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Dark Places
Libby Day was just seven years old when her evidence put her fifteen-year-old brother behind bars.
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?
She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.
Who did massacre the Day family?
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?
She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.
Who did massacre the Day family?
424 pages, Hardcover
First published April 25, 2009
23.8k people are currently reading
658k people want to read
About the author
Gillian Flynn
22听books92.7k听followersGillian Flynn is an American author and television critic for Entertainment Weekly. She has so far written three novels, Sharp Objects, for which she won the 2007 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller; Dark Places; and her best-selling third novel Gone Girl.
Her book has received wide praise, including from authors such as Stephen King. The dark plot revolves around a serial killer in a Missouri town, and the reporter who has returned from Chicago to cover the event. Themes include dysfunctional families,violence and self-harm.
In 2007 the novel was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Writer, Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie, CWA New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers, winning in the last two categories.
Flynn, who lives in Chicago, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated at the University of Kansas, and qualified for a Master's degree from Northwestern University.
Review Quotes:
"Gillian Flynn is the real deal, a sharp, acerbic, and compelling storyteller with a knack for the macabre."
鈥揝tephen King
Her book has received wide praise, including from authors such as Stephen King. The dark plot revolves around a serial killer in a Missouri town, and the reporter who has returned from Chicago to cover the event. Themes include dysfunctional families,violence and self-harm.
In 2007 the novel was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Writer, Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie, CWA New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers, winning in the last two categories.
Flynn, who lives in Chicago, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated at the University of Kansas, and qualified for a Master's degree from Northwestern University.
Review Quotes:
"Gillian Flynn is the real deal, a sharp, acerbic, and compelling storyteller with a knack for the macabre."
鈥揝tephen King
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47,481 reviews
April 22, 2016
鈥淚 have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.鈥�
I highly recommend reading this whilst sitting in the sun with plenty of happy people around you (as I did) - that way you can avoid contracting something evil and nasty from its pages, and also avoid losing any hope you had for humanity.
Okay, sorry, I make it sound so negative when actually this book is pretty fantastic if you can stomach the horrors within. I ate this up in a couple of days, finding every opportunity to read that I could... Flynn certainly has a talent for dragging you into her stories and having them take you over until you find out just what the hell is going on.
As much as I enjoyed its dark predecessor - - I think was, for me, a more complex and well-developed mystery.
I had many theories as to what was going on and all of them were wrong. You know, I honestly think that writing a mystery story must be the most difficult of all, because the reader is your enemy. Most readers of mystery stories will analyse the information they're given, pull it apart, and try desperately to solve the mystery before the characters do - and yet, if they are successful, they feel disappointed. For an author to manage to pull out something both surprising and convincingly real at the end of all this, they have to have a talent for it.
alternates between the present day and 1985 when Ben Day allegedly massacred three members of his family, his sister - Libby - being the only one to escape and testify as a witness, sending Ben to a life in prison. Now, after years of living on the donations made by concerned members of the public, Libby Day has finally run out of money and is forced to earn some cash by making an appearance at a group meeting where the members believe Ben is innocent. At first, Libby is willing to write them off as crazy fanatics with a grisly obsession... but as more information is presented to her, she starts to question what really happened all those years ago.
The story is told from three main points of view and, to say I'm not a fan of multiple perspectives, I thought it was done excellently. Patty Day is an exhausted mother-of-four who starts to fear her son is becoming involved in satanic rituals; torn between wanting to protect him and being a little afraid of what his behaviour means, we begin to question through her eyes whether the heavy metal-loving loner could really have it in him to become a murderer.
Then we have Ben Day's point of view. Being inside his mind is a little frightening - we see how his thoughts become increasingly dark, how just wanting to have something normal can lead to the most abnormal behaviour... but does that mean he would really murder his family?
And, of course, there is Libby Day. Libby Day is the reason I think I enjoy Flynn's novels so much. She is so imperfect, complex, selfish, violent... but somehow you manage to stay on her side. I have no idea how the author manages this, but I've always loved a protagonist with issues, the kind of issues that make them lash out in ways that would make you hate them if you weren't inside their head, understanding them. She does some horrible things and, though you don't necessarily forgive her for them, you are able to see why.
If you're okay reading about filth, gore, and underage sex, then you should dive into this mystery straight away and immerse yourself in the disturbing but awesome mental workings of .
Last updated: April 2016
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September 23, 2020
yo this book freaky, Ben real creepy and Libby kinda dumb
March 17, 2020
cool idea, shitty ending
June 19, 2018
i was not a lovable child, and i'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs.
gillian flynn sure does love writing about horrible people doing horrible things.and i sure do love reading about them. especially because she isn't one of those writers coasting on shock value and "can you belieeeeeve a delicate flower of a woman is writing this??" but she can really tell a story and i, for one, was completely surprised and pleased by the ending of this one.
libby's mother and two older sisters were murdered when she was seven years old, apparently in some sort of satanic bloodbath masterminded by her older brother ben. she escaped and was instrumental in getting him put behind bars, in one of those "lean on the kid and make them say what needs to be said to convict someone" situations. twenty-five years later, she is a mess - a flat broke kleptomaniac, pissed off at the world, and terrible at any social expectations, until she is approached by a group whose specialty is studying violent crimes, trading memorabilia, constructing alternate scenarios of horrorshows; criminal tourists. and libby pumps them for cash while promising to look into the crime she lived through, and reconnect with her brother and father in order to solve a crime she believes has already been solved.
but it is far from over, man. there are all kinds of things she is going to learn about that night, and about her family, and about her own self.
and it's going to get creepy.
it is great, great, great. it is not perfect - i personally had some difficulties with character motivation and behavior, but it doesn't matter because it all works within flynn's dirty little world, and she manages to convince you that these characters are going to do what they are going to do within their need-spheres, and just because it doesn't make sense to youuuuu, just be thankful for that, yeah?
it is really chilling stuff - oh, god - remember the frenzy of satanic finger-pointing of the 80's? there were cults everywhere, right? all the animal sacrifices and the heavy metal music and the teenage killers under the spell of the dark one? and even though none of it ever panned out into anything, that frenzy, that imagined threat was so convincing to so many pearl-clutching mothers. it would be adorable now, except for reading this book, and remembering that actual people were accused and convicted because of half-whispered urban legends. oops.
it's a great bloody crime story. its pacing is sublime; she always knows just how far to take the reader before switching up the focus to cause the maximum amount of anticipatory distress, she knows how to cover her tracks and how to deliver the most effective kaboom of an ending. and you might not like any of these characters, but you will still sympathize with them, despite your better instincts.
i seem to have run out of gillian flynn books.
more, please.
gillian flynn sure does love writing about horrible people doing horrible things.and i sure do love reading about them. especially because she isn't one of those writers coasting on shock value and "can you belieeeeeve a delicate flower of a woman is writing this??" but she can really tell a story and i, for one, was completely surprised and pleased by the ending of this one.
libby's mother and two older sisters were murdered when she was seven years old, apparently in some sort of satanic bloodbath masterminded by her older brother ben. she escaped and was instrumental in getting him put behind bars, in one of those "lean on the kid and make them say what needs to be said to convict someone" situations. twenty-five years later, she is a mess - a flat broke kleptomaniac, pissed off at the world, and terrible at any social expectations, until she is approached by a group whose specialty is studying violent crimes, trading memorabilia, constructing alternate scenarios of horrorshows; criminal tourists. and libby pumps them for cash while promising to look into the crime she lived through, and reconnect with her brother and father in order to solve a crime she believes has already been solved.
but it is far from over, man. there are all kinds of things she is going to learn about that night, and about her family, and about her own self.
and it's going to get creepy.
it is great, great, great. it is not perfect - i personally had some difficulties with character motivation and behavior, but it doesn't matter because it all works within flynn's dirty little world, and she manages to convince you that these characters are going to do what they are going to do within their need-spheres, and just because it doesn't make sense to youuuuu, just be thankful for that, yeah?
it is really chilling stuff - oh, god - remember the frenzy of satanic finger-pointing of the 80's? there were cults everywhere, right? all the animal sacrifices and the heavy metal music and the teenage killers under the spell of the dark one? and even though none of it ever panned out into anything, that frenzy, that imagined threat was so convincing to so many pearl-clutching mothers. it would be adorable now, except for reading this book, and remembering that actual people were accused and convicted because of half-whispered urban legends. oops.
it's a great bloody crime story. its pacing is sublime; she always knows just how far to take the reader before switching up the focus to cause the maximum amount of anticipatory distress, she knows how to cover her tracks and how to deliver the most effective kaboom of an ending. and you might not like any of these characters, but you will still sympathize with them, despite your better instincts.
i seem to have run out of gillian flynn books.
more, please.
April 4, 2017
*4.5 Stars*
Gillian Flynn scares me.
But it鈥檚 a good scare! A keep-you-up-all-night-anxiously-reading-because-closing-the-book-is-not-an-option kinda scare.
If you thought Gone Girl was twisted, make room for Dark Places because this suspenseful thriller takes 鈥渇reaky鈥� to a whole *nuther* level.
I went in thinking I was fully prepared.
I wasn鈥檛.
This book is so astoundingly demented, it truly makes me wonder exactly how Miss Flynn thinks up such bold scenarios. The plot is so 鈥渙ut-there鈥�, yet way too close - creating a palpable level of discomfort for the reader鈥攂ut I, for one, could not look away.
This author knows how to stretch the creep-factor to its limits, just short of over-the-top, delivering a crazy, yet still fathomable plot. She masters the art of description until the details begin materializing, and suddenly you're visualizing them whether you鈥檙e trying to or not.
Libby Day. What a truly unique, unforgettable character. So mentally and emotionally deranged, you cant help but want to reach out to her鈥�(with a six foot pole, of course;)
Because she feels so damn real. Her thoughts, her actions鈥攕o cynical and bitter. But who wouldn't be after experiencing the torment she has.
Libby鈥檚 family was brutally murdered in their home, but little seven-year old Libby somehow survived the gruesome massacre. Largely due to Libby鈥檚 testimony, her wallflower brother becomes tried and convicted for these satanic murders.
Now Libby is a grown woman who is beginning to question the details of that fateful night long ago. A night she has buried deep inside, desperate to forget. But there are things that refuse to be forgotten鈥�
And so begins the suspenseful journey, as the plot glides through past and present, alternating between a first and third person perspective鈥擫ibby serving as the story鈥檚 narrator.
And her unhappy, defeated voice is one I will not forget.
With this particular story, I think the writing won me over even more so than the plot. Although I was completely sucked into the mystery, marathon-guessing like it was my job, the ending somehow left me ever-so-slightly disappointed. It鈥檚 difficult to place my finger on why. I wanted BIG, but maybe this was a little too big? I鈥檓 still unsure. In any case, this author has a genius grasp on storytelling, and I will gladly read anything she writes.
But for now, I鈥檓 off to read something happy(ish)鈥�
Book Stats:
鈻� 听Genre/Category: Mystery/Thriller
鈻� 听Graphic Nature:听Racy and bold
鈻� Romance:听Twisted
鈻� 听Characters:听Unlovable but unforgettable
鈻� 听Plot:听A twisty and suspenseful murder mystery
鈻� Writing:听Flawless, poetic, bold, and edgy
鈻� POV:听Switches between 3rd and 1st person: heroine
鈻� 听Cliffhanger: None/Standalone
Gillian Flynn scares me.
But it鈥檚 a good scare! A keep-you-up-all-night-anxiously-reading-because-closing-the-book-is-not-an-option kinda scare.
If you thought Gone Girl was twisted, make room for Dark Places because this suspenseful thriller takes 鈥渇reaky鈥� to a whole *nuther* level.
I went in thinking I was fully prepared.
I wasn鈥檛.
This book is so astoundingly demented, it truly makes me wonder exactly how Miss Flynn thinks up such bold scenarios. The plot is so 鈥渙ut-there鈥�, yet way too close - creating a palpable level of discomfort for the reader鈥攂ut I, for one, could not look away.
This author knows how to stretch the creep-factor to its limits, just short of over-the-top, delivering a crazy, yet still fathomable plot. She masters the art of description until the details begin materializing, and suddenly you're visualizing them whether you鈥檙e trying to or not.
Libby Day. What a truly unique, unforgettable character. So mentally and emotionally deranged, you cant help but want to reach out to her鈥�(with a six foot pole, of course;)
Because she feels so damn real. Her thoughts, her actions鈥攕o cynical and bitter. But who wouldn't be after experiencing the torment she has.
I assumed everything bad in the world could happen, because everything bad in the world already did happen.
Libby鈥檚 family was brutally murdered in their home, but little seven-year old Libby somehow survived the gruesome massacre. Largely due to Libby鈥檚 testimony, her wallflower brother becomes tried and convicted for these satanic murders.
Now Libby is a grown woman who is beginning to question the details of that fateful night long ago. A night she has buried deep inside, desperate to forget. But there are things that refuse to be forgotten鈥�
And so begins the suspenseful journey, as the plot glides through past and present, alternating between a first and third person perspective鈥擫ibby serving as the story鈥檚 narrator.
And her unhappy, defeated voice is one I will not forget.
With this particular story, I think the writing won me over even more so than the plot. Although I was completely sucked into the mystery, marathon-guessing like it was my job, the ending somehow left me ever-so-slightly disappointed. It鈥檚 difficult to place my finger on why. I wanted BIG, but maybe this was a little too big? I鈥檓 still unsure. In any case, this author has a genius grasp on storytelling, and I will gladly read anything she writes.
But for now, I鈥檓 off to read something happy(ish)鈥�
Book Stats:
鈻� 听Genre/Category: Mystery/Thriller
鈻� 听Graphic Nature:听Racy and bold
鈻� Romance:听Twisted
鈻� 听Characters:听Unlovable but unforgettable
鈻� 听Plot:听A twisty and suspenseful murder mystery
鈻� Writing:听Flawless, poetic, bold, and edgy
鈻� POV:听Switches between 3rd and 1st person: heroine
鈻� 听Cliffhanger: None/Standalone
October 2, 2010
As seen on
Seriously, what goes on in 's head? She writes the freakiest stuff. was nasty enough, and is just as vile. Luckily for her, I (along with millions of people) like vile now and then.
Libby Day is a sole survivor of a horrendous massacre. Her mother and two sisters were brutally killed one winter night and, mostly thanks to Libby's testimony, the murders were attributed to Libby's older brother Ben, an alleged active Satan worshiper. Now, almost 25 years later, 32-year old Libby is out of money that had been donated to her by well-wishers over the years and must look for a new source of income. She settles on helping the Kill Club (a group of obsessed women who believe in Ben's innocence) to re-investigate the murders, for money of course. As Libby starts talking to various people involved in the original investigation at the Kill Club's request, her strong belief in Ben's guilt starts wavering...
I am fairly certain now that 's "schtick" is writing about VERY BAD women. We are presented with an array of them in - they lie to get attention, they abuse, they blackmail, they mooch, they kill, they are weak and pathetic. It is, no doubt, a novel approach to women empowerment. If women are equal to men, they can be equally despicable, right? The men are no better - they are good-for-nothing losers mostly. What I am getting at is that you can hardly find any likable characters in this book, which for many readers is a must (not me though).
The story itself is gruesome. Prepare yourself for brutal killings, molestation, bullying, Satan worshiping, drugs and underage sex. Some parts are so tough to read, I had to put the book aside for awhile.
But underneath the filth, there is a great mystery - well-paced, suspenseful, full of red herrings, it keeps you guessing until the very last moment who the perpetrator is.
