Characters / Sharp Objects

WARNING: Due to the many twists and turns present in the book, NO SPOILERS WILL BE MARKED.

The Preaker-Crellins

Camille

Camille Preaker

Played by: Amy Adams (adult), Sophia Lillis (teen)

• Abusive Parents: Not only is Adora emotionally distant and cold, she also poisons Camille and her little sisters throughout all their childhood.
• Achey Scars: A non-supernatural example. Whenever she's under stress or some intense negative feeling, she feels certain words in her skin burning.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The mini-series adds to her Dark and Troubled Past the suicide of a teenage patient that she had befriended during her stay at the psych hospital.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Marian called her "Mille." Later, Amma also picks it up, and it's unclear if she did it independently or if she knew Marian used it.
  • Curry calls her "Cubby," after the Chicago Cubs, signifying his paternal affection for her.
• The Alcoholic: Is constantly drinking, mostly as a way to cope with the myriad of traumas she suffered in Wind Gap.
• Bastard Angst: She theorizes that her lack of self-identity comes from never knowing who her father was and Adora refusing to tell her, instead forcing Camille to treat Alan like her "real" dad, which wasn't reciprocated.
• Big Sister Instinct: She eventually displays this towards Amma when she realizes that Adora has Munchausen's by Proxy.
• Boyish Short Hair: The mini-series has her teenage self wearing a pixie cut.
• Broken Bird: See the number of tropes about her abusive parents, traumatic past, and self harm.
• Carved Mark: Camille self-harms by carving words into her skin.
• Child Hater: Except for Marian and the dead girls, Camille doesn't seem to be very fond of children in general judging by the way she regards the Nash children as well as the way she acts around any child that isn't John Keene (and even he's technically a legal adult).
• City Mouse: Despite being born and raised in Wind Gap, people see her as this due moving to Chicago (or St. Louis in the series) after High School and only coming back to report on the killings.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Is a recovering cutter and alcoholic full of self-loathing, which is aggravated when her boss sends her to investigate a series of murders in her hometown (forcing her to live in the same roof as her abusive mother). Nevertheless, she's still a kind person who after learning that her mother has been poisoning her and her sisters and might be behind Ann and Natalie's deaths does everything she can to bring her to justice and to help and protect Amma.
• Covered in Scars: Camille's entire body is covered in the words she carved on herself (with the exception of circle on the top of her back). Because of this, she's always covering herself up even when it's summer.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Abused by her mother, never got over Marian's death and sexually abused by older boys as a pre-teen.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments, mostly to cope with the horrific things happening around her.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Thanks to her emotionally neglectful and abusive upbringing, Camille is desperate for any kind of love that she can get, with her playing the Fille Fatale as a teen to get it, for example. As a grownup, she's still shown to seek the affection of Richard, her sister Amma and even Adora.
• Did Not Get the Girl: A gender inverted example. At the end of the novel Camille mentions that Richard never contacted her again after seeing her scars and that despite receiving a long letter from John the two ended up moving on with their respective lives.
• Disappeared Dad: Camille has no idea who her real father is and Adora refuses to tell her.
• Distracted by My Own Sexy: Admits having spent many hours in front of a mirror admiring herself after hitting puberty at thirteen.
• Emotional Regression: She notes that with her mother she reverts to the little girl she once was.
• Female Misogynist: To a degree in the book. The only people Camille ever even makes an effort to get along with are men and decides she trusts John is innocent after getting to really talk to him only once, even knowing her boss would scold her for being naive. She looks upon other women and even teenage girls with general suspicion and dislike if they perform femininity in the traditional ways that Camille herself resented being forced to do. She insists all young girls are awful to each other, and calls the only real mother figure she ever had, Jackie, "catty and shallow". She barely has a negative thing to say about any men, despite the fact that she had been abused by boys at least as badly as by her mother. Worst of all, while she grieves the murdered girls, she chews out Richard for saying the girl "passed around" at a party definitely got raped, because she thinks some women just make "bad choices". (Though that is clearly Camille unable to cope with the fact that she was the victim.)
• Fille Fatale: She used to be this as a teen but unlike Amma, it was a way to desperately be liked by submitting to others.
• Heroic BSoD: Has one when she puts together that Adora has been poisoning her and her sisters and is responsible for Marian's death. She also has a second one after Amma is sent to juvie for killing Ann and Natalie, resulting in her relapsing and nearly killing herself, only to be stopped by Curry and his wife.
