ll sell get it at its peak. Yeah, exactly. Stock down for me, eating meat, massproduced meat. And I’m an omnivore. Like most people, I enjoy my steaks, my pork products, my chicken. But the slaughterhouse scene, I guess, just seemed so gross and sad. And she talks about how the air is so thick with stink. It feels solid. We’re talking about an underpaid workforce that’s missing fingers from the machinery and sows that are forced to have litter after litter and then sent right to the slaughter like, Puke. It’s just gross. As a huge pork guy myself, it just makes it seem like I should probably consume less. Even driving out here to Michigan. We saw, like, a dairy farm. And my girlfriend was like, what are all those things? Because they look like dog kennels. They were pretty much dog kennels. And it was just rows and rows and rows and rows of them. And I was like, oh, that’s for all the baby cows, because they just keep having the moms have cows so they can feed them milk. That’s for dairy. And she was like, Well, I’m never drinking milk again. So after also reading this book, I was like, maybe I’d take a break from pork steaks or at least try to buy local or something. I mean, the problem is, though, everything is that now. All right. I’m not drinking milk anymore. No, I’m going to drink almond milk. Well, it turns out almonds take up more water than any other thing and creates droughts. Yeah. Shit. Okay. I’ll drink water. It’s like, well, turns out you go down the line and everything’s bad for sure. No, the almond stuff is crazy. I think I saw that on 60 Minutes. And then recently I saw an article about because avocados great for fat. So, like, vegetarians eat a lot of avocados. And it was something like each avocado takes 60 gallons of water to grow or something like that. And avocados go bad so quick. So my dad just throws those avocados out left and right. And I’m thinking, like, just pouring 60 gallons of water down the drain. And we’re probably being a little holier than bow on this, considering we all have food waste. We’re all consumers. But at the same time, it just does make you feel a little gross. Last one Sunday scariest. What are the Sunday scaries? Sunday Scaries? I got these pretty bad, but it’s just basically on Sunday. For those who don’t know, I think this is pretty well common term, but you basically have that anxiety or you did something wrong or something bad. And Monday is about to hit it’s just like, that big feeling that kind of snowballs and eventually hits on Sunday. And Monday is just going to be terrible. Right? The Sunday scary is that Camille was facing the day after she gets hammered and then hangs out with her 13 year old sister, Doug. Ecstasy OxyContin goes to a high school party as a 32 year old Jesus Christ, and then wakes up like, bruised up and everything like that. I cannot even imagine the Sunday scaries that would possibly be hitting. So I didn’t think the Sunday scariest stock could go lower, but after that, I’m out. I’m done with it. The scary sell every single share. Interesting. It’s interesting. You say that because a totally agree with you, but also B my stock down was ecstasy, because let’s just say, may or may have some experience in the area. And the way that is explained in this book is like, you wake up with broken ankles. There’s like, shards of bone and asphalt in them. Everyone gets a concussion and you’re covered in blood. And there were moments where it was just like, oh, I love you. I love you too. It’s like, this is wonderful. Isn’t it nice that we’re alive? It’s like, yeah, that checks out. But then all the let’s spin until we fall over and crack our skulls on the ground. Like that. Maybe. But just stay hydrated people. That’s all I’m saying. Stay hydrated and probably try not to, like, jump off curbs and do backflips and other things like that. And you’ll be fine. So they made ecstasy seem like probably the most dangerous drug in the world where the OxyContin they took? No problem. It was just like, yeah, okay. I just melt into the couch, watch a movie. No, I don’t think so. That’s actually extremely, extremely addictive. Also, how about the peer pressure from a 13 year old? She’s like, come on, Camille, just do it. And she’s like, Well, all right. I guess that works. Choose your player. Who’s your favorite character in this one. John Keane. Okay, not who I had. He’s the brother of one of the murdered girls, and everyone points at him as the dude that was definitely the murderer. The reason he’s sad over his sister dying. Wait, what? He’s the only nice, rational dude in the book. He’s just like, yeah, I’m really broken up. I’m in a shitty town that everyone here sucks. Which is true. Everyone in the town sucks. And my sister just got murdered. I’m pretty upset about it. No teenage boy would be this upset. He must be guilty. And then also, he’s the only one that actually treats Camille with respect when he sees the scars, which is telling of his character. He’s a good guy. I totally agree. He’s my favorite. By far. He’s the only good person in the whole town. The only good person in the