Just like , this book is absolutely not for everybody. But I thoroughly enjoyed this freaky thriller and will wait with anticipation for the release of 's next macabre mystery.
Seriously, what goes on in 's head? She writes the freakiest stuff. was nasty enough, and is just as vile. Luckily for her, I (along with millions of people) like vile now and then.
Libby Day is a sole survivor of a horrendous massacre. Her mother and two sisters were brutally killed one winter night and, mostly thanks to Libby's testimony, the murders were attributed to Libby's older brother Ben, an alleged active Satan worshiper. Now, almost 25 years later, 32-year old Libby is out of money that had been donated to her by well-wishers over the years and must look for a new source of income. She settles on helping the Kill Club (a group of obsessed women who believe in Ben's innocence) to re-investigate the murders, for money of course. As Libby starts talking to various people involved in the original investigation at the Kill Club's request, her strong belief in Ben's guilt starts wavering...
I am fairly certain now that 's "schtick" is writing about VERY BAD women. We are presented with an array of them in - they lie to get attention, they abuse, they blackmail, they mooch, they kill, they are weak and pathetic. It is, no doubt, a novel approach to women empowerment. If women are equal to men, they can be equally despicable, right? The men are no better - they are good-for-nothing losers mostly. What I am getting at is that you can hardly find any likable characters in this book, which for many readers is a must (not me though).
The story itself is gruesome. Prepare yourself for brutal killings, molestation, bullying, Satan worshiping, drugs and underage sex. Some parts are so tough to read, I had to put the book aside for awhile.
But underneath the filth, there is a great mystery - well-paced, suspenseful, full of red herrings, it keeps you guessing until the very last moment who the perpetrator is.
Just like , this book is absolutely not for everybody. But I thoroughly enjoyed this freaky thriller and will wait with anticipation for the release of 's next macabre mystery.
January 15, 2014
Normally I wouldn't give a genre book like this a 5-star review, because I'm picky and controlling about handing out major praise. How could a crime/mystery be as good as, say, Thomas Hardy or Alice Munro? Apples and oranges.
But I just finished this about five minutes ago, and it made me gasp. It's so good -- a well-paced page-turner, beautifully wrought. I literally couldn't put it down for longer than a couple hours at a time once I picked it up (with the exception of sleep).
According to her Acknowledgements, Flynn did significant research to write this, and it shows -- it's assured, detailed, and often heart-wrenching. There are no loose ends, and when they tie up, they tie up so naturally, unfolding at such a realistic pace, that you feel like this could really have happened. Nothing -- except maybe for the Kill Club, the ball that gets the narrator Libby's investigation rolling -- is farfetched.
For what this is -- a genre novel echoing In Cold Blood, crossed with southern gothic -- it's superior. But even outside the mystery/crime genre, this book is a better, more skillful, funnier, more emotional and more fascinating read than most of the literary fiction I've read lately.
Libby Day is a fantastic heroine/anti-heroine; real, three dimensional, funny, dark, bent and broken, but not beyond repair. I so enjoyed taking this ride with her and am sorry the book had to end. This is very high praise coming from me, because I read constantly and I hardly ever have this feeling about anything. I can't wait to read "Sharp Objects," though I'm dreading it at the same time, because I really can't afford to let another book usurp all my time for three straight days.
But I just finished this about five minutes ago, and it made me gasp. It's so good -- a well-paced page-turner, beautifully wrought. I literally couldn't put it down for longer than a couple hours at a time once I picked it up (with the exception of sleep).
According to her Acknowledgements, Flynn did significant research to write this, and it shows -- it's assured, detailed, and often heart-wrenching. There are no loose ends, and when they tie up, they tie up so naturally, unfolding at such a realistic pace, that you feel like this could really have happened. Nothing -- except maybe for the Kill Club, the ball that gets the narrator Libby's investigation rolling -- is farfetched.
For what this is -- a genre novel echoing In Cold Blood, crossed with southern gothic -- it's superior. But even outside the mystery/crime genre, this book is a better, more skillful, funnier, more emotional and more fascinating read than most of the literary fiction I've read lately.
Libby Day is a fantastic heroine/anti-heroine; real, three dimensional, funny, dark, bent and broken, but not beyond repair. I so enjoyed taking this ride with her and am sorry the book had to end. This is very high praise coming from me, because I read constantly and I hardly ever have this feeling about anything. I can't wait to read "Sharp Objects," though I'm dreading it at the same time, because I really can't afford to let another book usurp all my time for three straight days.
February 14, 2021
Wow, I am flabbergasted! Is this what people are reading in the name of 'mystery' these days? A boring book, with unpleasant and unrealistic characters and an unbelievable resolution. The protagonist is Libby Day, a woman whose family was murdered when she was a child, and she was the one who gave evidence that put her brother behind bars for these murders. Twenty four years later, when she is contacted by a murder club, which offers to pay money to her to help them investigate, she accepts the assignment. So starts a dangerous journey back into the past. An interesting premise, but very, very badly executed.
First, the protagonist is not someone I was rooting for. I didn't need her to be likeable, but she wasn't just unlikeable, she was positively annoying. She is without a single redeeming feature, which would make a dark character interesting and realistic. And is she a whiner! I can't stand whiners. She makes her way through the book, consistently whining from one situation to the other. And not just her, ALL the other characters in the book are also consistently vile, nasty and caricature villains. It's like the author thinks that making people completely nasty is being realistic. It's not. Ever read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier? It's about a young boy in a war-torn country taking up arms, but it's not relentlessly dark. There are light moments when good things happen, and it's a TRUE story. This is where Flynn really fails in making her novel realistic.
Second, I am not really a fan of graphic violence and nastiness, described in unnecessary detail. Especially, when it's only fiction. I mean, there are 4-5 descriptions of vomiting in the book. would people look at vomit in such detail in real life? It's hardly realistic from any point of view. The author adds scene after scene of violence and depravity merely for shock value. That's just lazy writing. There was a completely unnecessary chapter consisting almost entirely of butchering a cow. Which did not add to the plot at all. Neither did the entire Satanism angle make any sense. Though there was a panic at this time about Satanic ritual abuse, !
The resolution takes place in two parts . One of them follows to a logical, if uninteresting, conclusion, while the other just appears out of nowhere, just tacked on for even more shock value. I am really disappointed that after wading through pages of reading about people throwing up, taking drugs and cleaning up refuse in great detail, this flimsy, unrealistic, tacky ending is what I got!
And my final, but really my most important grouse, what's with Flynn and women making false allegations of sexual abuse? There is a side plot that is tacked on for no reason - . Considering that she did pretty much the same with Gone Girl and is an incredibly popular author for some reason, it's worrying what message she is consistently sending across. With ALL the depravity and nastiness among the characters, surely it could have been a real case of abuse? Or is the author one of those who think that 'most' cases of molestation are false? Is she a member of MRA?
There are a couple of positive things. For one thing, the research is so detailed that in a different book, it would have been a real pleasure. She makes plenty of references to real murders that took place, and as someone interested in True Crime, I found that a great addition. Another is that you can see that Flynn has a talent for writing and has great ideas. Too bad, she chose to tell a boring story with uninteresting characters.
I really wouldn't recommend this book, but considering it's such a huge success, maybe I am the odd one out? I certainly think it has some major concerns, and I completely call bullshit on the 'it's realistic!' viewpoint. It's not.
First, the protagonist is not someone I was rooting for. I didn't need her to be likeable, but she wasn't just unlikeable, she was positively annoying. She is without a single redeeming feature, which would make a dark character interesting and realistic. And is she a whiner! I can't stand whiners. She makes her way through the book, consistently whining from one situation to the other. And not just her, ALL the other characters in the book are also consistently vile, nasty and caricature villains. It's like the author thinks that making people completely nasty is being realistic. It's not. Ever read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier? It's about a young boy in a war-torn country taking up arms, but it's not relentlessly dark. There are light moments when good things happen, and it's a TRUE story. This is where Flynn really fails in making her novel realistic.
Second, I am not really a fan of graphic violence and nastiness, described in unnecessary detail. Especially, when it's only fiction. I mean, there are 4-5 descriptions of vomiting in the book. would people look at vomit in such detail in real life? It's hardly realistic from any point of view. The author adds scene after scene of violence and depravity merely for shock value. That's just lazy writing. There was a completely unnecessary chapter consisting almost entirely of butchering a cow. Which did not add to the plot at all. Neither did the entire Satanism angle make any sense. Though there was a panic at this time about Satanic ritual abuse, !
The resolution takes place in two parts . One of them follows to a logical, if uninteresting, conclusion, while the other just appears out of nowhere, just tacked on for even more shock value. I am really disappointed that after wading through pages of reading about people throwing up, taking drugs and cleaning up refuse in great detail, this flimsy, unrealistic, tacky ending is what I got!
And my final, but really my most important grouse, what's with Flynn and women making false allegations of sexual abuse? There is a side plot that is tacked on for no reason - . Considering that she did pretty much the same with Gone Girl and is an incredibly popular author for some reason, it's worrying what message she is consistently sending across. With ALL the depravity and nastiness among the characters, surely it could have been a real case of abuse? Or is the author one of those who think that 'most' cases of molestation are false? Is she a member of MRA?
There are a couple of positive things. For one thing, the research is so detailed that in a different book, it would have been a real pleasure. She makes plenty of references to real murders that took place, and as someone interested in True Crime, I found that a great addition. Another is that you can see that Flynn has a talent for writing and has great ideas. Too bad, she chose to tell a boring story with uninteresting characters.
I really wouldn't recommend this book, but considering it's such a huge success, maybe I am the odd one out? I certainly think it has some major concerns, and I completely call bullshit on the 'it's realistic!' viewpoint. It's not.
May 9, 2021
Libby Day is famous for all the wrong reasons.
I was raised feral, and I mostly stayed that way.
When she was seven years old when her mother and two sisters were murdered at the height of the Satanic Panic in her small town in Kansas.
All the evidence pointed to Ben, Libby's older brother. The same older brother that Libby adored and idolized.
And with that, Libby's life came crashing down, and it hasn't stopped falling since.
I was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult.And now, 25 years later, Libby is scraping down rock bottom.
And just when life seems bleakest, the Kill Club approaches her.
I felt something loosen in me, that shouldn't have loosened. A stitch come undone.The Kill Club goes chasing after unsolved murders and are obsessed with notorious crimes. They're willing pay Libby to look into her own past.
They're convinced that her brother is innocent and the more she talks to them, the more she sees their point...but...if that's truly the case, why did he go so willingly into prison?
Whe book was wild.
Each of Gillian's books are so unsettling in their unique way - and this one was no exception.
We follow several different perspectives - modern-day Libby, Ben on the day-of the murder and Libby's mom (also on the murder-day).
Despite the book having so many different narrators, each one of them felt so distinct and I was wholly engrossed.
They were really well balanced, with each jump in perspective giving a slightly different piece to the puzzle and watching the mystery unravel was crazy.
This book truly was amazing - highly recommended for the Flynn Fan!
Audiobook Comments
Rebecca Lowman read this one and wow, she brought this book to life. Her timing, her pacing, her tone and inflection - it was all so spot on. Loved it!
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September 22, 2014
As someone who grew up in rural Kansas and has lived in the suburbs of Kansas City for the last fourteen years, I made my peace long ago with the fact that I don鈥檛 reside in one of the hip places on the map. The only Kansas based things that have worked their way into popular culture are In Cold Blood and that goddamn Wizard of Oz. (As a Kansan, I listen to everyone I鈥檝e met from somewhere else do the 鈥淚 guess you鈥檙e not in Kansas anymore! Ha ha!鈥� thing and can barely resist the urge to punch them in the throat.)
But it seems like every book, film or tv show is set in either New York or L.A. with a few other places like Miami, Chicago or Boston thrown in now and then. I think half the reason I鈥檓 such a huge fan of John Sandford is that most of his books are set in Minneapolis, and he鈥檚 shown that there actually is life in the Midwest. I know that the folks who run the various entertainment industries like to talk about getting us off our tractors long enough to sample their wares, but it seems like the only attempts to include us in the stories either mock us as morons or sentimentalize small town life to vomit inducing degrees.
Gillian Flynn is originally from Kansas City, and her first book was very well received so I was excited to hear that Dark Places was set in both rural Kansas and K.C. Of course, it involved the slaughter of a family on the prairie, going back to the In Cold Blood thing, but I鈥檒l take what I can get. I was excited to get one of the rare chances to read a story set in the place I live.
Unfortunately, Flynn didn鈥檛 do her old hometown any favors because it seems like she singled out every depressing aspect like the run down old stockyards and warehouse district that鈥檚 got some of the worst urban decay in the area. Or I-70 between K.C. and St. Louis that is filled with tacky billboards and low rent strip clubs. One restaurant that she uses as a location recently burned to the ground, and its owner is charged with arson. I know she was telling a story about the aftermath of a brutal crime and how it screwed up the sole survivor, but damn! Would it have killed her to have a character pop down to Power & Light for a drink? The K.C. tourism board would have thanked her for it.
Enough of my bitching. About the book: Back in 1985 on a rundown Kansas farm, a mother and two daughters are brutally killed. Young Libby Day manages to survive by fleeing the house, and it鈥檚 her testimony that convicts her fifteen year old brother Ben of the crime. Supposedly, Ben was a Satan worshipping freak who went shotgun and axe happy one winter night.
In the present, thirty-one year old Libby is a freaking mess. She doesn鈥檛 make it out of bed some days, she鈥檚 a kleptomaniac, she has no friends, and she usually can鈥檛 even manage to take care of simple things like remembering to buy cat food, wash her sheets or fill her ice cube trays.
Libby has been living off the trust fund that started when donations poured in after the murders, but the money is about to run out. Desperate, Libby agrees to a paid appearance for the Kill Club, a group of amateur investigators who think that her brother is innocent. Libby doesn鈥檛 even want to think about her brother, but offers of more cash get her motivated to start visiting people connected to the murders. Suddenly, Libby isn鈥檛 so sure that Ben was the killer after all.
The story is told in two parallel ways. We get Libby鈥檚 first person account of her activities in the present, while a third person narrative of the last day of her family gives us the background of what happened in 1985.
This is a character based mystery, and Flynn does a great job with both the struggling Libby in the present and the family in 1985. The stark reality of a poor farm family in the mid-鈥�80s along with Libby鈥檚 pathetic life as an adult makes for a pretty depressing story, but Flynn really sucks the reader into the plight of everyone involved. I was somewhat let down by the ending, but I can鈥檛 say much about that without spoilers.
While this book probably won鈥檛 convince anyone to move to Kansas, it鈥檚 a good read for those who don鈥檛 mind a raw story about just how much life can sometimes suck, even if you don鈥檛 get chopped to bits with an axe.
But it seems like every book, film or tv show is set in either New York or L.A. with a few other places like Miami, Chicago or Boston thrown in now and then. I think half the reason I鈥檓 such a huge fan of John Sandford is that most of his books are set in Minneapolis, and he鈥檚 shown that there actually is life in the Midwest. I know that the folks who run the various entertainment industries like to talk about getting us off our tractors long enough to sample their wares, but it seems like the only attempts to include us in the stories either mock us as morons or sentimentalize small town life to vomit inducing degrees.
Gillian Flynn is originally from Kansas City, and her first book was very well received so I was excited to hear that Dark Places was set in both rural Kansas and K.C. Of course, it involved the slaughter of a family on the prairie, going back to the In Cold Blood thing, but I鈥檒l take what I can get. I was excited to get one of the rare chances to read a story set in the place I live.
