Sharp Objects

Your five, yeah.

Which is Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

Did not make my list.

I looked real hard at it, so take it away.

No.

Um, but after Gone Girl, people went back to the other Gillian Flynn books.

Sharp Objects I think is the better of the two other Gillian Flynn books.

It came in at number 19 on that New York Times list of the be- the 50 best thrillers of the century so far, which of course Gone Girl was number one on.

Oh, yeah.

I actually read Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn first.

I love, I love her.

I know.

When I read that book, I was like, this is all I ever want to read and write.

And it was like, I never looked back.

And Sharp Objects specifically, just, oh my God, that sister.

Yeah.

I'm a big fan of her first book, which I truly love.

Is Sharp Objects the second one? Sharp Objects is the second, I think.

What was the first one? I can't remember.

The Dark.

But the other thing is...

Kind of a rising star, you know, sharp objects, dark places.

Yeah.

There's like you can clearly follow her trajectory.

an American author

and, as you've just alluded to, also a screenwriter and a producer.

She's best known for her three thriller and mystery novels, Sharp Objects, which was published in 2006, Dark Places in 2009 and then Gone Girl in 2012.

Her works have been published in 40 languages and And Gone Girl, I couldn't get the exact figures, but it's clear that it's sold over 20 million copies worldwide, so making it one of the biggest books that have been in publishing in the last couple of decades.

So this brings me to the subject of likable characters.

Mira muses, if we wanted only likable characters in our novels and movies and plays, there'd be no Macbeth, Anna Karenina, Pulp Fiction, Sharp Objects, or the talented Mr. Ripley.

And I certainly don't need the characters in any book I read to be likable.

But we all probably know someone who will not like a book if they do not like the characters.