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Gillian Flynn writes ugly.
Characters have teeth soaked in brown tobacco saliva.
Their backs are full of zits so big they looked like wounds.
But most are still genteel, in their own way.
Gillian Flynn, on the other hand, encourages readers to feel disgusted, particularly by her female characters.
WhenGone Girlleaped off bookstore shelves in 2012, it filled a need that many readers didnt know they had.
With its story of a marriage gone off the rails, it titillated happy couples and disgruntled exes alike.
It took subject matter well-traversed a spouse gone missing and heightened the stakes.
There are no leads, no witnesses, and a thousand rumors circulating.
In Wind Gap, gossip is the most potent form of currency.
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For Camille, returning to Wind Gap is a dangerous dip back into the past.
She drinks heavily, as if it sustains her.
She has no friends to speak of, with the exception of her gruff but loving editor.
There is no softness to her, nor any pep.
Her memories are bile-coated, her manners nonexistent, and her general demeanor is spiky and unapproachable.
The dirt floor was rusted with blood.
The walls were covered with photographs of naked women.
Some of the girls were spreading themselves wide, others were being held down and penetrated.
Gore abhors and attracts Camille in equal measure.
And yet Camille is, somehow, the most grounded woman in her family.
I hope you’ve got the option to stand yourself.
There isnt an ounce of sympathy in her soul for someone who would mutilate herself.
Bodies exist for Adora to tame and control.
Meanwhile, teenage Amma has already mastered the art of duplicity.
The whole thing is ruined!
she screams, in a full-blown tantrum more befitting a toddler than a teenager.
In a fit of jealousy, she proclaims to her mother I wish Id be murdered.
… Then Id never have to worry again.
When you die, you become perfect.
Id be like Princess Diana.
Everyone loves her now.
But with her friends, Amma proudly displays the breasts of a grown woman.
Late one night in bed, she whispers, What if you hurt because it feels so good?
Like you have a tingling, like someone left a switch on in your body.
And nothing can turn the switch off except hurting?
Its unclear if Amma is talking about hurting herself or other people.
And its no coincidence that Amma is an anagram for Mama.
In hot and sticky Missouri, she wears long-sleeve T-shirts and ankle-length skirts to cover up.
It was the year she was 13, the same age as Amma.
More devious and yes, wicked, than most, perhaps.
I will never understand where your penchant for ugliness comes from, Adora tut-tuts at Camilles career choice.
Seems like you have enough of that in life without deliberately seeking it out.
Its a query lobbed at the reader as well.
Why seek out this darkness?
Why revel in finally seeing female villains so nasty and loathsome?
Everyone wants to see themselves reflected in art, even our nastiest, most secret little bits.