Unfortunately, Flynn didn鈥檛 do her old hometown any favors because it seems like she singled out every depressing aspect like the run down old stockyards and warehouse district that鈥檚 got some of the worst urban decay in the area. Or I-70 between K.C. and St. Louis that is filled with tacky billboards and low rent strip clubs. One restaurant that she uses as a location recently burned to the ground, and its owner is charged with arson. I know she was telling a story about the aftermath of a brutal crime and how it screwed up the sole survivor, but damn! Would it have killed her to have a character pop down to Power & Light for a drink? The K.C. tourism board would have thanked her for it.
Enough of my bitching. About the book: Back in 1985 on a rundown Kansas farm, a mother and two daughters are brutally killed. Young Libby Day manages to survive by fleeing the house, and it鈥檚 her testimony that convicts her fifteen year old brother Ben of the crime. Supposedly, Ben was a Satan worshipping freak who went shotgun and axe happy one winter night.
In the present, thirty-one year old Libby is a freaking mess. She doesn鈥檛 make it out of bed some days, she鈥檚 a kleptomaniac, she has no friends, and she usually can鈥檛 even manage to take care of simple things like remembering to buy cat food, wash her sheets or fill her ice cube trays.
Libby has been living off the trust fund that started when donations poured in after the murders, but the money is about to run out. Desperate, Libby agrees to a paid appearance for the Kill Club, a group of amateur investigators who think that her brother is innocent. Libby doesn鈥檛 even want to think about her brother, but offers of more cash get her motivated to start visiting people connected to the murders. Suddenly, Libby isn鈥檛 so sure that Ben was the killer after all.
The story is told in two parallel ways. We get Libby鈥檚 first person account of her activities in the present, while a third person narrative of the last day of her family gives us the background of what happened in 1985.
This is a character based mystery, and Flynn does a great job with both the struggling Libby in the present and the family in 1985. The stark reality of a poor farm family in the mid-鈥�80s along with Libby鈥檚 pathetic life as an adult makes for a pretty depressing story, but Flynn really sucks the reader into the plight of everyone involved. I was somewhat let down by the ending, but I can鈥檛 say much about that without spoilers.
While this book probably won鈥檛 convince anyone to move to Kansas, it鈥檚 a good read for those who don鈥檛 mind a raw story about just how much life can sometimes suck, even if you don鈥檛 get chopped to bits with an axe.
October 15, 2019
i do NOT like the ending of this book. maybe that's just me and thrillers, idk.
but otherwise this was fantastically told.
but otherwise this was fantastically told.
November 15, 2024
Nie potrafi臋 wyrazi膰 s艂owami, jak bardzo mi si臋 ta ksi膮偶ka nie podoba艂a xd
Czuj臋, 偶e straci艂am ostatnie kom贸rki w m贸zgu czytaj膮c j膮. Zagadka kryminalna - bezsensowna i nieistniej膮ca koniec ko艅c贸w. Bohaterowie - nie by艂o ani jednego, kt贸ry by艂by dobrze wykreowany. Mo偶e Libby, ona by艂a najciekawsza, ale jest tak naprawd臋 tylko t艂em w swojej w艂asnej historii.
Wymy艣lcie najbardziej absurdalne zako艅czenie krymina艂u, a i tak b臋dzie bardziej wiarygodne, ni偶 to co si臋 tu dzia艂o 馃珷
I okropnie wulgarna. Nie mam problemu z wulgaryzmami, ale to by艂a przesada.
Ehhh a chcia艂am tylko drugie 鈥濷stre przedmioty鈥�
Czuj臋, 偶e straci艂am ostatnie kom贸rki w m贸zgu czytaj膮c j膮. Zagadka kryminalna - bezsensowna i nieistniej膮ca koniec ko艅c贸w. Bohaterowie - nie by艂o ani jednego, kt贸ry by艂by dobrze wykreowany. Mo偶e Libby, ona by艂a najciekawsza, ale jest tak naprawd臋 tylko t艂em w swojej w艂asnej historii.
Wymy艣lcie najbardziej absurdalne zako艅czenie krymina艂u, a i tak b臋dzie bardziej wiarygodne, ni偶 to co si臋 tu dzia艂o 馃珷
I okropnie wulgarna. Nie mam problemu z wulgaryzmami, ale to by艂a przesada.
Ehhh a chcia艂am tylko drugie 鈥濷stre przedmioty鈥�
July 2, 2019
my first experience with gillian flynn was a minor disaster. i had no idea how dark and disturbing her stories would be, so i was nowhere close to being in the right mental state for that kind of thing. now knowing the twisted things she is capable of writing, i found this book to be quite thrilling!
ive also found GF has quite a slow paced style of writing but, with this particular story, i thought it worked really well. it helps develop the characters, establish a timeline of day of the crime, and provide little clues and hints along the way. the ending isnt quite as shocking as i may have liked - with the slow pace and good details, its easy to see where things are headed - but i thought it was an ending suitable for the story.
overall, im so relieved i didnt dislike this as much as 鈥榮harp objects鈥� and now im even more excited to pick up 鈥榞one girl!鈥�
鈫� 3.5 stars
ive also found GF has quite a slow paced style of writing but, with this particular story, i thought it worked really well. it helps develop the characters, establish a timeline of day of the crime, and provide little clues and hints along the way. the ending isnt quite as shocking as i may have liked - with the slow pace and good details, its easy to see where things are headed - but i thought it was an ending suitable for the story.
overall, im so relieved i didnt dislike this as much as 鈥榮harp objects鈥� and now im even more excited to pick up 鈥榞one girl!鈥�
鈫� 3.5 stars
April 26, 2023
Lesson learned # 1: Gillian Flynn is excellent at creating unpleasant characters and disturbing situations.
Dark Places is a book capable of leaving a nasty aftertaste and vague uncomfortable feeling for days after finishing it. I strongly suspect it is its intended effect. For which I almost grudgingly鹿 have to say to Flynn - nice work there.
Libby Day's family was brutally slaughtered 25 years ago, and it was Libby's testimony - a confused, clearly coached recollection of a seven-year-old child - that landed her fifteen-year-old brother behind bars for life. Except that now Libby - adult and aimlessly floating through life in a quite unpleasantly pathetic fashion - has reasons to doubt her brother's guilt, and, shaken up from her stupor by a plot contrivance, is on a search to unearth old well-hidden ghosts and uncover what actually happened on a cold January day 25 years ago in a middle-of-nowhere town, Missouri.
Where the story shines is Ben Day's sections. The maybe-innocent then fifteen-year-old boy from a poor farm family, confused and dangerously naive on some things, longing to be accepted and be somebody to such an extent that he's dangerously balanced on a sharp edge, willing to passively drift somewhere borne along in the stronger current of those around him, and getting progressively and disturbingly angrier with each page.
It's Ben's downward dangerous slide that kept me awake in the wee hours of the night, turning pages, feeling the empty hollowness deep in my stomach as the events were taking their merciless turn, and making me feel torn and unsettled. Ben Day, dangerous in how lost he is, frightening in how far into darkness his mind slides, surrounded by unhealthy twisted horrible creepy nastiness all around him. His story made me want to have my faith in humanity somehow reaffirmed, preferably in the bright sunshine with a cocktail in my hand, maybe by the poolside - anything to take the nasty darkness away.
Overall, thanks to Ben's story, it was a memorable read. It's far from ideal, yes, but memorable nevertheless. Now I do feel compelled to get my hands on the one remaining Gillian Flynn book I haven't read, and check out her future literary offerings. She has such potential, and I'm looking forward to one day seeing it fully realized.
3.5/5 stars.
------------------
Old 'review':
Still unsure about the rating.
Reason: brain still a bit disturbed and shorted out.
Decision to finish this book in the dark apartment at 3 am was, well, questionable.
鈥淚 was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs.鈥�Lesson learned # 2: Reading her books in a dark apartment at 3 am is a big making-skin-crawl mistake.
Dark Places is a book capable of leaving a nasty aftertaste and vague uncomfortable feeling for days after finishing it. I strongly suspect it is its intended effect. For which I almost grudgingly鹿 have to say to Flynn - nice work there.
鹿Why grudgingly? Because this book made me feel torn. When I think of it, it's almost like I think of two separate books: a bit contrived and shoddily resolved murder mystery as well as an excellently disturbing voyage into the unpleasant recesses of human mind.These two impressions of mine seem to be split almost exclusively along the framework of the story: the unsatisfying bit being mostly the story of present-day Libby Day, told in the first person as she struggles to find the answers to the worst thing that happened in her life; and the unpleasant but good parts of the story set a quarter of the century prior, seen through the eyes of Libby's mother and brother.
Libby Day's family was brutally slaughtered 25 years ago, and it was Libby's testimony - a confused, clearly coached recollection of a seven-year-old child - that landed her fifteen-year-old brother behind bars for life. Except that now Libby - adult and aimlessly floating through life in a quite unpleasantly pathetic fashion - has reasons to doubt her brother's guilt, and, shaken up from her stupor by a plot contrivance, is on a search to unearth old well-hidden ghosts and uncover what actually happened on a cold January day 25 years ago in a middle-of-nowhere town, Missouri.
Yes, the murders themselves, regardless of how gruesome they may be, are not the disturbing part, not at all. The nastiness comes from the people involved - Libby herself, her maybe-innocent-maybe-not brother, her repulsive good-for-nothing father, and a few more key players of that fateful, as it turned out, day.Libby's story - unfortunately, it's not that great. Mind it, the actual character of Libby Day is quite interesting. She is pathetic in her almost parasitic existence, and knows her own unlikability very well. But the storyline itself - it does not stand out that much, and Libby's inevitable waking up from her couple of decades of stupor feels a bit contrived. The interactions between Libby and everyone else around her are uninspired. It's mediocre, and gets not even a second thought from me. Bleh.
Where the story shines is Ben Day's sections. The maybe-innocent then fifteen-year-old boy from a poor farm family, confused and dangerously naive on some things, longing to be accepted and be somebody to such an extent that he's dangerously balanced on a sharp edge, willing to passively drift somewhere borne along in the stronger current of those around him, and getting progressively and disturbingly angrier with each page.
It's Ben's downward dangerous slide that kept me awake in the wee hours of the night, turning pages, feeling the empty hollowness deep in my stomach as the events were taking their merciless turn, and making me feel torn and unsettled. Ben Day, dangerous in how lost he is, frightening in how far into darkness his mind slides, surrounded by unhealthy twisted horrible creepy nastiness all around him. His story made me want to have my faith in humanity somehow reaffirmed, preferably in the bright sunshine with a cocktail in my hand, maybe by the poolside - anything to take the nasty darkness away.
Overall, thanks to Ben's story, it was a memorable read. It's far from ideal, yes, but memorable nevertheless. Now I do feel compelled to get my hands on the one remaining Gillian Flynn book I haven't read, and check out her future literary offerings. She has such potential, and I'm looking forward to one day seeing it fully realized.
3.5/5 stars.
------------------
Old 'review':
Still unsure about the rating.
Reason: brain still a bit disturbed and shorted out.
Decision to finish this book in the dark apartment at 3 am was, well, questionable.
June 27, 2015
Gripping and entertained!
DAYS GO BY
You gotta believe in something, right? Everyone has their thing.
This is my second novel by Gillian Flynn, and now I am realizing that I have been reading them backwards, I mean in the opposite publishing order, but this has been due mainly the order of film adaptations. However, I won鈥檛 wait until having any film adaptation of Sharp Objects, to read that one. I do hope to read it in the following months.
My reading experience with Gone Girl wasn鈥檛 any good as I would expect, BUT I have to admit that it has a really unique narration style making it worhty to be in anyone鈥檚 TBR book list. And odd enough I enjoyed A LOT the film adaptation of that one, while I watched after reading the book and taking in account that it鈥檚 basically the same story, but I enjoyed it better in the movie format.
I wasn鈥檛 sure how much I鈥檇 enjoy this book, Dark Places, but happily I can say that the reading experience with this novel was truly wonderful. Maybe it lacks of more intense action at the climax (I won't spoil it, don't worry), but definitely I enjoy a lot the whole reading experience of the book.
I am truly glad of deciding to read it. I still have to watch the movie (at the moment that I am writing this review) but I hope to be able to watch it soon.
HAVE A NICE DAY
And every single person in this case lies, is lying, did lie.
Dark Places is the tragic and grim story of the Day Family, told in the voices of Libby Day (main character), Patty Day (her mother) and Ben Day (his brother).
Libby鈥檚 family had just the opposite a nice day, like 25 years ago...
...her mother and her two other sisters were murdered and Ben, his brother was charged with the killings, getting a conviction where Libby鈥檚 testimony was a key factor for it.
Now, Libby is an adult woman, and very soon she will be totally penniless. She got many donations around the country (United States), mainly at the momento of the tragedy, and she has been able to dispose of the money too good. She never studied, never worked, never did anything.
Libby is exposed to a singular kind of fans about unsolved murders or cases where the convictions have something wrong. A Killing Club, reuniting former cops, former detectives and even regular people interested about police cases. She is shocked to know that there are too many people believing that his brother is innocent, and her own doubts about what really happened that terrible night, 25 years ago, are starting to increase big.
Between her personal reasons of wanting to know what really happened that dark night and her current struggling economic status, Libby thinks that she can kill two birds with one stone, since this 鈥淜illing Club鈥� is willing to pay her enough money to go and interview the people involved in the case and since she is Libby Day, there is a high potential that that people would open in an easier way to her than strangers.
Readers will get to know, slowly but methodically, exactly what happened that terrible day, having chapters with the voice of Libby right now, but also the voices of Patty and Ben, but those two set back in the past, on that fateful day. Present and past will be intermixed offering the pieces of the puzzle that the readers want to put together, BUT it won鈥檛 be easy since human beings are natural liars and the Day Family isn鈥檛 better if not worse.
MAKE MY DAY
That鈥檚 what they were: a home past the expiration date.
It鈥檚 obvious that the case of the Day Family鈥檚 murders wasn鈥檛 handle as it should, but it鈥檚 amazing how easy an alibi can be stated. Unless there is some evidence putting you in the crime scene, it seems that basically you only need to convince somebody else to say that you were with him/her at the moment of the crime, and bam! You鈥檙e off the hook!
Nobody is perfect, but certainly the Day Family never tried any hard to be one. You will have an unique access to the minds and feeling of three of the main members of the family, but also, thanks to them, you will get to know the rest of members of this broken kindred.
You won鈥檛 have heroes here. Only survivors. And certainly when money is scarse, the Day Family doesn鈥檛 hesitate to make crazy hard calls.
Blood is thicker than water, so families鈥� bonds are strong to smash, but also, families aren鈥檛 a static things but in constant evolution, and due that bloods can become even more thicker, specially if something isn鈥檛 quite right (to say the least) in your head.
SEIZE THE DAY
Everyone who keeps a secret itches to tell it.
A mystery is something great, it鈥檚 something wonderful, since a mystery always is screaming to be solved. A mystery exists to be solved...
...but a secret?
A secret is something intimidating, it鈥檚 something maddening, since a secret always is silently screaming to remain unspoken, hidden. Knowing about the existence of a secret is a contradiction itself.
Therefore, people do their best to keep the secrets, but it鈥檚 something too heavy, so, to lighten some of the burden, people become crafty to 鈥渆xpose鈥� the secret at plain sight, but in a clever way.
Even dark places aren鈥檛 enough to keep a secret.
Meet the Day Family...
...at your own risk!
DAYS GO BY
You gotta believe in something, right? Everyone has their thing.
This is my second novel by Gillian Flynn, and now I am realizing that I have been reading them backwards, I mean in the opposite publishing order, but this has been due mainly the order of film adaptations. However, I won鈥檛 wait until having any film adaptation of Sharp Objects, to read that one. I do hope to read it in the following months.