book. Really in terms of moral character, although, like, hey, I have no experience in the area. But if your sister’s getting murdered, are you really going to go and you’re potentially a suspect, like, you’re going to go to a high school party with all these weird high school kids and let them just sit there and be like, murderer, like, straight Gollum shit. Well, he bounces after that, right? I mean, plus, John Keane, he ends up having sex with Camille older woman. Nice. Good on him. Nice. My character was Curry, the editor, the food? No, the editor. He rips heaters. He drinks like a fish. He seems just like a straight shooter. No bullshit. That’s what we like here, buddy. But club. And on top of that, he also cares a lot about Camille. He helped her out when she was in the hospital. He seems an overall concern for her. Wellbeing, even though he sent her on this trip, he keeps checking and say, hey, you can back out whatever you want. Like, do you want to come home? It is interesting, though, that he encouraged her to take a book deal about her family, literally, right after her mom goes to jail for murdering her sister and her half sister goes to jail for murdering and disfiguring the bodies of three girls. That is not a great look, Curry. Okay, maybe give it some time. Have you heard of a grieving period? Because give her a little bit of time. And then maybe a year, two years down the road, she’s still kind of struggling along and say, hey, you are a writer. Why don’t you write this story as opposed to being like, right after, like, oh, yeah, take that book deal. And then she starts cutting herself. Maybe I shouldn’t let you take that book deal, but outside of that, I like the guy seems like he’s got a nice situation. Nice wife. Good guy. Let’s jump into some love hate. What did you love about sharp objects? I think from a love perspective, it was just great overall writing. It felt super real. I was anxious reading it and depressed reading it because it just seemed like it wasn’t fiction. Most of the time we read or at least a lot of the books I read is the fantasy aspect. It’s a different world. It’s not real. It felt like it was a real town. And I was like, Holy shit, just people in the town, the gossip, the way they treated people in the town. It was just like, oh, this is gross. It’s so depressing to think about. And obviously this is probably hopefully based mostly in fiction, but it just felt like it was a real town. Is this what we would say is a noir where, like, everyone’s kind of slightly bad or there’s ambiguity about who’s good and who’s bad part about a noir that this ties into is having an antihero, who is the person that solves the case. But like, a lot of her characteristics are somewhat deplorable. Granted, she’s sick and she has her own sicknesses, too. But that part definitely ties into the new river. Some of it can be excused just because her mom was such a terrible person. But in the end of the book, there wasn’t really any redeeming qualities or great people other than my boy, Johnny Keane, who wasn’t from the town, which is why he probably was not a terrible person. Similar to what you said. One of the things I loved was the creepy family dynamic. And the way she wrote it just seemed real, like you said, but it was captivating, and it definitely sent shivers down your spine, even in seemingly mundane conversations with her mom. It was like, this is so weird. And there’s something else going on here. But Gillian Flynn, I feel like doing a really good job of kind of hiding that and making it seem like, yeah, this is weird, but it’s just this family. This is like, kind of the family dynamic here. And then it slowly unravels into, like, realizing the drugging and the voyeurism and just the creepy stuff that definitely had you captivated and uncomfortable. And I think the whole book was to definitely make you feel uncomfortable, because if it wasn’t, then it just did. For me, it definitely was uncomfortable. You just felt anxious reading it. Yeah. It was like, super uncomfortable scenes. And then that scene would be over and you’d be like, okay, maybe we’re going to have a break and she’s like, and then I just want to cut myself and it was like, oh, good God. One other thing I loved about it was high school parties. So this is kind of what I wanted to talk about. Girls stay the same age or what is Maddie McConnell best thing about high school girls? They stay the same age. All right, you get old and they say, Fuck, I flew it too. Yeah. Whatever. We know the quote is yeah. Oh, God. Matthew McConaughey, great job. Check out our previous podcast, Green Lights, Green Lights. Oh, that book was great. The more I get away from it, the better I think it is. But no high school parties just in general. I just love high school parties. It’s a bit of a reminiscing for me. Everything was simpler back then. Just hustling to find a 30 pack or whatever the case is, and enjoy it with a few buddies. Like I said, though, these high school parties are a little bit different. Ours were much different than the ones pictured in this book. We