Sharp Objects

Adora is Camille’s mother. Never having worked a day in her life, she is an heiress to an industrial pig farm. Adora is charming, and beautiful. However, despite her amicable veneer, she is a cold-hearted murderer. Having been diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP), she slowly poisoned Camille’s little sister, Marian, to death to gain attention from the townspeople. She tried to slowly poison Camille when Camille was a child as well, but Camille wouldn’t take her medicine and Adora gave up on her.

Adora got pregnant with Camille at age seventeen as the result of a one-night stand at a church camp, and Adora’s parents died shortly after they found out she was pregnant. Adora says that Camille was disobedient from her birth, refusing to breastfeed, and she directly tells Camille that she never loved her. She blames her lack of love on the fact that Camille reminds her of her mother, Joya, a woman who never showed Adora any affection. In this way, Adora is repeating the cycle of abuse that her mother started. 

Camille’s thirteen-year-old half-sister, Amma, is described as physically beautiful, with long blonde hair, soft skin, and voluptuous breasts. While at home, in front of Adora, Amma acts like a sweet little girl, playing with her dollhouse and resting her head on Adora’s lap. But while away from home, Amma transforms into an illegal-drug using, drinking, partying girl with a violent side. These differences represent an emotional chasm that exists within Amma. While she plays nice in rare moments throughout the novel, Amma bullies Anna and Natalie and mistreats her friends in humiliating ways. Knowing that Amma killed Ann and Natalie demonstrates how she, like her mother, perpetuates a cycle of abuse on those around her. 

Both little girls were once friends with Amma, and both were murdered by Amma. Also, both Ann and Natalie had a troubled past with violence. Ann killed a neighbor’s bird and bit Adora on the wrist, causing her to need stitches, while Natalie stabbed a former classmate in the eye and bit the earlobe off of her brother’s girlfriend. Adora likens these girls to Camille, calling them both wild animals. Due to the girls’ obsession with biting and stabbing, a connection is made to Camille, who, like the girls, uses sharp objects to inflict harm. The main difference, of course, is that the little girls enacted violence on others, while Camille carried out violence on herself. 

John is the older brother of the deceased Natalie Keene. He and his family are new to town, and before the murders all the women dote on John’s attractiveness and beauty. However, after the murder, the town thinks that he is the killer. He and Camille share a connection because they both understand what it’s like to have a deceased little sister. Once, while John is drunk and contemplating self-harm, he and Camille have sex. Camille lets him see and touch her naked, scarred body, and in this way she and John become the only two characters in the entire novel who demonstrate vulnerability with each other. 

Originally from Kansas City but recruited onto the murder case, Richard is an attractive detective who isn’t happy with Wind Gap’s small-town lifestyle. He and Camille are immediately attracted to each other because of their shared hatred of Wind Gap, and they end up having sex and sharing many drinks. However, during sex he isn’t aware of Camille’s scarred body because she deliberately keeps her clothes on during the act.Unbeknownst to Camille, Richard suspects Adora of the murders, but keeps it a secret around Camille until the end of the novel. Camille becomes angry with Richard because she thinks that he used her to get closer to Adora, but he’s adamant that he truly had feelings for Camille. While searching Adora’s bedroom, Richard sees Camille’s scarred body for the first time, and it’s clear that he is disgusted by it. Once Camille goes back to Chicago, she never hears from him again.