My reading experience with Gone Girl wasn鈥檛 any good as I would expect, BUT I have to admit that it has a really unique narration style making it worhty to be in anyone鈥檚 TBR book list. And odd enough I enjoyed A LOT the film adaptation of that one, while I watched after reading the book and taking in account that it鈥檚 basically the same story, but I enjoyed it better in the movie format.
I wasn鈥檛 sure how much I鈥檇 enjoy this book, Dark Places, but happily I can say that the reading experience with this novel was truly wonderful. Maybe it lacks of more intense action at the climax (I won't spoil it, don't worry), but definitely I enjoy a lot the whole reading experience of the book.
I am truly glad of deciding to read it. I still have to watch the movie (at the moment that I am writing this review) but I hope to be able to watch it soon.
HAVE A NICE DAY
And every single person in this case lies, is lying, did lie.
Dark Places is the tragic and grim story of the Day Family, told in the voices of Libby Day (main character), Patty Day (her mother) and Ben Day (his brother).
Libby鈥檚 family had just the opposite a nice day, like 25 years ago...
...her mother and her two other sisters were murdered and Ben, his brother was charged with the killings, getting a conviction where Libby鈥檚 testimony was a key factor for it.
Now, Libby is an adult woman, and very soon she will be totally penniless. She got many donations around the country (United States), mainly at the momento of the tragedy, and she has been able to dispose of the money too good. She never studied, never worked, never did anything.
Libby is exposed to a singular kind of fans about unsolved murders or cases where the convictions have something wrong. A Killing Club, reuniting former cops, former detectives and even regular people interested about police cases. She is shocked to know that there are too many people believing that his brother is innocent, and her own doubts about what really happened that terrible night, 25 years ago, are starting to increase big.
Between her personal reasons of wanting to know what really happened that dark night and her current struggling economic status, Libby thinks that she can kill two birds with one stone, since this 鈥淜illing Club鈥� is willing to pay her enough money to go and interview the people involved in the case and since she is Libby Day, there is a high potential that that people would open in an easier way to her than strangers.
Readers will get to know, slowly but methodically, exactly what happened that terrible day, having chapters with the voice of Libby right now, but also the voices of Patty and Ben, but those two set back in the past, on that fateful day. Present and past will be intermixed offering the pieces of the puzzle that the readers want to put together, BUT it won鈥檛 be easy since human beings are natural liars and the Day Family isn鈥檛 better if not worse.
MAKE MY DAY
That鈥檚 what they were: a home past the expiration date.
It鈥檚 obvious that the case of the Day Family鈥檚 murders wasn鈥檛 handle as it should, but it鈥檚 amazing how easy an alibi can be stated. Unless there is some evidence putting you in the crime scene, it seems that basically you only need to convince somebody else to say that you were with him/her at the moment of the crime, and bam! You鈥檙e off the hook!
Nobody is perfect, but certainly the Day Family never tried any hard to be one. You will have an unique access to the minds and feeling of three of the main members of the family, but also, thanks to them, you will get to know the rest of members of this broken kindred.
You won鈥檛 have heroes here. Only survivors. And certainly when money is scarse, the Day Family doesn鈥檛 hesitate to make crazy hard calls.
Blood is thicker than water, so families鈥� bonds are strong to smash, but also, families aren鈥檛 a static things but in constant evolution, and due that bloods can become even more thicker, specially if something isn鈥檛 quite right (to say the least) in your head.
SEIZE THE DAY
Everyone who keeps a secret itches to tell it.
A mystery is something great, it鈥檚 something wonderful, since a mystery always is screaming to be solved. A mystery exists to be solved...
...but a secret?
A secret is something intimidating, it鈥檚 something maddening, since a secret always is silently screaming to remain unspoken, hidden. Knowing about the existence of a secret is a contradiction itself.
Therefore, people do their best to keep the secrets, but it鈥檚 something too heavy, so, to lighten some of the burden, people become crafty to 鈥渆xpose鈥� the secret at plain sight, but in a clever way.
Even dark places aren鈥檛 enough to keep a secret.
Meet the Day Family...
...at your own risk!
March 13, 2022
Dark Places, Gillian Flynn
Dark Places is a mystery novel by Gillian Flynn published in 2009. The novel deals with class issues in rural America, intense poverty and the Satanic cult hysteria that swept the United States in the 1980's.
Libby Day, the novel's narrator and protagonist, is the sole survivor of a massacre in Kinnakee, Kansas, a fictional rural town. After witnessing the murders of her two sisters and mother, in what appears to be a Satanic cult ritual, she escapes through a window and later testifies in court against her teenage brother.
Twenty-five years after the massacre, Libby, in need of money, meets with a group of amateur investigators who believe that her brother is innocent of the crime. At their coaxing, she meets her brother, Ben for the first time, but is not convinced that he didn't do it. She also meets with her father, now homeless, but is not convinced he played a part in it either.
Through her investigation, she learns of her brother's secret girlfriend, as well as accusations against him for child molestation. Interspersed with the modern day investigation are flashbacks to the day of the massacre. These flashbacks are told from the points of view of Libby's mother, Patty, and her convicted brother, Ben. Patty's viewpoints discuss the difficulties of trying to keep the family farm while raising four children alone; Ben tells the story of a troubled teenager as he falls in with a bad crowd. These viewpoints paint a picture of a grim life of desperate poverty, marital abuse and abandonment that characterize life on the farm prior to the murder.
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賳賯賱 丕夭 倬卮鬲 噩賱丿 讴鬲丕亘: (芦賱蹖亘蹖 丿蹖禄 賴賮鬲 爻丕賱賴 亘賵丿貙 讴賴 賲丕丿乇 賵 禺賵丕賴乇卮貙 丿乇 禺丕賳賴鈥� 卮丕賳 亘賴 賯鬲賱 乇爻蹖丿賳丿貨 丕賵 讴賴 丕夭 丌賳 卮亘 賴賵賱賳丕讴 噩丕賳 爻丕賱賲 亘賴 丿乇 亘乇丿賴貙 亘乇丕丿乇 倬丕賳夭丿賴 爻丕賱賴鈥� 蹖 禺賵丿卮貙 芦亘賳禄貙 乇丕貙 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 賯丕鬲賱 賲毓乇賮蹖 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 亘蹖爻鬲鈥� 賵 倬賳噩 爻丕賱 亘毓丿貙 賳丕賲賴 蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴蹖貙 亘賴 丿爻鬲 芦賱蹖亘蹖禄 賲蹖鈥屫必池� 讴賴 丕賵 乇丕 賵丕賲蹖鈥屫ж必� 丿賵亘丕乇賴 诏匕卮鬲賴鈥� 丕卮 乇丕 賲乇賵乇 讴賳丿貙 诏匕卮鬲賴鈥� 丕蹖 讴賴 鬲乇噩蹖丨 賲蹖鈥屫囏� 賮乇丕賲賵卮卮 讴賳丿貨 賳丕賲賴 丕夭 爻賵蹖 芦讴賱賵亘 賯鬲賱禄 賮乇爻鬲丕丿賴 卮丿賴貙 诏乇賵賴蹖 讴賴 爻乇诏乇賲蹖鈥屫簇з嗀� 讴卮賮 乇丕夭 賯鬲賱鈥屬囏й� 賲亘賴賲 丕爻鬲貨 丌賳鈥屬囏� 丿乇 鬲賱丕卮鈥� 賴爻鬲賳丿貙 卮賵丕賴丿蹖 乇丕 诏乇丿丌賵乇蹖 讴賳賳丿貙 讴賴 孬丕亘鬲 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�: 芦亘賳禄 亘蹖鈥屭嗀з� 丕爻鬲貨 芦賱蹖亘蹖禄 讴賴 賲蹖鈥屫堌з囏� 亘丕 倬跇賵賴卮 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 賯鬲賱鈥屬囏� 倬賵賱蹖 亘賴 噩蹖亘 亘夭賳丿貨 蹖讴丕蹖讴 讴爻丕賳蹖 乇丕 讴賴 丿乇 丌賳 卮亘 爻賴賲蹖 丿丕卮鬲賳丿貙 倬蹖丿丕 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 賵 丕夭 夭蹖乇 夭亘丕賳卮丕賳 丨乇賮 賲蹖鈥屭┴簇� 讴賲鈥� 讴賲貙 丨賯蹖賯鬲蹖 亘丕賵乇賳讴乇丿賳蹖 丌卮讴丕乇 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 賵 芦賱蹖亘蹖禄 丿賵亘丕乇賴 亘賴 禺丕賳賴 蹖 賳禺爻鬲 亘丕夭賲蹖鈥屭必� 丕賵 亘丕夭 賴賲 亘丕蹖丿 丕夭 丿爻鬲 賯丕鬲賱 亘诏乇蹖夭丿)貨 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳賯賱
