Books like Sharp Objects
What should you read after Gillian Flynn’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Gillian Flynn
- 2006
- Psychological thriller
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Sharp Objects
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchThe Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins
Another woman investigating a crime while being the least reliable person in the story, drinking through the parts she most needs to remember. Flynn's damage, Hawkins's momentum.
- A reporter sent back home
- Short, mean and quick
- Female violence taken seriously
- The twist is telegraphed
Great matchGone Girl
Gillian Flynn
Flynn's best-known book and her nastiest — the same interest in how women perform sweetness and what is underneath it, aimed at a marriage instead of a mother.
- Female violence taken seriously
- A mother who is the real threat
- Short, mean and quick
- Neither narrator is likeable
Great matchThe Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides
A woman who will not speak, a man determined to make her, and a final act that reframes the whole thing. Slicker and colder than Flynn, and enormously readable.
- Short, mean and quick
- Female violence taken seriously
- Characters serve the twist
Worth a look — with a warningThe Woman in the Window
A.J. Finn
A woman who cannot leave her house, drinks too much, and may have seen a murder. Competent, quick, and openly derivative of the books above.
- Short, mean and quick
- A reporter sent back home
- Very familiar beats
Best for the town closing ranksBig Little Lies
Liane Moriarty
A community that knows exactly what happened and has agreed not to say, told with wit rather than dread. The Wind Gap dynamic, in daylight.
- A small town closing ranks
- Female violence taken seriously
- A mother who is the real threat
- Much lighter tone
Best for the psychological weightIn the Woods
Tana French
A detective investigating a child's death in the wood where he lost his own childhood. French writes the compromised-investigator premise better than anyone.
- A reporter sent back home
- Two dead girls
- A small town closing ranks
- One thread deliberately unresolved
Worth a look — with a warningThe Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
The dead girl gets to narrate, which is the reverse of what Flynn does. Beautiful on grief and a family coming apart; not remotely a thriller.
- Two dead girls
- A mother who is the real threat
- Narrated from an afterlife
Best for more of the same authorDark Places
Flynn's other Missouri book: a woman who testified against her brother as a child, dragged back into it decades later. Same soil, same cruelty.
- A reporter sent back home
- A small town closing ranks
- Female violence taken seriously
- Author data missing in our records
Worth a look — with a warningThe Killing Lessons
Saul Black
A hard, fast serial-killer novel with a female detective who is coming apart. It goes further into the violence than Flynn does and offers less to think about.
- Two dead girls
- Female violence taken seriously
- Graphic violence against women
Great matchBefore I Go to Sleep
S.J. Watson
A woman rebuilding her own past from notes, unsure which of the people around her is lying. Camille's problem, with the memory loss made total.
- Short, mean and quick
- A mother who is the real threat
- Repetitive by construction
Great matchThe Death of Mrs. Westaway
Ruth Ware
A cold house, a family with a story they have agreed on, and a young woman with no business being there. Ware does gothic atmosphere better than most of this shelf.
- A mother who is the real threat
- A small town closing ranks
- Southern-Gothic heat
- Solution is fairly tidy
Best for the buried traumaLuckiest Girl Alive
Jessica Knoll
A woman with a flawless magazine life and a school-age catastrophe underneath it. The voice is Flynn-adjacent and unusually good on how women armour themselves.
- Female violence taken seriously
- A reporter sent back home
- Words carved into skin
- Depicts sexual assault directly
Worth a look — with a warningThe Good Girl
Mary Kubica
An abduction told from several angles, with a reveal at the end that some readers love and some throw the book at. Easy, quick, and less demanding than Flynn.
- Short, mean and quick
- A mother who is the real threat
- The ending frustrates many readers
What should you read after Sharp Objects?
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins — another woman investigating a crime while being the least reliable person in the story, drinking through the parts she most needs to remember. Flynn's damage, Hawkins's momentum.
If what stayed with you was female violence taken seriously, read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn instead: flynn's best-known book and her nastiest — the same interest in how women perform sweetness and what is underneath it, aimed at a marriage instead of a mother. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is the other strong option — a woman who will not speak, a man determined to make her, and a final act that reframes the whole thing. Slicker and colder than Flynn, and enormously readable.
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