didn’t have any Ecstasy, Oxy, Cotton or women. Really? Of course, it was mostly like, let’s get a 30 pack or 230 packs if all the stars align and play some beer pong in the basement, and hopefully a couple of girls come join us. And if not, we’ll finish with some Mario Kart. Yeah, I think that’s most people, hopefully that’s a great upbringing. If you end the night with like, a couple of beer pong wins and some Mario Kart Championships under your belt and your buddy gives you a worn and thin blanket so you can sleep on his basement couch. That’s a great day with a light buzz. Obviously, you need the light buzz. One of the buddies got a text back from one girl. Hey, that brings the whole group up. Yeah, or even like the late night sneak out. Hey, meet them on the corner and then you pretend you’re way drunk because you had the 30 pack, which was really split between, like, twelve people. So you might have had, like, a beer and a half. You’re like, no, we got wasted. Unfortunately, this high school party is a little bit different and super creepy. And the one thing I talked earlier in the Disclaimer about how we can’t really relate to this. One thing I can relate to in this book is having a half sibling that is a generation gap away or two. I have a half brother who’s 16 years younger than me, and I can tell you that if he invited me to a high school party, now he’s now 18. Excuse me. 19 as of yesterday. Congratulations. But if he invited me to a high school party when he was in high school, that would be an easy no, I’m good. I did that. I’m going to pass. And even if for some reason he convinced me to go inside, I would have one beer and then be like, all right, maybe play a beer pong game. Good times and then leave. There is 0% chance anyone would be trying to pull me into a bedroom for an Ecstasy tongue swapping game or having me take a half pill of Oxy Cotton. Whatever the case is, these are high schoolers. I don’t care where you’re from. This is fucking weird. 100%. I understand it’s a book, but Goo. If I can use the words of Adam Sandler, a Goo. No, thank you. I will pass. Gross. Remember, I went to College two years after to go to a football game. And the night before, there was a house party, and I showed up in 23. Everyone else there is 19 to 21. It really isn’t that much of an age gap. And I got asked, like, three times what grade I was in, and I was like, I can’t do this. I just had to leave. I was like, those grad students are 23. It’s not really that big of a difference. And I love house party, you know, house party. Who doesn’t? But yeah, and I was like, I can’t take being asked one more time. Oh, I’m not in College. Imagine a 32 year old showing up in high school. Oh, my God. Well, the best part is she’s middle school. Yeah. She’s getting brought to a high school party by her middle school sister. What did you hate about the book? I kind of wish that it just ended. And I think you alluded to this already, but the ending was very quick. It was like, two pages. I mean, two audiobook pages. I wish it kind of just ended with Adora being the killer. I thought that was the perfect wrap up and worst case, I think if Emma had killed the other girl, Libby, I think. Yeah, Libby as like a copycat kill. Like my mom. She was looking at the serial killers and all this stuff, and she just became she’s so, like, fucked up in the head at that point that she just copycat at her mom. That would make sense. But her killing those two girls when she’s 13, and not only that, being able to strangle them as a 13 year old, I think strangle both pretty hard. And they alluded to that multiple times. This person had to be really strong. They strangled the person. They pulled teeth out. Yeah. Not only that, she also had three accomplices. How are you keeping that intact? They did say that the one girl was kind of on the outs, and they were about to kill her. And it kind of almost reminded me of what was that one, like the Slenderman killings or whatever, where those girls said they killed those girls, killed another kid. And they said, oh, the slender man told me to do it, but I kind of going to disagree with you on that. It would have been better if it was a copycat killing. Well, two pieces here one. I liked how it wasn’t. And it all came down to, like, that doll house where she used the teeth for the tile floor because they couldn’t find the teeth. And it came out like, oh, no, that’s a tile floor. And it was like, oh, gross. And then she used Camille’s hair to do the rug in Camille’s room. It was just almost like I could see it in film, where everything’s kind of buttoned up and everything’s good. The mom’s in jail. And then it turns out, Holy shit. Now you just see the daughter’s dollhouse and the teeth in them and be like, oh, my God, it’s her. So I thought that was actually like, the really good twist, especially because they led so much to it being the mom that I actually was like, oh, okay. She got me. She got me with this one. That was good. But what I will say is, hey, people here if there’s a daughter that’s been abused with Munchausen by proxy, and