賳賯賱 丕夭 賲鬲賳: (芦倬鬲蹖 丿蹖禄貨 丿賵賲 跇丕賳賵蹖賴 爻丕賱1985賲蹖賱丕丿蹖貨 爻丕毓鬲 賴卮鬲 賵 丿賵 丿賯蹖賴 氐亘丨貨 倬爻乇 亘丕夭 丿丕卮鬲 亘丕 鬲賱賮賳 丨乇賮 賲蹖夭丿 賵 賲丕丿乇卮 賴賲 氐丿丕蹖 讴丕乇鬲賵賳蹖 賵 蹖賵丕卮讴蹖 倬爻乇卮 乇丕 賲蹖卮賳蹖丿貙 讴賴 倬卮鬲 丿乇 丕鬲丕賯卮 亘丕 鬲賱賮賳 倬趩 倬趩 賲蹖讴乇丿貨 倬爻乇 禺賵丕爻鬲賴 亘賵丿 鬲賵蹖 禺丕賳賴 蹖讴 禺胤 鬲賱賮賳 丿蹖诏乇 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮丿貨 賯爻賲 禺賵乇丿賴 亘賵丿 讴賴 賳氐賮 賴賲讴賱丕爻蹖賴丕蹖卮 禺胤 鬲賱賮賳 賲禺氐賵氐 禺賵丿卮丕賳 乇丕 丿丕乇賳丿貨 丕爻賲 丕蹖賳 禺胤 賴丕貙 芦禺胤 賲禺氐賵氐 亘趩賴 賴丕蹖 禺丕賳賴禄 亘賵丿貨 芦倬鬲蹖禄 禺賳丿蹖丿 賵 亘毓丿卮 賴賲 毓氐亘丕賳蹖 卮丿貨 趩賵賳 倬爻乇 亘賴 禺丕胤乇 禺賳丿賴貙 丕夭 丿爻鬲卮 毓氐亘丕賳蹖 卮丿賴 亘賵丿貨 ( 賳賴 亘丕亘丕 噩丿蹖責 禺胤 鬲賱賮賳 賲禺氐賵氐 亘趩賴 賴丕責 丕蹖賳 亘趩賴 賴丕 丿蹖诏乇 趩賯丿乇 賱賵爻 卮丿賴 丕賳丿責) 賴蹖趩讴丿丕賲 丿蹖诏乇 丿賵亘丕乇賴 亘丨孬卮 乇丕 倬蹖卮 賳讴卮蹖丿賳丿貨 賴乇 丿賵 乇丕丨鬲 賲毓匕亘 賲蹖卮丿賳丿貨 趩賳丿 賴賮鬲賴 亘毓丿卮 賴賲 倬爻乇 爻乇卮 乇丕 丕賳丿丕禺鬲 倬丕蹖蹖賳 賵 丌賲丿 禺丕賳賴 賵 賲丨鬲賵蹖丕鬲 夭賳亘蹖賱卮 乇丕 賳卮丕賳卮 丿丕丿: 蹖讴 賲賯爻賲 禺胤 讴賴 丕噩丕夭賴 賲蹖丿丕丿 丿賵 鬲丕 丿爻鬲诏丕賴 鬲賱賮賳 丕夭 蹖讴 禺胤 丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 讴賳賳丿貙 賵 蹖讴 鬲賱賮賳 倬賱丕爻鬲蹖讴蹖賽 丨爻丕亘蹖 爻亘讴 讴賴 亘丕 賳賲賵賳賴 賴丕蹖 賲卮丕亘賴賽 丕爻亘丕亘 亘丕夭蹖 氐賵乇鬲蹖 乇賳诏 讴賴 丿禺鬲乇亘趩賴 賴丕 亘丕 丌賳賴丕 賲賳卮蹖 亘丕夭蹖 賲蹖讴乇丿賳丿貙 趩賳丿丕賳 賮乇賯蹖 賳丿丕卮鬲貨 丿禺鬲乇賴丕 鬲賵蹖 鬲賱賮賳 賲蹖诏賮鬲賳丿: 芦丿賮鬲乇 丌賯丕蹖 亘賳噩丕賲蹖賳 丿蹖責禄 賵 爻毓蹖 賲蹖讴乇丿賳丿 亘乇丕丿乇 亘夭乇诏鬲乇 乇丕 賵丕乇丿 鬲賱賮賳 亘丕夭蹖 讴賳賳丿貨 芦亘賳禄 毓丕丿鬲 丿丕卮鬲 賱亘禺賳丿 亘夭賳丿 賵 亘賴 丌賳賴丕 亘诏賵蹖丿 讴賴 倬蹖丕賲 亘诏匕丕乇賳丿貨 亘毓丿卮 賴賲 讴賱丕賸 倬蹖丕賲 賴丕 乇丕 賳丕丿蹖丿賴 賲蹖诏乇賮鬲
丕夭 賵賯鬲蹖 芦亘賳禄 禺乇鬲 賵 倬乇鬲 賴丕蹖卮 乇丕 丌賵乇丿 禺丕賳賴貙 毓亘丕乇鬲 芦爻蹖賲 鬲賱賮賳 賳毓賱鬲蹖禄 丿乇 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 芦丿蹖禄 乇丕蹖噩 卮丿貨 爻蹖賲 丕夭 禺乇賵噩蹖賴丕蹖 丌卮倬夭禺丕賳賴 賴賲蹖賳胤賵乇 倬蹖趩 賵 鬲丕亘 禺賵乇丕賳 賲蹖丌賲丿 賵 丕夭 乇賵蹖 芦丕倬賳禄貙 亘賴 丕賳鬲賴丕蹖 乇丕賴乇賵 賲蹖乇賮鬲貙 賵 丕夭 夭蹖乇 卮讴丕賮 丿乇 丕鬲丕賯卮 讴賴 賴賲蹖卮賴 亘爻鬲賴 亘賵丿貙 倬蹖趩 賲蹖禺賵乇丿 賵 乇丿 賲蹖卮丿貨 乇賵夭蹖 丨丿丕賯賱 蹖讴亘丕乇 倬丕蹖 蹖讴蹖 賲蹖禺賵乇丿 亘賴 爻蹖賲貙 賵 丕夭 毓賯亘卮 氐丿丕蹖 噩蹖睾 (丕诏乇 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿禺鬲乇賴丕 亘賵丿)貙 蹖丕 亘丿 賵亘蹖乇丕賴 (丕诏乇 芦倬鬲蹖禄 蹖丕 芦亘賳禄 亘賵丿) 亘賱賳丿 賲蹖卮丿貨 芦倬鬲蹖禄 亘丕乇賴丕 丕夭 芦亘賳禄 禺賵丕爻鬲賴 亘賵丿貙 讴賴 爻蹖賲 乇丕 亘賴 丿蹖賵丕乇 亘趩爻亘丕賳丿貙 賵 丕賵 賴賲 亘丕乇賴丕 倬卮鬲 诏賵卮 丕賳丿丕禺鬲賴 亘賵丿貨 芦倬鬲蹖禄 賲丿丕賲 爻毓蹖 賲蹖讴乇丿 亘賴 禺賵丿卮 亘賯亘賵賱丕賳丿 讴賴 讴丕乇賴丕蹖 芦亘賳禄貙 蹖讴丿賳丿诏蹖賽 賲毓賲賵賱賽 賳賵噩賵丕賳蹖 丕爻鬲貙 丕賲丕 芦亘賳禄 乇賮鬲丕乇卮 禺蹖賱蹖 鬲賴丕噩賲蹖 亘賵丿貙 賵 芦倬鬲蹖禄 乇丕 賳诏乇丕賳 賲蹖讴乇丿貙 讴賴 趩乇丕 丕蹖賳 倬爻乇 丕蹖賳賯丿乇 毓氐亘丕賳蹖 蹖丕 鬲賳亘賱 丕爻鬲貙 蹖丕 丨鬲蹖 趩蹖夭 亘丿鬲乇蹖 讴賴 賴賳賵夭 亘賴 賲禺蹖賱賴 丕卮 禺胤賵乇 賳讴乇丿賴貙 賵 鬲丕夭賴 芦亘賳禄 亘丕 讴蹖 丨乇賮 賲蹖夭丿責 賯亘賱 丕夭 丕蹖賳讴賴 禺胤 鬲賱賮賳 丿賵賲 丕蹖賳 禺丕賳賴 賲孬賱 蹖讴 賲毓賲丕 丕囟丕賮賴 卮賵丿貙 讴賲鬲乇 讴爻蹖 亘賴 芦亘賳禄 夭賳诏 賲蹖夭丿貨 丿賵 鬲丕 乇賮蹖賯 賳夭丿蹖讴 丿丕卮鬲貙 讴賴 亘乇丕丿乇丕賳 芦賲蹖賵賱乇禄 亘賵丿賳丿貨 丿賵 賳賮乇 亘丕 賱亘丕爻 讴卮丕賵乇夭蹖 賲禺氐賵氐 芦爻丕夭賲丕賳 讴卮丕賵乇夭丕賳 丌蹖賳丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕禄 賵 丌賳賯丿乇 鬲賵丿丕乇 賵 賲賳夭賵蹖貙 讴賴 丕诏乇 鬲賱賮賳 乇丕 芦倬鬲蹖禄 噩賵丕亘 賲蹖丿丕丿貙 诏丕賴蹖 賯胤毓 賲蹖讴乇丿賳丿貙 賵賱蹖 芦倬鬲蹖禄 亘賴 芦亘賳禄 禺亘乇 賲蹖丿丕丿 讴賴 蹖丕 芦噩蹖賲禄 蹖丕 芦丕丿禄 夭賳诏 夭丿賴 丕賳丿貙 賵 讴丕乇卮 丿丕乇賳丿貨 丕賲丕 鬲丕 亘賴 丨丕賱 賴蹖趩賵賯鬲 丕夭 丕蹖賳 诏賮鬲 賵 诏賵賴丕蹖 鬲賱賮賳蹖 胤賵賱丕賳蹖 賲丿鬲 倬卮鬲 丿乇賴丕蹖 亘爻鬲賴貙 禺亘乇蹖 賳亘賵丿 芦倬鬲蹖禄 丨丿爻 夭丿 卮丕蹖丿 倬爻乇卮 亘丕賱丕禺乇賴 丿賵爻鬲 丿禺鬲乇 倬蹖丿丕 讴乇丿賴貙 丕賲丕 鬲丕 趩賳丿 鬲丕 丕卮丕乇賴 讴賵趩讴 丌賲丿貙 讴賴 鬲賴 賵 鬲賵蹖 賯囟蹖賴 乇丕 丿乇亘蹖丕賵乇丿貙 芦亘賳禄 噩賵乇蹖 賲毓匕亘 卮丿貙 讴賴 乇賳诏賽 倬乇蹖丿賴 倬賵爻鬲卮 爻賮蹖丿 賵 讴亘賵丿 卮丿貙 賵 讴讴 賲讴 賴丕蹖 讴賴乇亘丕蹖蹖 乇賳诏卮 亘乇賯 夭丿賳丿貙 丕賳诏丕乇 賴卮丿丕乇 亘丕卮丿貨 芦倬鬲蹖禄 賴賲 讴賱丕賸 亘蹖 禺蹖丕賱 賯囟蹖賴 卮丿貨 丕夭 丌賳 賲丕丿乇賴丕蹖蹖 賳亘賵丿 讴賴 禺賵丿卮 乇丕 亘趩倬丕賳丿 亘賴 亘趩賴 賴丕 讴賴 噩蹖讴 賵 倬賵讴 夭賳丿诏蹖卮丕賳 乇丕 亘蹖乇賵賳 亘讴卮丿貨 蹖讴 倬爻乇 倬丕賳夭丿賴 爻丕賱賴 鬲賵蹖 禺丕賳賴 丕蹖 倬乇 丕夭 夭賳貙 賴賲蹖賳 胤賵乇蹖 賴賲 亘賴 丕賳丿丕夭賴 讴丕賮蹖 亘乇丕蹖 丨賮馗 丨乇蹖賲 禺氐賵氐蹖 禺賵丿卮 丕匕蹖鬲 賲蹖卮丿貨 蹖讴 乇賵夭 讴賴 芦亘賳禄 丕夭 賲丿乇爻賴 丌賲丿 賵 丿蹖丿 芦賲蹖卮賱禄 丿乇 丨丕賱 賵乇乇賮鬲賳 亘賴 讴卮賵賴丕蹖 賲蹖夭卮 丕爻鬲貙 乇賵蹖 丿乇 丕鬲丕賯卮 賯賮賱 夭丿貨 亘乇丕蹖 夭丿賳賽 賯賮賱 乇賵蹖 丿乇 賴賲 丕夭 讴爻蹖 丕噩丕夭賴 賳诏乇賮鬲: 蹖讴 趩讴卮貙 趩賳丿 鬲丕 亘賳诏 賵 蹖讴 丿賮毓賴 鬲賲丕賲貨 丨丕賱丕 賱丕賳賴 倬爻乇丕賳賴 丕卮 丕賲賳 卮丿賴 亘賵丿貨 亘丕夭 賴賲 芦倬鬲蹖禄 賮讴乇 賳讴乇丿 芦亘賳禄 賲賯氐乇 亘丕卮丿貨 丕蹖賳 禺丕賳賴 蹖 乇賵爻鬲丕蹖蹖 丿乇 丕蹖賳 趩賳丿 爻丕賱蹖 讴賴 芦乇丕賳乇禄 乇賮鬲賴 亘賵丿貙 丿禺鬲乇丕賳賴 卮丿賴 亘賵丿貨 倬乇丿賴 賴丕貙 賲亘賱 賴丕貙 丨鬲蹖 卮賲毓賴丕 乇賳诏 賵 卮讴賱賽 丿禺鬲乇丕賳賴 诏乇賮鬲賴 亘賵丿貨 讴賮卮賴丕蹖 氐賵乇鬲蹖 讴賵趩賵賱賵貙 賵 賱亘丕爻 夭蹖乇賴丕蹖 诏賱 賲賳诏賱蹖貙 賵 讴卮賵賴丕 賵 讴賲丿賴丕蹖 倬乇 丕夭 爻賳噩丕賯 爻乇貨 賴賲蹖賳 蹖讴蹖 丿賵 鬲丕 丕馗賴丕乇 賵噩賵丿 賲禺鬲氐乇賽 芦亘賳禄 讴賴 卮丕賲賱 丌賳 爻蹖賲 鬲賱賮賳 倬蹖趩 倬蹖趩蹖貙 賵 丌賳 賯賮賱 賮賱夭蹖 賲乇丿丕賳賴 賲蹖卮丿貙 毓賲賱丕賸 丿乇讴 卮丿賳蹖 亘賵丿.)貨 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳賯賱
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 06/04/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 21/12/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
Dark Places is a mystery novel by Gillian Flynn published in 2009. The novel deals with class issues in rural America, intense poverty and the Satanic cult hysteria that swept the United States in the 1980's.
Libby Day, the novel's narrator and protagonist, is the sole survivor of a massacre in Kinnakee, Kansas, a fictional rural town. After witnessing the murders of her two sisters and mother, in what appears to be a Satanic cult ritual, she escapes through a window and later testifies in court against her teenage brother.
Twenty-five years after the massacre, Libby, in need of money, meets with a group of amateur investigators who believe that her brother is innocent of the crime. At their coaxing, she meets her brother, Ben for the first time, but is not convinced that he didn't do it. She also meets with her father, now homeless, but is not convinced he played a part in it either.
Through her investigation, she learns of her brother's secret girlfriend, as well as accusations against him for child molestation. Interspersed with the modern day investigation are flashbacks to the day of the massacre. These flashbacks are told from the points of view of Libby's mother, Patty, and her convicted brother, Ben. Patty's viewpoints discuss the difficulties of trying to keep the family farm while raising four children alone; Ben tells the story of a troubled teenager as he falls in with a bad crowd. These viewpoints paint a picture of a grim life of desperate poverty, marital abuse and abandonment that characterize life on the farm prior to the murder.
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賳賯賱 丕夭 倬卮鬲 噩賱丿 讴鬲丕亘: (芦賱蹖亘蹖 丿蹖禄 賴賮鬲 爻丕賱賴 亘賵丿貙 讴賴 賲丕丿乇 賵 禺賵丕賴乇卮貙 丿乇 禺丕賳賴鈥� 卮丕賳 亘賴 賯鬲賱 乇爻蹖丿賳丿貨 丕賵 讴賴 丕夭 丌賳 卮亘 賴賵賱賳丕讴 噩丕賳 爻丕賱賲 亘賴 丿乇 亘乇丿賴貙 亘乇丕丿乇 倬丕賳夭丿賴 爻丕賱賴鈥� 蹖 禺賵丿卮貙 芦亘賳禄貙 乇丕貙 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 賯丕鬲賱 賲毓乇賮蹖 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 亘蹖爻鬲鈥� 賵 倬賳噩 爻丕賱 亘毓丿貙 賳丕賲賴 蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴蹖貙 亘賴 丿爻鬲 芦賱蹖亘蹖禄 賲蹖鈥屫必池� 讴賴 丕賵 乇丕 賵丕賲蹖鈥屫ж必� 丿賵亘丕乇賴 诏匕卮鬲賴鈥� 丕卮 乇丕 賲乇賵乇 讴賳丿貙 诏匕卮鬲賴鈥� 丕蹖 讴賴 鬲乇噩蹖丨 賲蹖鈥屫囏� 賮乇丕賲賵卮卮 讴賳丿貨 賳丕賲賴 丕夭 爻賵蹖 芦讴賱賵亘 賯鬲賱禄 賮乇爻鬲丕丿賴 卮丿賴貙 诏乇賵賴蹖 讴賴 爻乇诏乇賲蹖鈥屫簇з嗀� 讴卮賮 乇丕夭 賯鬲賱鈥屬囏й� 賲亘賴賲 丕爻鬲貨 丌賳鈥屬囏� 丿乇 鬲賱丕卮鈥� 賴爻鬲賳丿貙 卮賵丕賴丿蹖 乇丕 诏乇丿丌賵乇蹖 讴賳賳丿貙 讴賴 孬丕亘鬲 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�: 芦亘賳禄 亘蹖鈥屭嗀з� 丕爻鬲貨 芦賱蹖亘蹖禄 讴賴 賲蹖鈥屫堌з囏� 亘丕 倬跇賵賴卮 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 賯鬲賱鈥屬囏� 倬賵賱蹖 亘賴 噩蹖亘 亘夭賳丿貨 蹖讴丕蹖讴 讴爻丕賳蹖 乇丕 讴賴 丿乇 丌賳 卮亘 爻賴賲蹖 丿丕卮鬲賳丿貙 倬蹖丿丕 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 賵 丕夭 夭蹖乇 夭亘丕賳卮丕賳 丨乇賮 賲蹖鈥屭┴簇� 讴賲鈥� 讴賲貙 丨賯蹖賯鬲蹖 亘丕賵乇賳讴乇丿賳蹖 丌卮讴丕乇 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 賵 芦賱蹖亘蹖禄 丿賵亘丕乇賴 亘賴 禺丕賳賴 蹖 賳禺爻鬲 亘丕夭賲蹖鈥屭必� 丕賵 亘丕夭 賴賲 亘丕蹖丿 丕夭 丿爻鬲 賯丕鬲賱 亘诏乇蹖夭丿)貨 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳賯賱
賳賯賱 丕夭 賲鬲賳: (芦倬鬲蹖 丿蹖禄貨 丿賵賲 跇丕賳賵蹖賴 爻丕賱1985賲蹖賱丕丿蹖貨 爻丕毓鬲 賴卮鬲 賵 丿賵 丿賯蹖賴 氐亘丨貨 倬爻乇 亘丕夭 丿丕卮鬲 亘丕 鬲賱賮賳 丨乇賮 賲蹖夭丿 賵 賲丕丿乇卮 賴賲 氐丿丕蹖 讴丕乇鬲賵賳蹖 賵 蹖賵丕卮讴蹖 倬爻乇卮 乇丕 賲蹖卮賳蹖丿貙 讴賴 倬卮鬲 丿乇 丕鬲丕賯卮 亘丕 鬲賱賮賳 倬趩 倬趩 賲蹖讴乇丿貨 倬爻乇 禺賵丕爻鬲賴 亘賵丿 鬲賵蹖 禺丕賳賴 蹖讴 禺胤 鬲賱賮賳 丿蹖诏乇 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮丿貨 賯爻賲 禺賵乇丿賴 亘賵丿 讴賴 賳氐賮 賴賲讴賱丕爻蹖賴丕蹖卮 禺胤 鬲賱賮賳 賲禺氐賵氐 禺賵丿卮丕賳 乇丕 丿丕乇賳丿貨 丕爻賲 丕蹖賳 禺胤 賴丕貙 芦禺胤 賲禺氐賵氐 亘趩賴 賴丕蹖 禺丕賳賴禄 亘賵丿貨 芦倬鬲蹖禄 禺賳丿蹖丿 賵 亘毓丿卮 賴賲 毓氐亘丕賳蹖 卮丿貨 趩賵賳 倬爻乇 亘賴 禺丕胤乇 禺賳丿賴貙 丕夭 丿爻鬲卮 毓氐亘丕賳蹖 卮丿賴 亘賵丿貨 ( 賳賴 亘丕亘丕 噩丿蹖責 禺胤 鬲賱賮賳 賲禺氐賵氐 亘趩賴 賴丕責 丕蹖賳 亘趩賴 賴丕 丿蹖诏乇 趩賯丿乇 賱賵爻 卮丿賴 丕賳丿責) 賴蹖趩讴丿丕賲 丿蹖诏乇 丿賵亘丕乇賴 亘丨孬卮 乇丕 倬蹖卮 賳讴卮蹖丿賳丿貨 賴乇 丿賵 乇丕丨鬲 賲毓匕亘 賲蹖卮丿賳丿貨 趩賳丿 賴賮鬲賴 亘毓丿卮 賴賲 倬爻乇 爻乇卮 乇丕 丕賳丿丕禺鬲 倬丕蹖蹖賳 賵 丌賲丿 禺丕賳賴 賵 賲丨鬲賵蹖丕鬲 夭賳亘蹖賱卮 乇丕 賳卮丕賳卮 丿丕丿: 蹖讴 賲賯爻賲 禺胤 讴賴 丕噩丕夭賴 賲蹖丿丕丿 丿賵 鬲丕 丿爻鬲诏丕賴 鬲賱賮賳 丕夭 蹖讴 禺胤 丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 讴賳賳丿貙 賵 蹖讴 鬲賱賮賳 倬賱丕爻鬲蹖讴蹖賽 丨爻丕亘蹖 爻亘讴 讴賴 亘丕 賳賲賵賳賴 賴丕蹖 賲卮丕亘賴賽 丕爻亘丕亘 亘丕夭蹖 氐賵乇鬲蹖 乇賳诏 讴賴 丿禺鬲乇亘趩賴 賴丕 亘丕 丌賳賴丕 賲賳卮蹖 亘丕夭蹖 賲蹖讴乇丿賳丿貙 趩賳丿丕賳 賮乇賯蹖 賳丿丕卮鬲貨 丿禺鬲乇賴丕 鬲賵蹖 鬲賱賮賳 賲蹖诏賮鬲賳丿: 芦丿賮鬲乇 丌賯丕蹖 亘賳噩丕賲蹖賳 丿蹖責禄 賵 爻毓蹖 賲蹖讴乇丿賳丿 亘乇丕丿乇 亘夭乇诏鬲乇 乇丕 賵丕乇丿 鬲賱賮賳 亘丕夭蹖 讴賳賳丿貨 芦亘賳禄 毓丕丿鬲 丿丕卮鬲 賱亘禺賳丿 亘夭賳丿 賵 亘賴 丌賳賴丕 亘诏賵蹖丿 讴賴 倬蹖丕賲 亘诏匕丕乇賳丿貨 亘毓丿卮 賴賲 讴賱丕賸 倬蹖丕賲 賴丕 乇丕 賳丕丿蹖丿賴 賲蹖诏乇賮鬲
