Flynn, Gillian 1971-

PERSONAL: Born 1971, in Kansas City, MO. Education: Northwestern University, M.A.

ADDRESSES: Home— Chicago, IL. Office— Entertainment Weekly, P.O. Box 60001, Tampa, FL 33660-0001 Agent— Stephanie Kip Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency, 307 7th Ave., Ste. 2407, New York, NY 10001.

CAREER: Entertainment Weekly, Tampa, FL, film and television critic.

WRITINGS

Sharp Objects (novel), Shaye Areheart Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to Entertainment Weekly.

SIDELIGHTS: Gillian Flynn serves as film and television critic for Entertainment Weekly and writes fiction in her free time. Flynn’s first novel, Sharp Objects, was delayed for a time when Flynn earned the prime assignment to cover the making of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy during its filming in New Zealand. However, Flynn returned to her novel after the film project was completed, and the result was a well-received thriller about a reporter named Camille, who returns to the small Midwestern town where she was raised in order to investigate the murders of a number of children. During the investigation, Camille also finds herself forced to deal with her own dysfunctional family and her scarred psyche. Flynn credits her own prolific reading and reviewing of mystery novels with her ability to maintain suspense throughout her own work, as well as her efforts to set a specific atmosphere for the book. In an interview for the Redbook Bookclub Online, Flynn stated: “I wanted Sharp Objects to have the feel of a fairy-tale gone really wrong: The evil, jealous queen (Camille’s mother), the town surrounded by haunted woods, the attacks on children. Camille, then, is the beautiful young girl in serious danger that every good fairy tale has. In this story, she’s as much in danger from herself as she is from outside forces.” Joanne Wilkinson, in a review for Booklist, found that Flynn’s effort was “fueled by stylish writing and compelling portraits of desperate housewives, southern style,” calling the book an “impressive debut novel.” A contributor for Kirkus Reviews called the book “a savage debut thriller that renders the Electra complex electric, the mother/daughter bond a psychopathic stranglehold.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August 1, 2006, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Sharp Objects, p. 49.

Bookmarks, January-February, 2007, review of Sharp Objects, p. 43.

Chicago Tribune Books, October 29, 2006, Alan Cheuse, “A Sharply Written, Compelling Debut Novel,” review of Sharp Objects, p. 6.

Entertainment Weekly, September 29, 2006, Gilbert Cruz, review of Sharp Objects, p. 89.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2006, review of Sharp Objects, p. 690.

Library Journal, August 1, 2006, Nancy McNicol, review of Sharp Objects, p. 68.

People, October 30, 2006, Natalie Danford, review of Sharp Objects, p. 45.

Publishers Weekly, August 14, 2006, Suzanne Mantell, review of Sharp Objects, p. 88; August 21, 2006, review of Sharp Objects, p. 50.

ONLINE

Random House Web site, http://www.randomhouse.com/ (January 13, 2007), author spotlight.

Redbook Bookclub Online, http://youarehere.redbook.ivillage.com/ (January 13, 2007), Rebecca Davis, author interview.*