you just instead let her go with her sister after her mom. It turns out her mom murdered her other sister. You put her up with her half sister and say, go to a therapist, and she goes a couple of times, but it’s like, no, I’m not good. You’re probably not doing your job because she should be really looked after, especially if she says, one of the things I hated was Camille not seeing what’s right in front of her face with Emma going to the slaughterhouse. And just like, laughing with the guys there as these pigs are getting slaughtered and then giggling the whole time about the girls dying and ultimately saying, Camille, what if you need to hurt to feel good? And Camille literally turns over and goes, go to sleep, like, what did you hear? What you just said to you? Well, she has been hurting people’s feelings and being an asshole to everyone. I can understand that part. Maybe it was the narrator, but the way that she said it was like, the way that I took it was like, she needed to physically hurt, to feel good. That’s kind of what led me to be like, okay, Emma is involved in this somehow, whether it was her and her mom doing it together or something. But that girl’s fucked up. But I did like the twist. I did like the twist of her doing that with separate of her mom and her mom actually not doing the killings, but it was a jealousy type thing. Where, hey, I’ll let you fuck with me to her mom, but no other girls. And then her mom took other girls, and she goes, okay, well, I’ll figure that one out real fucking quick. I also think, though, like, everything they had kind of led you to in terms of the trail. This was done not in the open, which ended up being done in the open for both of them. This was done, like somewhere hidden. There was no evidence at all. How do 413 year old girls CSI that shit out of that? Richard was a horrible investigator. What it comes down to? He’s fucking trash at his job. Okay. I think they said they were like, oh, yeah. He used the golf cart to transport this dead body at four in the morning. Yes. Have you sat on a golf cart to know how much electrical power they have? Very little. And also that thing is going to run. Yeah, Allen was driving. I think Allen just drove there because Allen is such a fucking worthless piece of shit. He probably was just like, oh, you want to draw this dead body there? Yeah, sure. That’s fine. Well, he’s so out to lunch that he probably didn’t even realize they’re like, oh, what’s this thing in the back? Oh, that’s our other friend. Oh, she’s pretty quiet. Yeah, she is quiet. She doesn’t talk a lot. It’s like we’re just going to leave her here. Yeah, that would actually make a lot of sense. Yeah. Also another thing I hated that a 13 year old girl is the quote unquote it girl in town. She’s the Bee’s knees. She’s 13. There’s a whole town of people. So you’re telling me there’s not a 16 to 18 year old that all the high school guys are interested in. Instead, everyone’s cow towing to this 13 year old because she’s like, bossy. No, I’m sorry. A little weird. Very weird. I mean, this town is just really fucked up, really fucked up. We just bombed the town and then just be called a day, as I’ve been known to do. And I am an amazing author. I would think that a better way in order to make the killings a little bit more interesting. Was it was just Emma, but she dispose of the bodies by feeding them to the pigs. And they were like, missing cases. Bodies.

Participant #1:

What’s the second sans the last movie, Hannibal. Isn’t that what he did in Hannibal? I know that pigswift are like, hungry will eat the whole body. So that would make more sense because there’s no evidence of the bodies. I just couldn’t believe that there’d be two dead bodies. Zero evidence of four people transporting them, their kids. They’re not strong. All these things. Like, how are they cleaning up so well? Yeah. And especially because they did so many things, like they shaved her legs, they painted her fingernails, they did her hair. I think the smartest serial killers of all time in their 13. Yeah, it’s not like they covered her in bleach and then threw them in a dumpster or something. It was like, no, we did all this other stuff, so. Yeah, that was a little odd. Just a general question I had also is, how is Camille riding on herself? Is she ambidextrous and how she got in her back? And how is she doing these things? Wow, that’s actually pretty astute. Thank you. You’re better than Richard. Richard’s reaction, too, when he saw that Richard wasn’t a bad person until then. What if I disagree with you more? I’ll get into this right here because one of the things I hate about this book is Richard and his sense of boundaries. For one, when he tells Camille her mom is a murderer, which is wrong. Good job, Richard. Maybe get half pay this month. You suck at your job. But when he tells Camille her mom is a murderer. He grabs her thigh. Dude, take your hand off her thigh. Like, what are you doing? Don’t put your hand on somebody in a weird sexual manner, especially when you’re telling them that their mom’s a murder. And then on top of