丕夭 賵賯鬲蹖 芦亘賳禄 禺乇鬲 賵 倬乇鬲 賴丕蹖卮 乇丕 丌賵乇丿 禺丕賳賴貙 毓亘丕乇鬲 芦爻蹖賲 鬲賱賮賳 賳毓賱鬲蹖禄 丿乇 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 芦丿蹖禄 乇丕蹖噩 卮丿貨 爻蹖賲 丕夭 禺乇賵噩蹖賴丕蹖 丌卮倬夭禺丕賳賴 賴賲蹖賳胤賵乇 倬蹖趩 賵 鬲丕亘 禺賵乇丕賳 賲蹖丌賲丿 賵 丕夭 乇賵蹖 芦丕倬賳禄貙 亘賴 丕賳鬲賴丕蹖 乇丕賴乇賵 賲蹖乇賮鬲貙 賵 丕夭 夭蹖乇 卮讴丕賮 丿乇 丕鬲丕賯卮 讴賴 賴賲蹖卮賴 亘爻鬲賴 亘賵丿貙 倬蹖趩 賲蹖禺賵乇丿 賵 乇丿 賲蹖卮丿貨 乇賵夭蹖 丨丿丕賯賱 蹖讴亘丕乇 倬丕蹖 蹖讴蹖 賲蹖禺賵乇丿 亘賴 爻蹖賲貙 賵 丕夭 毓賯亘卮 氐丿丕蹖 噩蹖睾 (丕诏乇 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿禺鬲乇賴丕 亘賵丿)貙 蹖丕 亘丿 賵亘蹖乇丕賴 (丕诏乇 芦倬鬲蹖禄 蹖丕 芦亘賳禄 亘賵丿) 亘賱賳丿 賲蹖卮丿貨 芦倬鬲蹖禄 亘丕乇賴丕 丕夭 芦亘賳禄 禺賵丕爻鬲賴 亘賵丿貙 讴賴 爻蹖賲 乇丕 亘賴 丿蹖賵丕乇 亘趩爻亘丕賳丿貙 賵 丕賵 賴賲 亘丕乇賴丕 倬卮鬲 诏賵卮 丕賳丿丕禺鬲賴 亘賵丿貨 芦倬鬲蹖禄 賲丿丕賲 爻毓蹖 賲蹖讴乇丿 亘賴 禺賵丿卮 亘賯亘賵賱丕賳丿 讴賴 讴丕乇賴丕蹖 芦亘賳禄貙 蹖讴丿賳丿诏蹖賽 賲毓賲賵賱賽 賳賵噩賵丕賳蹖 丕爻鬲貙 丕賲丕 芦亘賳禄 乇賮鬲丕乇卮 禺蹖賱蹖 鬲賴丕噩賲蹖 亘賵丿貙 賵 芦倬鬲蹖禄 乇丕 賳诏乇丕賳 賲蹖讴乇丿貙 讴賴 趩乇丕 丕蹖賳 倬爻乇 丕蹖賳賯丿乇 毓氐亘丕賳蹖 蹖丕 鬲賳亘賱 丕爻鬲貙 蹖丕 丨鬲蹖 趩蹖夭 亘丿鬲乇蹖 讴賴 賴賳賵夭 亘賴 賲禺蹖賱賴 丕卮 禺胤賵乇 賳讴乇丿賴貙 賵 鬲丕夭賴 芦亘賳禄 亘丕 讴蹖 丨乇賮 賲蹖夭丿責 賯亘賱 丕夭 丕蹖賳讴賴 禺胤 鬲賱賮賳 丿賵賲 丕蹖賳 禺丕賳賴 賲孬賱 蹖讴 賲毓賲丕 丕囟丕賮賴 卮賵丿貙 讴賲鬲乇 讴爻蹖 亘賴 芦亘賳禄 夭賳诏 賲蹖夭丿貨 丿賵 鬲丕 乇賮蹖賯 賳夭丿蹖讴 丿丕卮鬲貙 讴賴 亘乇丕丿乇丕賳 芦賲蹖賵賱乇禄 亘賵丿賳丿貨 丿賵 賳賮乇 亘丕 賱亘丕爻 讴卮丕賵乇夭蹖 賲禺氐賵氐 芦爻丕夭賲丕賳 讴卮丕賵乇夭丕賳 丌蹖賳丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕禄 賵 丌賳賯丿乇 鬲賵丿丕乇 賵 賲賳夭賵蹖貙 讴賴 丕诏乇 鬲賱賮賳 乇丕 芦倬鬲蹖禄 噩賵丕亘 賲蹖丿丕丿貙 诏丕賴蹖 賯胤毓 賲蹖讴乇丿賳丿貙 賵賱蹖 芦倬鬲蹖禄 亘賴 芦亘賳禄 禺亘乇 賲蹖丿丕丿 讴賴 蹖丕 芦噩蹖賲禄 蹖丕 芦丕丿禄 夭賳诏 夭丿賴 丕賳丿貙 賵 讴丕乇卮 丿丕乇賳丿貨 丕賲丕 鬲丕 亘賴 丨丕賱 賴蹖趩賵賯鬲 丕夭 丕蹖賳 诏賮鬲 賵 诏賵賴丕蹖 鬲賱賮賳蹖 胤賵賱丕賳蹖 賲丿鬲 倬卮鬲 丿乇賴丕蹖 亘爻鬲賴貙 禺亘乇蹖 賳亘賵丿 芦倬鬲蹖禄 丨丿爻 夭丿 卮丕蹖丿 倬爻乇卮 亘丕賱丕禺乇賴 丿賵爻鬲 丿禺鬲乇 倬蹖丿丕 讴乇丿賴貙 丕賲丕 鬲丕 趩賳丿 鬲丕 丕卮丕乇賴 讴賵趩讴 丌賲丿貙 讴賴 鬲賴 賵 鬲賵蹖 賯囟蹖賴 乇丕 丿乇亘蹖丕賵乇丿貙 芦亘賳禄 噩賵乇蹖 賲毓匕亘 卮丿貙 讴賴 乇賳诏賽 倬乇蹖丿賴 倬賵爻鬲卮 爻賮蹖丿 賵 讴亘賵丿 卮丿貙 賵 讴讴 賲讴 賴丕蹖 讴賴乇亘丕蹖蹖 乇賳诏卮 亘乇賯 夭丿賳丿貙 丕賳诏丕乇 賴卮丿丕乇 亘丕卮丿貨 芦倬鬲蹖禄 賴賲 讴賱丕賸 亘蹖 禺蹖丕賱 賯囟蹖賴 卮丿貨 丕夭 丌賳 賲丕丿乇賴丕蹖蹖 賳亘賵丿 讴賴 禺賵丿卮 乇丕 亘趩倬丕賳丿 亘賴 亘趩賴 賴丕 讴賴 噩蹖讴 賵 倬賵讴 夭賳丿诏蹖卮丕賳 乇丕 亘蹖乇賵賳 亘讴卮丿貨 蹖讴 倬爻乇 倬丕賳夭丿賴 爻丕賱賴 鬲賵蹖 禺丕賳賴 丕蹖 倬乇 丕夭 夭賳貙 賴賲蹖賳 胤賵乇蹖 賴賲 亘賴 丕賳丿丕夭賴 讴丕賮蹖 亘乇丕蹖 丨賮馗 丨乇蹖賲 禺氐賵氐蹖 禺賵丿卮 丕匕蹖鬲 賲蹖卮丿貨 蹖讴 乇賵夭 讴賴 芦亘賳禄 丕夭 賲丿乇爻賴 丌賲丿 賵 丿蹖丿 芦賲蹖卮賱禄 丿乇 丨丕賱 賵乇乇賮鬲賳 亘賴 讴卮賵賴丕蹖 賲蹖夭卮 丕爻鬲貙 乇賵蹖 丿乇 丕鬲丕賯卮 賯賮賱 夭丿貨 亘乇丕蹖 夭丿賳賽 賯賮賱 乇賵蹖 丿乇 賴賲 丕夭 讴爻蹖 丕噩丕夭賴 賳诏乇賮鬲: 蹖讴 趩讴卮貙 趩賳丿 鬲丕 亘賳诏 賵 蹖讴 丿賮毓賴 鬲賲丕賲貨 丨丕賱丕 賱丕賳賴 倬爻乇丕賳賴 丕卮 丕賲賳 卮丿賴 亘賵丿貨 亘丕夭 賴賲 芦倬鬲蹖禄 賮讴乇 賳讴乇丿 芦亘賳禄 賲賯氐乇 亘丕卮丿貨 丕蹖賳 禺丕賳賴 蹖 乇賵爻鬲丕蹖蹖 丿乇 丕蹖賳 趩賳丿 爻丕賱蹖 讴賴 芦乇丕賳乇禄 乇賮鬲賴 亘賵丿貙 丿禺鬲乇丕賳賴 卮丿賴 亘賵丿貨 倬乇丿賴 賴丕貙 賲亘賱 賴丕貙 丨鬲蹖 卮賲毓賴丕 乇賳诏 賵 卮讴賱賽 丿禺鬲乇丕賳賴 诏乇賮鬲賴 亘賵丿貨 讴賮卮賴丕蹖 氐賵乇鬲蹖 讴賵趩賵賱賵貙 賵 賱亘丕爻 夭蹖乇賴丕蹖 诏賱 賲賳诏賱蹖貙 賵 讴卮賵賴丕 賵 讴賲丿賴丕蹖 倬乇 丕夭 爻賳噩丕賯 爻乇貨 賴賲蹖賳 蹖讴蹖 丿賵 鬲丕 丕馗賴丕乇 賵噩賵丿 賲禺鬲氐乇賽 芦亘賳禄 讴賴 卮丕賲賱 丌賳 爻蹖賲 鬲賱賮賳 倬蹖趩 倬蹖趩蹖貙 賵 丌賳 賯賮賱 賮賱夭蹖 賲乇丿丕賳賴 賲蹖卮丿貙 毓賲賱丕賸 丿乇讴 卮丿賳蹖 亘賵丿.)貨 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳賯賱
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 06/04/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 21/12/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
September 7, 2016
When person or persons unknown murdered her entire family, seven year old Libby Day managed to escape and fingered her brother Ben as the killer. Now, decades later, she's dysfunctional and nearly penniless, and after meeting some true crime enthusiasts, isn't so sure her brother was the murderer after all. Can Libby discover the truth?
After dodging Gillian Flynn for years in the wake of Gone Girl, I finally caved it when this showed up in one of my daily cheap ebook emails. Gillian Flynn, where have you been all my life?
Dark Places is a mystery but it's one of those mysteries that also happens to be brutal and very well written, like Winter's Bone or something along those lines. Libby Day is a broken adult, having never recovered from her mother and sisters being murdered by her brother. Or were they? Libby cracks open the past like a pinata and takes a look at what falls out: not candy but a lot of ugliness, more like a brood of cockroaches.
Since I live very near nowhere's asshole, rural settings always resonate with me because I understand living miles from everywhere and what could happen in the dark of night. Libby wakes up to the sounds of her family being slaughtered. Not exactly your feel-good read.
I love that instead of some notion of heroism, Libby gets involved in her family's murder because she's nearly run out of money and has no idea how to function as a normal adult. She's a kleptomaniac and has burned every familial bridge she ever trod upon. Lyle and the Kill Club light the spark but it's the lack of money that provides the fuel, at first, anyway.
Gillian Flynn crafts one hell of a mystery yarn but it's her characters that show she's more than just another mystery lover. Ben and Libby are sympathetic figures, despite both being deeply flawed. Still, she makes you understand their motivations, making them seem all too realistic. The parallel structure of the book builds the suspense. I had no idea what actually happened that night until it was pretty much spelled out for me, which I love in a mystery.
There's not much else I want to say for fear of giving something away. Dark Places. Five stars. Read it!
After dodging Gillian Flynn for years in the wake of Gone Girl, I finally caved it when this showed up in one of my daily cheap ebook emails. Gillian Flynn, where have you been all my life?
Dark Places is a mystery but it's one of those mysteries that also happens to be brutal and very well written, like Winter's Bone or something along those lines. Libby Day is a broken adult, having never recovered from her mother and sisters being murdered by her brother. Or were they? Libby cracks open the past like a pinata and takes a look at what falls out: not candy but a lot of ugliness, more like a brood of cockroaches.
Since I live very near nowhere's asshole, rural settings always resonate with me because I understand living miles from everywhere and what could happen in the dark of night. Libby wakes up to the sounds of her family being slaughtered. Not exactly your feel-good read.
I love that instead of some notion of heroism, Libby gets involved in her family's murder because she's nearly run out of money and has no idea how to function as a normal adult. She's a kleptomaniac and has burned every familial bridge she ever trod upon. Lyle and the Kill Club light the spark but it's the lack of money that provides the fuel, at first, anyway.
Gillian Flynn crafts one hell of a mystery yarn but it's her characters that show she's more than just another mystery lover. Ben and Libby are sympathetic figures, despite both being deeply flawed. Still, she makes you understand their motivations, making them seem all too realistic. The parallel structure of the book builds the suspense. I had no idea what actually happened that night until it was pretty much spelled out for me, which I love in a mystery.
There's not much else I want to say for fear of giving something away. Dark Places. Five stars. Read it!
December 31, 2018
Nothing like reading Gillian Flynn during the holidays to make you feel significantly better about your own family
Watch me discuss this book in my December wrap up:
Watch me discuss this book in my December wrap up:
November 21, 2021
2021 read: When Libby Day was seven, she provided the damning testimony that put her brother, Ben, in prison for life, for the brutal Satanic(!) ritual murders of their mother and sisters. Today, barely eking out a living, Libby is approached by a 'True Crime' community who are convinced that Ben is innocent of the often in the public eye murders. Having run out of her 'tell-all memoir' money, Libby has no choice but to start investigating the murders at the behest of this club... and very quickly begins to see that every single person involved is an unreliable source and possible suspect or accessory!