• Heroic Bastard: She was born out of wedlock and tries to get to the bottom of who the killer is. In the end, she finds out that Adora has been poisoning her daughters and is responsible for Marian's death and with the Richard's help, manages to get her arrested.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Lets Adora "take care of her" to protect Amma and to get evidence of Adora's Muchausen by proxy, while knowing it could kill her like it did to Marian.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Used to be this. She admits that she used to furiously masturbate a lot and was sexually active by thirteen, although it was motivated for a need for affection and not all was consensual on her part.
• Hypocrite: Despite complaining about the catty and shallow behavior of the other women around her ranging from her mother's generation and her peers to even the teenage girls hanging around her sister, Camille's narration is full of insults toward any female she doesn't like including saying that a girl who isn't even a teenager yet can only hope for snack cakes and pity sex as well as catty remarks about how John is too good for his girlfriend.
• Immoral Journalist: Many people in Wind Gap treat her like this for writing about the murders of two young girls.
• Intrepid Reporter: Downplayed. She was sent to Wind Gap to report on the killings of Natalie and Ann. However, her scope of investigation is rather limited due to the police force not wanting to collaborate with her and even hiding stuff from her and her personal history with the town clouding her judgment. Also, people find her tasteless and invasive for writing about the murders of two young girls, especially the victims' parents.
• Like a Son to Me: The childless Curry treats Camille more akin to a daughter than a subordinate. At the end of the novel, he and his wife essentially adopt her.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Her family is the owner of the town's pig slaughtering business and was very lonely due to her abusive mother and losing her beloved little sister Marian.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Adora had Camille when she was just a teenager and refused to ever tell her the identity of her father. It's heavily implied that rather than him specifically doing anything to her, Adora just got pregnant and cut herself off from him so she could have Camille all to herself.
• Morality Pet: Becomes this to Amma during the story.
• Most Writers Are Writers: She's a journalist in a minor Chicago newspaper.
• Neat Freak: She notes that the only thing she got from her mother is her obsession with cleanliness.
• Nice to the Waiter: In sharp contrast to Adora and Allan, who are polite but frosty to Gayla, their housekeeper, the miniseries shows Camille being quite friendly to her, and the two share a warm hug upon her arrival in Wind Gap. Flashbacks show Gayla has worked for the Crellins since at least Camille's teens, and she's certainly kinder to Camille than her mother and stepfather ever were.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: The words she carved on herself are result of the abuse she endured and her complicated relationship towards femininity and womanhood.
• Promotion to Parent: After Adora is arrested, Camille begins to take care of Amma. However, it doesn't last long...
• Really Gets Around: Since she was thirteen, and not all of it was consensual on her part either.
• The Scapegoat: Adora will find a way to blame her for everything. Everything. Alan even calls her on it in the miniseries.
• Self-Harm: Into cutting herself since she was thirteen years old.
• She's All Grown Up: After hitting puberty and her sister's death, Camille turned into a Head-Turning Beauty and became very popular at her school.
• Stacy's Mom: Quite a lot of the teenagers in the story comment Camille is very pretty and she ends up sleeping with John Keene.
• Statuesque Stunner: In the novel she is described as being very beautiful and briefly mentions that she is 'tall' although her exact height isn't given.
• Tell Me About My Father: She's curious about her biological father's identity, or even simply what he was like, and sometimes asks about him, which Adora hates.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • Deconstructed. While Camille is noted to have been the nicest member of her bitchy clique in high school and her evil family, she notes over and over that she did nothing to actually stop any of the bullying, and therefore feels as responsible as if she had been an Alpha Bitch.
  • Played Straight with her family, where she's the only decent living member of it.
• Trophy Child: After Marian's death, Adora paraded her through the town like she was a doll until ignoring her after they came back home.
• The Unfavorite: Camille is this to both Marian and Amma, which actually saves her life in Marian's case and a great deal of her sanity in Amma's.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Despite knowing how terrible Adora is, Camille can't help but still hope to finally get some of her mother's love. It's shown best when she willingly submits herself to Adora's "treatment", not just to protect Amma but also to finally be taken care of by Adora.