that, what you were just talking about when Camille gets out of the bath as they’re arresting her mom, she’s, like, in her bathrobe, and he just takes her bathrobe off. Like, what are you doing? Dude, she’s in a bathroom with a robot, and he just takes it off and sees all these scars on her, and it’s like, oh, my God, you’re disgusting. It’s like, no, bro, you’re disgusting. Get your hands off of her. He’s a creep and a bad investigator. He’s a bad policeman. He should have his badge taken and his gun taken and be sent out to pasture, just like all those cows in the slaughterhouse. Richard, you’re canceled. Get out. Wait, who’s. Where is Allen or Richard? Then that’s the question. Well, sorry. I think Allen for me. Allen’s like an apathetic. Kind of just that’s an insult to apathetic. He just lets himself get walked all over and doesn’t realize what’s happening around him. He might be tranquilized himself. He’s probably taking those horse tranquilizers and just living his life like that. Where Richard is supposed to be like, an astute observant and understanding of people’s feelings. Person, considering he’s a murder investigator. Yes, he’s really a shitty murder investigator and a sexual assault artist because all he does is sexually assault people. And I use artists in a poor term there, but he’s trying to make it his own little art form, and it’s disgusting. I don’t want any of it. It is weird that Richard got cheated on, and he has less of a reaction to that than when he sees someone like scars on their body. His whole moral Compass is kind of that’s everyone. And hey, Richard, all of us have scars. All of us have scars, some more than others, Papa Roach, some more than others. Most of our scars that we have are visible, but in some people, their scars aren’t. And you should be okay with that, because her non visible scars, she made a visual representation of them. And I’m sorry if that doesn’t fit what you think is feminine, Richard, or human, but fuck off just literally fuck off. Richard, I’m sick of it. Also, he’s an FBI agent that has talked about how he saw, like, kids getting murdered, and he’s dealt with a ton of weird shit. So I think you’ll have a little bit of a better bedside manner than being like, oh, gross to someone, to their faith. Whoa, bro, this is your first day on the job. How about relax a little bit, even if you think that keep that in turn. What the hell are you doing? You’ve seen things. You understand that people are all different and weird stuff goes down. Yes, anyone should know. It should be him. Yeah. And if anything, be supportive of this person who has obviously had some trauma in their life and not just, like, shun them and go gross up by it. Especially because you are the one that pulled off her rope. She didn’t try to tell you, and then you’re grown up. Oh, my God. I missed those two things. He just, like, takes her robots. It was like, fucking weird. He also was like, yeah, just get poisoned and we’ll deal with that. Yeah. So I’m glad. I think you’ve turned the square cap on, Richard. Thank you. I didn’t realize how bad it was. And now that you’re bringing these other factors, and I’m like, Wait a second. Yeah, she’s like, oh, I got poisoned. He’s like, oh, my God, I can’t believe you didn’t come here. It’s like, you’re not concerned about me getting poisoned what you wanted for your investigation so you can get a promotion at work. Fuck you. Okay. Did you hate anything else about this book Besides Richard? Now, thank you. Debate club victory. Last thing was for someone that is meticulously clean, with which a door was. Everything needs to be perfect. Just having all the evidence to indict you just lying around and not finding those pliers that are just hanging in your cushion or something. I don’t know, just, like, randomly somewhere that you’d obviously clean. It seemed like she wasn’t very meticulous or really on top of it. And then writing a diary to basically saying, yeah, I killed these people or my daughter. What are you doing? What are you doing? Yes. Well, on the stage of the pliers, maybe fire the house nanny or whatever the other woman was because she’s not doing her job. She didn’t find those, and she’s fluffing the cushions. She’s obviously not fluffing the cushions. Get her out of there. I don’t blame her. I mean, she definitely hated Dora. She had one too many conversations about how the meat should be cooked. And she was like, Fuck this bitch. They probably were hidden, and she put them in an obvious place to find. Oh, yeah, that’s like, I mean, as someone that likes to Cook myself, it’s like, when I’m making dinner for people or something and someone’s boyfriend or whatever shows up and he’s like, oh, how are you doing that? I’m going to reverse sear it. He’s like, oh, you don’t think that you should just hit it hard in the pan? Like, Aren’t you eating at my house? My meal, like, get the fuck out of my kitchen. That’s why I thought you’d be incensed by Allen because Allen was, like, correcting her cooking technique. I was like, this motherfucker. You don’t come in and tell someone how to