This was a nicely balanced read of alternating chapters set in the present going forward, and set in the past a few days before the murders leading up to them; which allowed me to reach the truth not only at the same time as Libby, but also at the same time as the backstory being told. A very likeable read that fully engaged me with an interesting off-beat main protagonists in Libby and her 'True Crime' club ally. Lots of triggering issues are written about in detail, from child abuse through to Satanic rituals, so be warned! It's always nice to see a mega best selling writer who actually can tell a good story from beginning to end; 8 out of 12, Four Star read.
This was a nicely balanced read of alternating chapters set in the present going forward, and set in the past a few days before the murders leading up to them; which allowed me to reach the truth not only at the same time as Libby, but also at the same time as the backstory being told. A very likeable read that fully engaged me with an interesting off-beat main protagonists in Libby and her 'True Crime' club ally. Lots of triggering issues are written about in detail, from child abuse through to Satanic rituals, so be warned! It's always nice to see a mega best selling writer who actually can tell a good story from beginning to end; 8 out of 12, Four Star read.
June 12, 2024
I didn鈥檛 like , which I though started quite well but went rapidly down hill from half way. So I approached this one with caution. I shouldn鈥檛 have worried, though. I could tell from the start that this was going to be right up my alley. Libby is a lazy kleptomaniac who is living off the inherited life insurance from her hideously slaughtered family 鈥� well, who wouldn鈥檛 warm to a character like that!
Libby鈥檚 brother Ben is the only other survivor of the massacre, and he is in prison, having already been convicted of the murders. When we meet out heroine she鈥檚 living in a dump and just about to reach the bottom of the money barrel. She鈥檚 got a few dollars left and an offer to meet up with a ghoulish collection of Kill Club members who want to pick over her memories of the tragedy for a fee of $500. She meets with them, hating the experience but is tempted to help one of the members who is intent on delving deeper into the history of the case 鈥� as long as he keeps the cash flowing.
The narrative is told primarily first person, through the eyes of Libby, but is interspersed with flash back third party accounts that focus on Libby鈥檚 mother and on Ben. As we learn more about both characters, the plot thickens. I loved the characterisation and pacing of the story. It wasn鈥檛 hurried, and the author lingered over details that served to deepen the reader鈥檚 knowledge of and appreciation for the characters. I like that kind of focus. It draws me into a story. And I was drawn in. I was enjoying the journey too much to worry about the destination, which is just as well as it turned out to be the best bit.
In Gone Girl, Flynn threw in twist after twist to the point it became akin to a Brian Rix farce. As a result, I lost all belief in that tale. Here, she doesn鈥檛 complicate a simple story until we鈥檝e got nine tenths of the way through it, at which point she chucks in an over-engineered and highly improbable ending. It鈥檚 as if she鈥檚 lost faith in the value of the tale as she was telling it and felt she needed a big finish. Or maybe she had eyes on a big movie deal and thought a surprise ending would seal it. Either way, I feel she鈥檇 have been better served to have finished the book in a manner more suited to the feel of the rest of the book. Less would have most definitely been more.
That said, I still feel this book is well worth reading if only to enjoy the brilliant way Libby is brought to life. My favourite line? Well, it鈥檚 delivered as she goes 鈥榮ouvenir鈥� hunting whist visiting a house. As she spots and pockets a thermometer (the items she stole were always a random collection of useless tat) she muses that she鈥檇 always wanted one: when I take to my bed it鈥檚 good to know whether I鈥檓 sick or just lazy. I鈥檒l miss you, Libby.
Libby鈥檚 brother Ben is the only other survivor of the massacre, and he is in prison, having already been convicted of the murders. When we meet out heroine she鈥檚 living in a dump and just about to reach the bottom of the money barrel. She鈥檚 got a few dollars left and an offer to meet up with a ghoulish collection of Kill Club members who want to pick over her memories of the tragedy for a fee of $500. She meets with them, hating the experience but is tempted to help one of the members who is intent on delving deeper into the history of the case 鈥� as long as he keeps the cash flowing.
The narrative is told primarily first person, through the eyes of Libby, but is interspersed with flash back third party accounts that focus on Libby鈥檚 mother and on Ben. As we learn more about both characters, the plot thickens. I loved the characterisation and pacing of the story. It wasn鈥檛 hurried, and the author lingered over details that served to deepen the reader鈥檚 knowledge of and appreciation for the characters. I like that kind of focus. It draws me into a story. And I was drawn in. I was enjoying the journey too much to worry about the destination, which is just as well as it turned out to be the best bit.
In Gone Girl, Flynn threw in twist after twist to the point it became akin to a Brian Rix farce. As a result, I lost all belief in that tale. Here, she doesn鈥檛 complicate a simple story until we鈥檝e got nine tenths of the way through it, at which point she chucks in an over-engineered and highly improbable ending. It鈥檚 as if she鈥檚 lost faith in the value of the tale as she was telling it and felt she needed a big finish. Or maybe she had eyes on a big movie deal and thought a surprise ending would seal it. Either way, I feel she鈥檇 have been better served to have finished the book in a manner more suited to the feel of the rest of the book. Less would have most definitely been more.
That said, I still feel this book is well worth reading if only to enjoy the brilliant way Libby is brought to life. My favourite line? Well, it鈥檚 delivered as she goes 鈥榮ouvenir鈥� hunting whist visiting a house. As she spots and pockets a thermometer (the items she stole were always a random collection of useless tat) she muses that she鈥檇 always wanted one: when I take to my bed it鈥檚 good to know whether I鈥檓 sick or just lazy. I鈥檒l miss you, Libby.
February 2, 2016
This is by far my favorite book ever! I started this knowing how much I enjoyed Gone Girl and when I got started with this I couldn't put it down. My soul bonded to this book from the first word. Page turner and an unforgettable ride. A hell of a ride. The movie is just as good and I can rarely say that about books and movies. Ugh, great, spectacular, amazing, eventful, mind-blowing, utterly fantastic. Read this book!!!!!! After reading Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl I knew I had to read her other novels. I AM SO GLAD I DID! Out of her three novels, Dark Places is by far my favorite. This book had that dark element to it that made me want to read and read and read. I had a very hard time putting it down to deal with reality. My mother read it at the same time as I did and she kept calling me throughout the book and telling me about it. We both enjoyed it. I love books like this one, where the main character has a skewed idea of what really happened and then goes on a journey to learn the real fate of that horrible night... and it was indeed a horrible night. I truly felt for this family and the fates they all suffered. I think a part of every one of them died that night. Superb novel!!!! Read and watch movie if you haven't! Both are spectacular.
May 30, 2009
Well. I can't really say that I liked this book. None of the characters are likable, including the main character. Libby Day's family was killed by her brother when she was 7. By the time she hits 30, she's still 7 inside, her inner growth stunted by the tragedy. She can barely take care of herself, has never had a job, and suddenly the money that strangers donated out of charity over the years is down to about $900. To replenish her bank account, Libby grudgingly agrees to pimp herself out to a group of people obsessed with the Day murders and with proving that her brother isn't really guilty. Along the way, she starts to have doubts herself and the real story unfolds between her present-day sleuthing and flashbacks to her mother's and brother's point-of-view from the day of the killings.
As I said, no one is likable. I wanted to slap everyone, and I found it impossible to feel any sympathy towards Libby despite her trauma. Gillian Flynn is disturbingly good at creating characters who are beyond messed up and irritating, to the point where you start to wonder what sort of inner darkness she harbors (on the contrary, her Author's Notes always make her sound very well adjusted. At the end of this book, she charmingly promises her mom that she will someday write a book where the mother is neither evil nor killed). Nothing about the dark story that's filled with hopelessness and screw-ups made me feel good about reading it. To use a well-worn phrase, it was almost like a train wreck.
I will hasten to add though, a very well-written train wreck, one with fabulous pacing that rushes along at a breakneck speed and refuses to let you take a breather. It gripped me, kept me guessing, and totally sucked me in with the great voice that Flynn gave the unlikable Libby. I almost felt like I WAS Libby, and it reminded me of the single-minded focus that 's books inspired, where I had to almost physically extract myself from the book once I was finished. I think I liked French's books much better, but I'm very glad to keep coming across such talented women in the mystery genre.
Not a beach book. Not a feel-good story of the year. But damn highly recommended.
As I said, no one is likable. I wanted to slap everyone, and I found it impossible to feel any sympathy towards Libby despite her trauma. Gillian Flynn is disturbingly good at creating characters who are beyond messed up and irritating, to the point where you start to wonder what sort of inner darkness she harbors (on the contrary, her Author's Notes always make her sound very well adjusted. At the end of this book, she charmingly promises her mom that she will someday write a book where the mother is neither evil nor killed). Nothing about the dark story that's filled with hopelessness and screw-ups made me feel good about reading it. To use a well-worn phrase, it was almost like a train wreck.
I will hasten to add though, a very well-written train wreck, one with fabulous pacing that rushes along at a breakneck speed and refuses to let you take a breather. It gripped me, kept me guessing, and totally sucked me in with the great voice that Flynn gave the unlikable Libby. I almost felt like I WAS Libby, and it reminded me of the single-minded focus that 's books inspired, where I had to almost physically extract myself from the book once I was finished. I think I liked French's books much better, but I'm very glad to keep coming across such talented women in the mystery genre.
Not a beach book. Not a feel-good story of the year. But damn highly recommended.
February 14, 2016
Meh.
Well, unfortunately this wasn't the page turner was for me. The most interesting thing about this book in my opinion was Libby's character. Where Gone Girl started out slow and then got really good, this one started out amazing and then went flat. I do like that Gillian Flynn creates these screwed up characters and I found Libby to be somewhat entertaining. Ms. Flynn isn't known for writing likable characters to be inspired by, but Libby was interesting. Her emotional growth was kind of stunted because of an event in her childhood, and she just sort of drifts through life and survives, but doesn't really live.
I can't really say anything about the story because it's a mystery and I don't want to spoil anything. I felt like a lot of this book was filler, so that the mystery could be drug out until the end. There were so many things that were unnecessarily overly described. At one point there was a whole page dedicated to describing fox tail weeds. This is why for some of this book I was bored out of my mind. While reading this, I seemed to spend a lot of time thinking about my Christmas to do list, or wondering what I should have for lunch.
Overall, it was just Ok. I didn't hate it, but it didn't blow my mind either.
February 15, 2021
4.5 stars . *breathes deeply* What a ride! Finally a mystery that keeps its appeal intact after the first 50% and does not make me roll my eyes all duh! like in the end. Let's see why, shall we?
鈻� Highly recommended if you can stomach the depression. *whispers* In the end, I even rooted for Libby. Don't ask me why. I just did. Nobody's perfect, okay? I said that the characters made me sick, but oh, the sadness. The despair. The misunderstandings. The loneliness. My heart aches from lack of hope.
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PRE-REVIEW
This is me being all contradictory : Once a year, Romance week is coming and finds me waving from a distance. As much as I love my fluffy reads, everything Valentine's Day related tends to annoy me greatly. Cynical, me? Nope. Try being born on February 14th and getting an indecent amount of heart shaped cards, gifts, stuff over the years. I can assure you that it does get old. I resist as I can, okay?
Strike one.
Nb. I made my dark week banner with the free label found here from (lilac and lavender)
January 18, 2022
3.5 stars
I love Gillian Flynn. I love her creepy characters, disgusting stories, and scary writing. This might be not be my favorite book by her, but it was still an enjoyable creepy book to read.
As all of her books it got that slow beginning, a good disturbing mystery, and messed up unlikable characters that always make me feel so uncomfortable. However, this one was really slow and I didn鈥檛 like the ending at all. After all of that, it was just so..underwhelming. So meh. So 鈥渢hat鈥檚 it?鈥�
I love Gillian Flynn. I love her creepy characters, disgusting stories, and scary writing. This might be not be my favorite book by her, but it was still an enjoyable creepy book to read.
As all of her books it got that slow beginning, a good disturbing mystery, and messed up unlikable characters that always make me feel so uncomfortable. However, this one was really slow and I didn鈥檛 like the ending at all. After all of that, it was just so..underwhelming. So meh. So 鈥渢hat鈥檚 it?鈥�
August 27, 2017
鈥淚 was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs.鈥� Gillian Flynn, Dark Places
Gillian Flynn is the MUTHA of all domestic noir. She's my spirit animal. I feel defensive about her books, I think sometimes she gets a bad rap because her novels are so dark. Her characters unlikeable. Her plots are crazy. True, true, true.
Underneath it all, it is impossible to overlook her talent in characterization. Every book I read in this genre, I cannot help but compare the writing to Flynn's.
She can craft a character out of thin air that is as real to a reader as the book they are holding. She doesn't just tell about a character, she SHOWS us characters. The mannerisms, the habits, the insecurities, the tics and tells of their face. How they walk, talk, eat, drink, drive a car. As a reader, you are whisked into her novels for the plot and get so much more in return. My favorite kind of book!
Libby Day, our flawed protagonist, is one carefully constructed character. She is the sole survivor of a Kansas massacre. Final Girls, anyone? The story begins 25 years after the murders and Libby Day is being dragged into resolving the mystery by a group of true crime aficionados (even though she fingered her own brother as the killer). The setting is rural, impoverished America; a stark contrast with most of the urban London-ish settings in this genre.
This is my least favorite of Flynn's books, mainly because the plot is too crazy and contrived even for me. However, the writing is so first rate, I gladly give it full 5 stars.
Gillian Flynn is the MUTHA of all domestic noir. She's my spirit animal. I feel defensive about her books, I think sometimes she gets a bad rap because her novels are so dark. Her characters unlikeable. Her plots are crazy. True, true, true.
Underneath it all, it is impossible to overlook her talent in characterization. Every book I read in this genre, I cannot help but compare the writing to Flynn's.
She can craft a character out of thin air that is as real to a reader as the book they are holding. She doesn't just tell about a character, she SHOWS us characters. The mannerisms, the habits, the insecurities, the tics and tells of their face. How they walk, talk, eat, drink, drive a car. As a reader, you are whisked into her novels for the plot and get so much more in return. My favorite kind of book!
Libby Day, our flawed protagonist, is one carefully constructed character. She is the sole survivor of a Kansas massacre. Final Girls, anyone? The story begins 25 years after the murders and Libby Day is being dragged into resolving the mystery by a group of true crime aficionados (even though she fingered her own brother as the killer). The setting is rural, impoverished America; a stark contrast with most of the urban London-ish settings in this genre.
This is my least favorite of Flynn's books, mainly because the plot is too crazy and contrived even for me. However, the writing is so first rate, I gladly give it full 5 stars.
July 9, 2013
Oh, Gillian Flynn. Reading her books always makes me feel like I need to get in the tub and scrub myself clean. That's not exactly a complaint, but nor is it a compliment. Her novels are dark, disturbing, dirty, disgusting...yet also total page-turners you can't put down.
She excels at creating grim, memorable characters and settings that leap out from the page. Flynn also consistently creates a mood in her books that has you checking out your window every now and then just to remind yourself that you're not actually in the creepy, depressing Kansas of her creation anymore!
That said, Dark Places is my least favourite of her twisted trifecta. I thought the end was hastily written and disappointingly tidy. The reliance on shock value - from sex to the gory description of animal sacrifice (strengthened my commitment to vegetarianism!)- felt like it was getting a little old too, but maybe that's because I went from Sharp Objects right into Dark Places, so I could just need a different style of book to cleanse my palate with, so to speak. I also found some of the things characters did unrealistic based on the way they were portrayed throughout the rest of the novel.