Amma

Amity "Amma" Adora Crellin

Played by: Eliza Scanlen

• Abusive Parents: Adora poisons her daughters to gain people's sympathy, and Alan is implied to be quite distant.
• Alpha Bitch: An extremely sadistic version in the book.
• Attention Whore: As Camille notes, Amma can't stand having to compete for others for attention, especially not Adora's.
• Ax-Crazy
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Adora. They're the main villains of the book.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Played with. Camille can actually tell there is something very wrong with her, but assumes that Adora is the killer and views Amma as the Broken Bird victim of their mother.
• The Bully: She abuses her friends and dominates every girl at school with an iron fist.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: She was friends with Ann and Natalie before Adora started showing interest towards them.
• Control Freak: If Amma isn't in control, it bothers her and she disturbs Camille a great deal just to stay in control.
• Fille Fatale: Especially disturbing in the book, where she is thirteen. It doesn't help that she mentions that she specifically likes to have sex after Adora takes care of her (poisons her for attention).
• Icy Blue Eyes: Inherited from Adora.
• Jerkass: Though she has her reasons.
• No Sense of Personal Space: She displays a very poor understanding of boundaries with Camille, kissing her once on the lips and asking to share a bed. Given who her parents are and how over-sexualized she is, it's likely she doesn't really have a sense of how to display platonic affection in a healthy way.
• Pet the Dog: She tries to be kind with Camille after she sees her scars, and it's implied she starts to care about her. This doesn't end well.
• Really Gets Around: Again, at thirteen in the book.
• Sadist: She admits to loving hurting others.
• Serial Killer: Having killed three people by the end of the novel she is officially meets the definition of a serial killer.
• The Sociopath: Debatably. She displays casual promiscuousness, a Lack of Empathy and an enjoyment of pain. However, she does seem to bond with Camille and admits that sometimes she hates the Alpha Bitch routine, but keeps doing it because she knows the minute she shows vulnerability, the other girls will destroy her.
• Yandere: Amma loathes sharing attention with other people, especially regarding her mother, to the extent that she gets violent if she feels her mother might love someone more than her. Later, as she begins to develop affection for Camille, she becomes similarly possessive.

Adora

Adora Preaker Crellin

Played by: Patricia Clarkson

• Abusive Parents: If we give credit to what her friends say, she had a monstrous mother... And became one herself.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Amma. They're the main villains of the book.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She has a reputation for being beautiful and sophisticated but she's sick and twisted.
• Character Tics: When Adora is agitated, she pulls on her eyelashes.
• Evil Is Petty: She forces Camille, who is covered in self-harm scars to "try on" a revealing dress while shopping in Woodberry, knowing that it will humiliate her and force her to confront an issue she's struggled with for most of her life. The reason? She was angry at Camille for asking her to keep some roses she thought were bad and asking a question about her father. When Camille unsurprisingly doesn't respond well to this she says she's had a horrible day then goes to sulk in her room.
  • She eventually admits to never loving Camille while drunk. She seems to try and justify this by claiming that Camille was always "cold and distant" but the only concrete reasons that she gives are instances of Camille being disobedient. For example, cutting her own hair as a child when Adora wanted to put it up in curlers for a school photograph (which she never actually did).
• Evil Matriarch: To the Crellin family. Her own mother was one as well.
• Freudian Excuse: Her mother also had Munchausen's by Proxy.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Which she passed on to Amma.
• Kick the Dog: She went to visit Camille, who was in a psychiatric hospital, suffering with a severe self-harm problem, then spent the entire stay comparing her to her dead younger sister.
• More Deadly Than the Male: She totally dominates Alan.
• Münchausen Syndrome: Munchausen by proxy, specifically.
• Never My Fault: Adora always blames Camille for everything.
• Parental Favouritism: Marian was her favourite child, to the poor kid's detriment. And later Amma, who doesn't turn out much better.
• Southern Belle
• Teen Pregnancy: And Camille was the result.
  "Adora played that pregnancy beautifully: proud but a little broken, and very secretive. Your daddy came for that fateful visit, and then they never saw each other again. Your momma never spoke about it."
• Tsundere: Acknowledged as one in-universe; she has no interest in her kids unless they're sick.
• Turn Out Like His Father: Mother, but she still is exactly like her friends describe her mother.
• Villain with Good Publicity: She is a figure of great sympathy due to losing Marian, who she killed, and she tortures Amma.