Cook things. Well, that was the only time he brings her to the table. That was the only time Allen showed any emotion. So I respected it because even though he’s dead at all the times doesn’t even respect his daughter. He’s concerned about the meal. So, hey, yeah, maybe he’s a robot the whole time. Last thing I hated was they did reference some sex on pool tables. And I just want to get this out in the air that I never understood that. I know that was kind of like a trope in movies and books of like, oh, high school party. Someone has sex on the pool table or like Van Wilder or something. But as I grow in age and would like to have a pool table of my own one day, not only do I not understand the sex on the pool table in terms of logistics because it can’t be comfortable. There’s a rail that’s right on the edge of the table, and then it’s a drop onto some felt. Also, the height just doesn’t really make any sense for a comfortable sex place. And I mean, with those things being said, that doesn’t even get into the integrity of the surface itself. The felt on a pool table is fragile and expensive to replace. So if you got any sort of bodily fluids on there, you can’t get that out with the brush you normally use to brush down a pool table. So that’s a concern. And then on top of that, the rails that I previously spoke about, they really shouldn’t be fucked with. I mean, the rails are not only once again expensive, but they are set in a very specific way to have a nice bounce for the ball against it. So if someone was to have sex on that and potentially bend a rail, especially in an odd position, so the rail wasn’t even it would really bother me. I know kids kind of water their parents’liquor down and those things can be dealt with and maybe a quick argument or a grounding. But if my child was to ever fuck with my pool table, no, they’re getting stuffed in between the hardware store and the beauty salon, I’m ripping their tents out because that would be a no go for me. So sex and pool tables don’t understand it in a logistics way and also expensive fix. Those are nice features. Don’t fuck on pool table. Simple as that. Go somewhere else. Use account listener mail. We do. Listener. Oh, we love you’ve got mail. This is Ellie from San Diego. It’s a great name. Is that? Sure for Eleanor? Do we know? I would say yes. We don’t know her. So, yeah, totally sharp objects further proves my dislike and distrust of children. Okay, go on. I was genuinely surprised by the ending and appreciated how well Gillian? Is it Gillian or Gillian? I think it’s Gillian. I hope so. Gilligan travel. Gilligan. Gilligan. What is that? Gilligan Gullivers travels. Same difference. Gillian Flynn tied little details together throughout the book. Like the dollhouse. If that little shit sister were your sister. You found the dollhouse in the end. What would the buddies have done? Great question, Ellie. I appreciate the comment there. I’ll let you go first, Dean man. Okay, good. Because I’m going to take this before I give it to you who actually has a younger sister and probably provide some greater insight. But I would probably sell it on Ebay. I mean, that’s a total, unique structure. Not only did she decide to tile, oh, we’re talking about the girl, not the dollhouse. Well, yeah. I mean, this is a serial killer stallhouse. She put teeth from victims in it. There’s a hair rug, a lot of money. Nothing would sell. But in terms of the sister itself, Besides being absolutely disgusted and to think about the meticulous nature in terms of like. I mean, I’ve tiled the bathroom floor before, but I’ve never tiled one with human teeth, so I feel like that would be more difficult. And you’d see that they had really thought about the placement of these. Plus, all teeth are different. It’d be like a mosaic almost where you have to kind of like, okay, Molars. Okay. It’s got to go, Molar. And then front teeth, and then maybe some canines here. You’d really have to think about it anytime I’m around a psychopath. So you realize this person is a psychopath? My response is same response as if I saw a bear. No matter what the book tells, you stand big. Do this thing. No, I’m always running. So I’m always running. Simple as that. I would run. I’d run to a police station because people will kill you. Even a child. A child could kill you. So I’d run to the police station, and I’d get as far away from possible. There is a psychopath in my house. Please arrest them. But leave the dollhouse because that’s going to sell on Ebay for a lot of money. What do you think, Keith? I mean, for a previous episode, Hunting party, we know that as young as four year olds can kill you. So you’re right on that point. And my way of dealing with this is really just literally dropping everything and moving to Europe. See you later. I’m changing my name. I’m getting the fuck out of there. I’m not dealing with any of the consequences. Anything that deal with my family name. I’m not sticking around that town. I’m saying, fuck you. Fuck you. You’re cool. Fuck you. I’m out. I’m out, I’m gone. And that’s just easy for me. I don’t know