# Is "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (Shaye Areheart Books / Crown Publishing Group, 2006) is identified by: The first printing carries both marks together on the copyright page: "First Edition" stated AND the full number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 — the surviving "1" is decisive, and a copy with the statement but a truncated line is a later printing. Census claim confirmed as to the accepted first, with a caveat the census did not flag.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing carries both marks together on the copyright page: "First Edition" stated AND the full number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 — the surviving "1" is decisive, and a copy with the statement but a truncated line is a later printing
- Hardcover, 254 pp, ISBN 0-307-34154-2 / 978-0-307-34154-9, in the metallic-embossed pictorial dust jacket with the price present at the front flap (unclipped)
- The author's first book
- One cataloguing artifact to ignore: several dealer records give the place as Boston; the imprint line reads New York — Shaye Areheart Books was a Crown/Random House imprint
- Publisher imprint reads Shaye Areheart Books / Crown Publishing Group
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Gillian Flynn |
| Publisher | Shaye Areheart Books / Crown Publishing Group |
| Year | 2006 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing carries both marks together on the copyright page: "First Edition" stated AND the full number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The first printing carries both marks together on the copyright page: "First Edition" stated AND the full number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 — the surviving "1" is decisive, and a copy with the statement but a truncated line is a later printing. Hardcover, 254 pp, ISBN 0-307-34154-2 / 978-0-307-34154-9, in the metallic-embossed pictorial dust jacket with the price present at the front flap (unclipped). The author's first book. One cataloguing artifact to ignore: several dealer records give the place as Boston; the imprint line reads New York — Shaye Areheart Books was a Crown/Random House imprint.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed as to the accepted first, with a caveat the census did not flag. The US Shaye Areheart Books edition (New York, published 26 September 2006) is the accepted true first — Flynn is American and publisher and reference records give the US as the country of first publication. But the UK first from Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London) is also dated 2006 — green boards with silver spine lettering, ISBN 0-297-85152-7 — and is separately collected; no source consulted supplies a month for the W&N release (dealer listings show a database-default "January 1, 2006"), so US-vs-UK precedence within 2006 is not settled at month level on published evidence. First-thus traps: the Broadway Books reissue (2013) and the later W&N and television tie-in printings.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. The live reprint traps are the Broadway Books trade paperback (2013) and the post-Gone Girl printings, which carry the same text under a different imprint with a later number line. Separately: the census note's "small pre-Gone Girl printing" is a scarcity assertion unsupported by any source consulted and is not carried forward here.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Sharp Objects* by Gillian Flynn a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/sharp-objects
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.