Alan

Alan

• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the miniseries, he's far nicer to Camille, standing up for her and pointing out to Adora that not everything can be Camille's fault, and he's shown trying to celebrate her birthday with her in a flashback. His book counterpart showed no interest whatsoever in parenting her and just did what Adora told him.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Camille never had a close relationship with Alan and he never took on a fatherly role in her life so this makes sense.
• Did You Think I Can't Feel?: In the book, he never talks about how losing Marian affected him, and simply focuses on Adora, but in the miniseries, he pointedly asks her if, in twenty years, it ever occurred to her that he lost his daughter, too.
• Henpecked Husband: Adora is clearly in charge in their relationship although Alan doesn't seem to be bothered by this. After she is incarcerated for Marian's death he continues to visit her in prison and moves into an apartment to be closer to her showing that despite the power imbalance and Alan's inexpressiveness, he does genuinely care for her.
• House Husband: In the novel Camille mentions that he is one. His family's wealthy enough that he doesn't need to work.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: In the novel Jackie comments that he's exactly like Adora's father, Joya's husband, an unnoticeable, unremarkable man who defers to his wife's every whim.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In the miniseries, on Camille's birthday, the anniversary of Marian's death, Adora locks herself in Marian's room and won't acknowledge Camille. Alan, however, calls her into the kitchen, and it's revealed he had the housekeeper, Gayla, prepare a birthday cake, and the two start to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. Camille's too upset to appreciate it, but still, he did try.
  • Also in the miniseries, he tells Adora to quit blaming Camille for everything, which is the exact opposite of his novel self's reaction.
• The Quiet One: He isn't particularly talkative.

Marian

Marian Crellin

• Death of a Child: She died well over twenty years prior to the beginning of the novel and series. It isn't specified what exact age she died but she was clearly young given Camille was only thirteen at the time.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She had blond hair and Camille has fond memories of her as a child.
• Lonely Doll Girl; She had a doll named Evelyn or Eleanor who she loved so much it was buried with her and is implied not to have had much of a life outside of being sick.
• Parental Favouritism: A very dark example. Adora clearly loves Marian much more than Camille; going as far as to guilt her for not being more like Marian when she is in hospital recovering from a severe cutting problem. It is immediately clear that Adora's favouritism has damaged Camille and had a profoundly negative effect on her mental health but it is later revealed to have been no better for Marian. Adora's toxic need for attention lead her to deliberately make Marian, who she saw as the 'perfect' sick child, ill. This eventually escalated so far that Marian dies of the complications of her mother's medical abuse.
• Passed in Their Sleep: Like may people with severe chronic illnesses she dies in her bed one night without any obvious warning signs. Because she was ill for so long leading up to her death it doesn't come as a surprise to anyone.
• Posthumous Character: She died as a child, years before the novel begins.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Adora seems to remember her this way. In reality it seems like Marian was a normal, if particularly good tempered, child who sometimes got tired of always being ill.
  "I'm tired of dying."
• Victorian Novel Disease: A justified example since her vague symptoms and lack of obvious diagnosis are because Marian isn't really ill and is actually the victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