if that says a lot about me. It’s a man, but that’s how I’m dealing with that. Yeah, I totally agree. Like I said, I’m afraid of all things that murder. So I’m good on any sort of child. I’m not going to sit them down and have a conversation with them or be like, Amma, you should have done this. So, yeah, I’m with you there. And also, I respect a good half baked reference. So thanks on that. Let’s cast the movie quickly. Obviously, this has been made into an HBO series featuring Amy Adams, who I think was a phenomenal cast. I think in terms of casting, her was perfect. She looks the part does the part. From what I understand, I watched, like, ten minutes of it just to kind of get a Gander. So because that kind of cemented into my head. And because every time I open the audiobook, that’s the picture, I see, I get it on there. But for Adora, I kind of like Frances Conrad, who’s the mom from 6ft under. She was also in a lot of American horror story, so she not only does the aging mother vibe really well, but she obviously does the creep, like, very creepy person. Really? Well. So I think she can kind of without even kind of speaking, she can do the uncomfortable, creepy vibe that you get from Adora. So I liked her. I did not yet meet the mom in the TV show, so I’m not sure how she did, but I think that casting was fine, too. I completely agree. I kept on seeing the image so I couldn’t get out of my head. Those two actresses that they cast as the mum and daughter. The question I had was like, who would play Emma? You have to have the best actress of all time. So what’s interesting in the show is for Amma they have the girl from it using the it movies, like the recent ones. Oh, you should watch those. Those are really good. I heard they weren’t great. I liked them. I mean, I’ve seen the old one and the new one, and I like the way they did the new one better in terms of breaking it up into two parts. But they have the girl in that who I thought was really good in the show. So the only other person I could think of was the redhead from Stranger Things. I said stranger things. Yeah. Like the girl that everyone kind of likes, but she’s tomboyish. And whatnot? Yeah. Okay. She’s in the new Taylor Swift video. You know what? I’m sorry. The girl from it plays the young version of Camille. So I haven’t seen the other one, the only one I had until you kind of convinced me of Richard Willis, the Detective. There was, like, the worst. I thought, like, Bradley Cooper would be good. Yeah. I feel like his role in what’s it called American American Hustle. Yeah. American hustle. That is, like, who I pictured as this guy, like, the kind of guy that would celebrate, like, oh, I saw the case and be like, so happy about that. You remember the scene where he kind of just shipped everyone. Yeah. That’s who I just thought of for whatever reason. He also plays, obviously, I think, like an FBI agent or some sort of government agency in that as well. Before I realized that I hated Richard, too, I was like, oh, just bring Jeremy Renner back and do like the arrival cast all over again. Oh, yeah. Why not? I think he needs to be a little bit more like Smarmy or whatever, because Richard sucks. Let’s get to it. Would you recommend this book to not our listeners? Considering if you’ve listened to this, then you probably don’t want to read it. But would you recommend this book to a friend family dog? Yeah. I think this is a lot of people ask for recommendations on psychological thrillers. I think this is right up there. What I’m really disappointed about is I didn’t read Gone Girl before I saw the movie. Just the movie was amazing. I thought I thought it was super well written. I thought it’s super well acted, but I bet the book is just as good, if not better. So I’m upset because I think Gillian Flynn, I think the next book that comes out from her. It’s almost a must read. I just think her writing is that good, just based off congirl. Yes, I agree with you. I would definitely recommend this book to someone. It’s a short read. It’s not like a big lift, and it keeps you captivated. She’s a really good writer. I enjoyed it. I think that Gone Girl is probably a better book, but like you, I didn’t read it. I just saw the movie, but the story itself is just better. I think it’s just more interesting and less of just like a total Debbie Downer. But for a real Debbie Downer crime psychological thriller kind of vibe. This hits. So we’re there onto the next book, onto the next book. We’re going to be taking it back old school, and we’re going to finish the year strong with our 20th book in Gary Paulson’s Hatchet. I know we’ve actually referenced this in our last podcast, so it just hit me. You know what? Let’s go back down memory Lane. Let’s read a 6th grade book that’s just for fun. And it’s also a super quick read. And if you haven’t read Hatchet, from what I remember, it was great. So just a great survival type story. So hopefully you guys checked and then come back and listen to us here because we’ll be breaking it down until next time, right? Yeah. Till next time. Like I said, take care.