I watched the HBO miniseries well before I finally picked up this book. And it’s usually weird reading the book a movie or tv show you like is based on second. You notice the changes, the side stuff that was taken out. But I didn’t feel that with Sharp Objects. It felt like it’s own distinct entity from the show in a way I haven’t felt with a book I had already watched.
Reading it helped me appreciate the show much more, and having watched the show already made me appreciate the book. Because I knew the ending going in, I could really spend time with Camille as a character and not consumed with sussing out the whodunnit of the case.
As more novels are being adapted into miniseries, like Normal People and Little Fires Everywhere, it’d be interesting to experience the source material and see what changes were made for television and how it’d shaped my experience with both tellings of the story.