Wind Gap Residents

Gayla

Gayla

• Ethnic Menial Labor: In the miniseries, she's black and the housekeeper/cook for the Crellins. She's also notably one of the very, very few people of color in Wind Gap, itself a town that proudly celebrates its Confederate heritage. The novel never mentions Gayla's race.
• Only Sane Man: The only person aside from Marian who spends a good deal of time in the Crellin house with all her sanity intact, and now Marian is long gone. She puts up with the constant drama because it's not like she has many options for employment, but wisely keeps out of it.

John

John Keene

• Men Don't Cry: Unfortunately this preconception leads people to become even more suspicions of John after he is seen openly crying at his sister's funeral.
• Pretty Boy: In the book Camille often comments on John's androgynously good looks.
  He was truly beautiful, almost androgynous, tall and slim with obscenely full lips and ice coloured eyes.

Outsiders

Richard

Richard Willis

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's not as bad as Adora, but he's not as nice as he appears. When he sees Camille's scars, he promptly ditches her (though her sleeping with a high schooler didn't help either).
  • This is downplayed in the television series; the reason for the end of his and Camille's relationship was retooled to her sleeping with John Keene. While he is shown to be shocked by her scars when he and Frank rescue her in the finale, he ends up visiting her in the hospital to apologize for his behavior.
• Fair Cop
• Nice Guy: He genuinely wants to help out, and his feelings for Camille are sincere. It's not enough to keep him around when he sees her scars, though.
• Nice to the Waiter: The waitress at the local diner adores him.
• Smarter Than You Look: Seen by the all town as incompetent, but he is the first to figure out that Adora is responsible of the death of Marian, Natalie, and Ann. Sadly, he's right only about Marian.

Frank

Frank Curry

• Da Editor: Is the editor of the newspaper where Camille works at.
• Happily Married: To his wife Eileen, though they were never able to have children.
• Nice Guy: He is genuinely kind to Camille and seems to be an overall decent man.
• Parental Substitute: Though he's Camille's boss, he and his wife Eileen take her in in the epilogue of the book.
• Team Dad: He is about the only person to show genuine concern for Camille the whole time.

Murder Victims

Ann

Ann Nash

• Boyish Short Hair: Her father goes out of his way to mention this when he first meets Camille, telling her a story about Ann deciding to cut her hair off with scissors.
• Death of a Child: She was only nine when she died.
• Man Bites Man: On one occasion Ann bit Adora out of frustration when she was trying to tutor her. Adora wasn't explaining the subject in a way Ann could understand, causing her to lash out and bite Adora's wrist, as well as pulling some of her hair out. The bite wound was so deep that, according to another character, Adora may have needed stitches.
• Posthumous Character: She was murdered around a year before the novel begins.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She killed a neighbor's bird with a stick. Her father says that the neighbour had older girls who would bully Ann, and that this factored in to the incident. That being said, it is still rather extreme behaviour for a child.
• Wanted a Son Instead: Camille speculates that this is why Ann got a comparatively plain name to her sisters. This is never confirmed as true though.

Natalie

Natalie Keene

• Bratty Half-Pint: Natalie had a bad temper and was quick to hurt others when she was angry with them despite only being 10.
• Death of a Child: She was only ten when she died.
• Eye Scream: She moved to Wind Gap after having stabbed another girl in the eyes with scissors. Only one eye could be recovered after the incident.
• Man Bites Man: Like Ann, she was known to bite people when she was frustrated. While the issue seemed to be less severe in her case she still bit a woman's earlobe back off resulting in it needing to be stitched back on.

Lily/Mae

Lily Burke (book)

• Adaptational Name Change: Her name is Lily in the book and Mae in the series.
• Nice Girl: An actually kind popular girl that Amma befriends who Camille takes a strong liking to, and vice versa. It's why Amma murders her.