Sharp Objects Chapters 14 - Epilogue
Chapter 14
Camille, shocked by the new information, questions Adora’s, Marian’s, and Amma’s illnesses, and the effects of Adora’s medicine. She meets John at a bar, who fears abandonment and arrest. He finds solace in Camille, who admits to being devastated by Marian’s death. They empathize with one another over the loss of a sibling, and Camille helps John find a place to sleep at a nearby motel. Camille reveals her cuts to him, but he isn’t disturbed by them. He wants to see all of her. Camille strips down naked in front of another man after a very long time and feels seen. They make love and fall asleep in each other’s arms.
In the early morning, Camille is startled by a knock at the door. It’s Chief Vickery, asking for her. She and John hurriedly get dressed. When she opens the door, Vickery and Richard are there. Richard, looking at the situation, scolds Camille, saying Adora had called when Camille didn’t come home. Richard offers to take John home, but John prefers Camille to do it. As the men leave, Camille yells after Richard, promising to call him. He dismisses her with a wave.
Camille drops John at his parents’ place. He thanks her for “saving” him. She admits that he made her feel safe too, and she’s surprised to find she means it. She then heads to the police station to find Richard. She tries to deny everything, but Richard sees through her lies. He warns her that her actions with John look bad for both of them. She tries to apologize physically, but he rejects her, asking her to leave.
Camille spends a few hours sleeping in her car, too scared to go back to Adora’s house. Despite her disheveled state, she decides to continue working on her story. She visits her old friend Katie Lacey, who worked with Ann and Natalie at school. Katie, ignoring Camille’s appearance, serves her sweet tea and answers her questions about Ann and Natalie’s violent history.
Katie recalls their high school days and how they bullied others. She mentions that Amma and her friends are even worse now, ruling the school and humiliating other girls. Camille is shocked to learn about Amma’s cruelty, especially when Katie reveals that Amma often messed with Ann and Natalie.
On her way home, Camille can’t stop thinking about Adora. She imagines Adora trying to “care” for Ann and Natalie as she did for Marian and Amma. Even though she thinks she’s crazy for thinking this, she also knows she’d be crazy not to.
Chapter 15
Camille returns home to find Amma and her friends playing with a dollhouse. After a solitary bath, she drinks a mysterious blue milk offered by her mother, Adora. Despite initial relief, she soon starts vomiting violently. Realizing her mother might be poisoning her, she drives to the hospital to retrieve her late sister Marian’s medical records. Amidst the complex medical jargon, she finds a note suggesting Marian was healthy and only fell ill after being alone with Adora. This revelation confirms Camille’s suspicions about her
Camille finds the nurse who had suspected her mother of causing Marian’s illness. The nurse had risked her job by accusing Adora of Munchausen by Proxy, a condition where a caregiver makes a child sick for attention. No action was taken on her report. The nurse reveals that Detective Richard Willis had copied Marian’s files and expresses concern for another girl in Adora’s house. Overwhelmed, Camille calls Curry, her editor, and through her tears, accuses Adora of the murders. Curry suggests she’s stressed and should return home, but Camille feels she has no home. Later, she confronts Richard, accusing him of using her to investigate Adora. Richard admits he initially approached her because of Adora but genuinely fell for her. He shares his suspicion about Adora, a controlling woman whose nurturing instinct had gone awry.
Camille’s biting story made Richard suspect Adora of the murders. He reveals Adora has no alibi, but lacks evidence for arrest. He plans to exhume Marian for tests and search Adora’s house for the teeth. Camille discloses Adora’s drugging and poisoning of her and Amma. Richard wishes he had known earlier to test Camille. At home, Adora serves ham for dinner before Camille leaves, as John is to be arrested. Amma fantasizes about John’s execution and expresses her desire to be Persephone, the queen of the dead. Adora suggests they should have ended with Marian. Adora invites Camille to her room, where she shares a childhood story of abandonment by Joya. Adora admits to not loving Camille, finding her hard to love compared to Marian. Adora pleads for Camille’s need, to which Camille agrees, expressing her real need and resentment for Marian’s death. Adora maintains Marian will always be her baby.
Chapter 16
Camille wakes up sick and feverish, covered in sweat and vomit. Adora bathes her, feeds her pills and milk, and tends to her worsening condition. Camille willingly takes the medicine, desiring a harsh outcome. As she loses consciousness, she feels a twisted sense of being cared for. She wakes up to Adora’s screams and Richard’s arrival. Richard, seeing her scars, asks if she’s sick. She confirms and asks if he found anything. He says he did and insists everyone leave the house. He offers to take her to the doctor, and she hopes she’s still poisoned. Later, police find various illegal drugs in Adora’s drawer, traces of which are found in Camille’s toxicology test. They also find Adora’s diary revealing her focus on Marian and her subsequent illnesses. Adora admits to bribing nurses and enjoying the town’s sympathy after Marian’s death. The key evidence is a pair of pliers with Ann and Natalie’s blood. However, the teeth are not found despite Camille’s pleas to search Adora’s property.
Chapter 17
Adora is arrested for three murders on May 28th. Alan bails her out, while Camille takes Amma into her custody. They move to Chicago, where Amma’s restlessness and obsession with female killers exhaust Camille. Amma refuses therapy, focusing on her dollhouse instead. She demands expensive items for it and gets angry when Camille refuses. Alan funds Amma’s private school, where she quickly gains a group of friends. Lily, one of the girls, becomes a regular at Camille’s apartment. When Amma notices Camille’s fondness for Lily, she starts excluding Lily.
One night, a feverish Amma accuses Camille of preferring Lily. As Camille cares for her, she wonders if she would enjoy caring for a sick child like Adora did. Amma demands a bath and an alcohol rub like Adora used to give. Camille notices a scar on Amma’s hip and reassures her they won’t follow Adora’s ways. When Lily disappears and is found dead with six teeth missing, Camille calls the police to confirm Adora’s whereabouts.
Camille searches the apartment for evidence of Amma’s guilt. In Amma’s room, she discovers the dollhouse’s ivory floor is made of human teeth, leading to screams from both of them.
Following Camille’s discovery, the Wind Gap investigation reopens. Amma’s friends, Kelsey, Kylie, and Jodes, confess to assisting in Ann and Natalie’s murders, hoping for lenient sentences. They reveal the details: For Ann, they lured her into the woods for a tea party, then strangled her, pulled her teeth, and dumped her body in the water. For Natalie, Amma, dressed in a white sheet, led her to Kelsey’s carriage house. They held her captive for two days, then strangled her and removed her teeth. Natalie’s body was left in the town center. Camille notes that Amma killed Lily alone, stunning her with a rock, strangling her, removing her teeth, and using her hair for a rug in the dollhouse.
Epilogue
Adora is convicted of Marian’s murder, and her lawyer plans an appeal. Alan moves near the prison where Adora is held. The story becomes popular, and Camille receives numerous book offers. She gets a letter from John Keene, who suspects Amma and moves to keep an eye on her. Richard, however, doesn’t contact Camille.
Amma is in a juvenile facility, likely until after she turns 18. During Camille’s visit, Amma confesses her friendship with the girls and their wild behavior in the woods. When Adora showed interest in Ann and Natalie, they started asking about Amma’s illnesses. Amma feared they would disrupt everything, especially when Ann bit Adora. Amma admits she took their teeth to perfect her dollhouse.
Camille theorizes that Ann and Natalie died because of Adora’s attention, which made Amma jealous. She believes Amma killed Lily for the same reason. Despite her exhaustion, Camille concludes that Amma enjoys violence. After Amma’s arrest, Camille relapses, self-harming before Curry and Eileen intervene. They move her into their home to care for her.
Camille is learning to accept care and parenting from Curry and Eileen. A year after leaving Wind Gap, she’s improving but still contemplates whether her ability to care for a sick Amma stems from kindness or Adora’s influence. Lately, she leans towards kindness.
Analysis
Despite her suffering, Camille finds a strange pleasure in Adora’s attention and care, experiencing being “mothered” for the first time. Adora’s diary reveals her selfish motives, using her children as tools to gain attention, even at the cost of Marian’s life. The missing teeth, despite the incriminating pliers, unsettle Camille.
Towards the novel’s end, Camille becomes Amma’s mother figure. Amma, struggling with her past traumas and adjusting to a life free of abuse, exhibits unorthodox coping mechanisms. Her fascination with female killers, obsession with perfection, and intense anger indicate her difficulty in moving on from Wind Gap. As Camille and Amma grapple with Adora’s abuses, they navigate through pain, anger, and resentment. Amma’s desperation to recreate Adora’s care and her fear of it reveals her dependence on Adora’s toxic blend of love and violence. When Lily Burke is found dead, murdered like Ann and Natalie, Camille realizes the horrifying truth - Amma, not Adora, killed them and took their teeth.
The full truth exposes the chilling details of the murders against Amma and her friends’ nonchalant attitudes towards the violence they inflicted on their former friends. Amma transformed parts of her female friends into accessories for her dollhouse.