The big thing that weighs on my mind about this book is an interview another GoodReads reviewer linked to with Gillian Flynn, where she explains her penchant for seriously bad, unlikeable, and yes, evil female characters.
"Libraries are filled with stories on generations of brutal men, trapped in a cycle of aggression. I wanted to write about the violence of women," she says.
Flynn adds: "I particularly mourn the lack of female villains 鈥� good, potent female villains. Not ill-tempered women who scheme about landing good men and better shoes (as if we had nothing more interesting to war over), not chilly WASP mothers (emotionally distant isn't necessarily evil), not soapy vixens (merely bitchy doesn't qualify either). I'm talking violent, wicked women. Scary women. Don't tell me you don't know some. The point is, women have spent so many years girl-powering ourselves 鈥� to the point of almost parodic encouragement 鈥� we've left no room to acknowledge our dark side. Dark sides are important. They should be nurtured like nasty black orchids." Therefore, Flynn's books, she says, are her "creepy little bouquets."
Look, on the one hand, I can see that Flynn is trying to make a feminist point - that if women are equal to men, women can be equal in "bad-ness" too. Definitely.
But does she really think there's a lack of female villains in literature? I mean, off the top of my head women like Lady MacBeth, Nurse Ratchet (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Annie Wilkes (Misery), Cathy Ames (East of Eden), Abigail Williams (The Crucible - I felt there was an eerie nod to the Crucible in Dark Places with Krissi Cates and the witch hunt against Ben), Clytemnestra from ancient Greek mythology, and Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter)are examples of evil women in literature that come to mind.
These women aren't scheming about getting better shoes and they certainly aren't "merely bitchy". So I don't think Flynn is doing anything stunningly original here with her own female villains. The truth is, libraries are FULL of stories about brutal, nasty women.
Flynn isn't the first. She just might be the most explicit.
She excels at creating grim, memorable characters and settings that leap out from the page. Flynn also consistently creates a mood in her books that has you checking out your window every now and then just to remind yourself that you're not actually in the creepy, depressing Kansas of her creation anymore!
That said, Dark Places is my least favourite of her twisted trifecta. I thought the end was hastily written and disappointingly tidy. The reliance on shock value - from sex to the gory description of animal sacrifice (strengthened my commitment to vegetarianism!)- felt like it was getting a little old too, but maybe that's because I went from Sharp Objects right into Dark Places, so I could just need a different style of book to cleanse my palate with, so to speak. I also found some of the things characters did unrealistic based on the way they were portrayed throughout the rest of the novel.
The big thing that weighs on my mind about this book is an interview another GoodReads reviewer linked to with Gillian Flynn, where she explains her penchant for seriously bad, unlikeable, and yes, evil female characters.
"Libraries are filled with stories on generations of brutal men, trapped in a cycle of aggression. I wanted to write about the violence of women," she says.
Flynn adds: "I particularly mourn the lack of female villains 鈥� good, potent female villains. Not ill-tempered women who scheme about landing good men and better shoes (as if we had nothing more interesting to war over), not chilly WASP mothers (emotionally distant isn't necessarily evil), not soapy vixens (merely bitchy doesn't qualify either). I'm talking violent, wicked women. Scary women. Don't tell me you don't know some. The point is, women have spent so many years girl-powering ourselves 鈥� to the point of almost parodic encouragement 鈥� we've left no room to acknowledge our dark side. Dark sides are important. They should be nurtured like nasty black orchids." Therefore, Flynn's books, she says, are her "creepy little bouquets."
Look, on the one hand, I can see that Flynn is trying to make a feminist point - that if women are equal to men, women can be equal in "bad-ness" too. Definitely.
But does she really think there's a lack of female villains in literature? I mean, off the top of my head women like Lady MacBeth, Nurse Ratchet (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Annie Wilkes (Misery), Cathy Ames (East of Eden), Abigail Williams (The Crucible - I felt there was an eerie nod to the Crucible in Dark Places with Krissi Cates and the witch hunt against Ben), Clytemnestra from ancient Greek mythology, and Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter)are examples of evil women in literature that come to mind.
These women aren't scheming about getting better shoes and they certainly aren't "merely bitchy". So I don't think Flynn is doing anything stunningly original here with her own female villains. The truth is, libraries are FULL of stories about brutal, nasty women.
Flynn isn't the first. She just might be the most explicit.
July 3, 2023
Actual Rating 3.5
Libby is the sole survivor of the night her older brother brutally slaughtered the rest of her family. Years later, her life changes again when she finds out that the money she鈥檚 been living off of is close to drying up. When she is contacted by an odd murder fan-group who is interested in having her as a special guest, she decides to take them up on their offer with the hope of making some money. But when they aggressively confront her about the events of that night, her testimony, and her conclusions, she finds her entire worldview turned on its head. Desperate for both money and answers, Libby decides to try to find the truth of what actually happened that night, once and for all.
This story is told through dual timelines, one following Libby in the present day and the other following the background of the family and the day of the murders in 1985. I really liked how well the author released information throughout the story even with the slower beginning. There were enough moving parts, red herrings, and connections, to keep the story moving and interesting. The overall tone of the book was rather depressing and dark, which added to the atmosphere and immersion of the story.
I also enjoyed how character-driven this mystery is. The author did a great job writing an unlikeable protagonist, and Libby鈥檚 representation as an adult was interesting. The way the family was portrayed in the 1980s was realistic and well written, making both timelines immersive and engaging.
This character-driven mystery is perfect if you鈥檙e in the mood for a darker read with unlikeable characters and a somewhat depressing atmosphere.
Libby is the sole survivor of the night her older brother brutally slaughtered the rest of her family. Years later, her life changes again when she finds out that the money she鈥檚 been living off of is close to drying up. When she is contacted by an odd murder fan-group who is interested in having her as a special guest, she decides to take them up on their offer with the hope of making some money. But when they aggressively confront her about the events of that night, her testimony, and her conclusions, she finds her entire worldview turned on its head. Desperate for both money and answers, Libby decides to try to find the truth of what actually happened that night, once and for all.
This story is told through dual timelines, one following Libby in the present day and the other following the background of the family and the day of the murders in 1985. I really liked how well the author released information throughout the story even with the slower beginning. There were enough moving parts, red herrings, and connections, to keep the story moving and interesting. The overall tone of the book was rather depressing and dark, which added to the atmosphere and immersion of the story.
I also enjoyed how character-driven this mystery is. The author did a great job writing an unlikeable protagonist, and Libby鈥檚 representation as an adult was interesting. The way the family was portrayed in the 1980s was realistic and well written, making both timelines immersive and engaging.
This character-driven mystery is perfect if you鈥檙e in the mood for a darker read with unlikeable characters and a somewhat depressing atmosphere.
April 28, 2016
This book was insaaaaane. But so so good. was my first book (though I have seen the Gone Girl movie) but I fully plan on picking up her other books now.
It鈥檚 the kind of novel that makes you question what on earth we humans can come up with. I kept wondering what was going on in Gyllian Flynn鈥檚 head. How does she think of these things?
Dark Places is vile, macabre and gruesome. The author doesn鈥檛 hold back, instead she seemingly bombards you with everything ugly that is out there. Vivid descriptions of bloody crime scenes, physical and psychological horrors, the most unlikable characters you can imagine. She gives us a glimpse into the mind-set of some truly twisted and messed up people who all carry around their own little dirty secrets.
But with the book鈥檚 superb writing style and strong narrative, it all somehow works. The story kept me engaged all the way through and I found myself constantly thinking of the book when I wasn鈥檛 reading, wondering who the culprit was.
The story is told from three different POVs: From Libby Day in the present and from Ben and Patty Day in 1985. It was a day in the year of 1985 when Ben 鈥� Libby鈥檚 older brother 鈥� allegedly murdered three members of his own family 鈥� including his mother, Patty, and two of his younger sisters 鈥� in cold blood. Only Libby somehow escaped the massacre. Libby鈥檚 testimony against Ben condemns him to a lifelong imprisonment. Now, after having lived off donations her entire life, Libby鈥檚 finances run out and she has to find a new way to earn enough money to survive. In an attempt to get the money without having to work, Libby makes an appearance at the 鈥淜ill Club鈥�, a secret society obsessed with solving crimes. She soon realizes however, that everyone in the club believes Ben innocent and her testimony to be false. At first, she dismisses these theories as fanatical talk, but as more and more information is presented to her, Libby realizes that maybe things aren鈥檛 simple as she thought them to be.
Dark Places is not a book I would necessarily call 鈥渆njoyable鈥�. At times it is frightening and difficult to read: the author drags you into the story with the intrigue of the killings while simultaneously pushing you away with her deeply flawed characters. While reading I actually developed some scarily aggressive thoughts towards certain (most) characters. At times I got so angry I wanted to jump into the book and strangle them with my bare hands. Punch them in the face. Scratch out their eyes. I am NOT a violent person but look at what this book has done to me *shudders*. But as negative as these feelings were, I kind of loved it. I felt passionate about this book, which is something I鈥檝e been missing from my last couple of reads.
Let鈥檚 take a closer look at our protagonist, Libby Day. She is the epitome of a flawed character. Not quite an anti-hero, but definitely not a hero either, Libby is selfish, violent, lazy and anti-social, yet you somehow remain on her side and root for her.
You want her to succeed, despite the fact that she does some horrendous things. Do you forgive her for it? Not really, but it didn鈥檛 matter. I didn鈥檛 like Libby, but I understood her and that was enough.
Without a character like Libby that makes you care about the outcome of the story and gets you involved on an emotional level, the story wouldn鈥檛 be what it is now. The mystery alone 鈥� though well-paced and suspenseful 鈥� wasn鈥檛 enough for me to keep reading. It was the characters that made me want to keep going. The 鈥渨ho did it鈥� part of the novel is only half as interesting as the 鈥渉ow did it come to that鈥�. In some ways, everyone is a little bit guilty and realizing that and seeing Libby come to terms with it was fascinating.
Then we have our other main character, Ben Day. Seeing how his thoughts turned darker and darker as the story went along was a little scary. It makes the reader constantly question if he could truly be the murderer.
Plot and writing wise this book was also excellent. Gillian Flynn has some serious talent when it comes to writing unpredictable mysteries. She constantly kept me on my toes, giving me just enough information to keep me guessing and then be mislead. The alternating points of view were perhaps the biggest factor in making this story smooth and exciting throughout. The author certainly knows how to switch focus just in time to create the strongest sense of anticipation.
My main criticism of the novel is that at times I felt the story was a little too dragged out and would have been even better if it was slightly shorter. I also questioned the necessity of having certain elements in the story. However, I obviously still greatly enjoyed the story.
This is not a book for everyone; you need a certain taste for the dark and despicable to enjoy this story. Graphic descriptions violence, underage sex and molestation are all present. But if these things don鈥檛 bother you, then you should most definitely give this book a try.
It鈥檚 the kind of novel that makes you question what on earth we humans can come up with. I kept wondering what was going on in Gyllian Flynn鈥檚 head. How does she think of these things?
Dark Places is vile, macabre and gruesome. The author doesn鈥檛 hold back, instead she seemingly bombards you with everything ugly that is out there. Vivid descriptions of bloody crime scenes, physical and psychological horrors, the most unlikable characters you can imagine. She gives us a glimpse into the mind-set of some truly twisted and messed up people who all carry around their own little dirty secrets.
The truly frightening flaw in humanity is our capacity for cruelty - we all have it.
But with the book鈥檚 superb writing style and strong narrative, it all somehow works. The story kept me engaged all the way through and I found myself constantly thinking of the book when I wasn鈥檛 reading, wondering who the culprit was.
The story is told from three different POVs: From Libby Day in the present and from Ben and Patty Day in 1985. It was a day in the year of 1985 when Ben 鈥� Libby鈥檚 older brother 鈥� allegedly murdered three members of his own family 鈥� including his mother, Patty, and two of his younger sisters 鈥� in cold blood. Only Libby somehow escaped the massacre. Libby鈥檚 testimony against Ben condemns him to a lifelong imprisonment. Now, after having lived off donations her entire life, Libby鈥檚 finances run out and she has to find a new way to earn enough money to survive. In an attempt to get the money without having to work, Libby makes an appearance at the 鈥淜ill Club鈥�, a secret society obsessed with solving crimes. She soon realizes however, that everyone in the club believes Ben innocent and her testimony to be false. At first, she dismisses these theories as fanatical talk, but as more and more information is presented to her, Libby realizes that maybe things aren鈥檛 simple as she thought them to be.
Dark Places is not a book I would necessarily call 鈥渆njoyable鈥�. At times it is frightening and difficult to read: the author drags you into the story with the intrigue of the killings while simultaneously pushing you away with her deeply flawed characters. While reading I actually developed some scarily aggressive thoughts towards certain (most) characters. At times I got so angry I wanted to jump into the book and strangle them with my bare hands. Punch them in the face. Scratch out their eyes. I am NOT a violent person but look at what this book has done to me *shudders*. But as negative as these feelings were, I kind of loved it. I felt passionate about this book, which is something I鈥檝e been missing from my last couple of reads.
Let鈥檚 take a closer look at our protagonist, Libby Day. She is the epitome of a flawed character. Not quite an anti-hero, but definitely not a hero either, Libby is selfish, violent, lazy and anti-social, yet you somehow remain on her side and root for her.
I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.
You want her to succeed, despite the fact that she does some horrendous things. Do you forgive her for it? Not really, but it didn鈥檛 matter. I didn鈥檛 like Libby, but I understood her and that was enough.
I was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs.
Without a character like Libby that makes you care about the outcome of the story and gets you involved on an emotional level, the story wouldn鈥檛 be what it is now. The mystery alone 鈥� though well-paced and suspenseful 鈥� wasn鈥檛 enough for me to keep reading. It was the characters that made me want to keep going. The 鈥渨ho did it鈥� part of the novel is only half as interesting as the 鈥渉ow did it come to that鈥�. In some ways, everyone is a little bit guilty and realizing that and seeing Libby come to terms with it was fascinating.
Then we have our other main character, Ben Day. Seeing how his thoughts turned darker and darker as the story went along was a little scary. It makes the reader constantly question if he could truly be the murderer.
Sometimes he felt like he'd been gone his whole life--in exile, away from the place he was supposed to be, and that, soldier-like, he was pining to be returned. Homesick for a place he'd never been.
Plot and writing wise this book was also excellent. Gillian Flynn has some serious talent when it comes to writing unpredictable mysteries. She constantly kept me on my toes, giving me just enough information to keep me guessing and then be mislead. The alternating points of view were perhaps the biggest factor in making this story smooth and exciting throughout. The author certainly knows how to switch focus just in time to create the strongest sense of anticipation.
My main criticism of the novel is that at times I felt the story was a little too dragged out and would have been even better if it was slightly shorter. I also questioned the necessity of having certain elements in the story. However, I obviously still greatly enjoyed the story.
This is not a book for everyone; you need a certain taste for the dark and despicable to enjoy this story. Graphic descriptions violence, underage sex and molestation are all present. But if these things don鈥檛 bother you, then you should most definitely give this book a try.
October 31, 2023
4.5 stars
I think this might be my favourite Gillian Flynn book so far?
We've got:
- An unlikeable but strangely relatable heroine
- A gory murder
- Satanism (always a plus)
- An awkward, murder-obsessed sidekick
- An abusive relationship wherein the woman is the abuser (way too rarely discussed in fiction)
- Did I mention satanism?
I could hardly put this one down. Which reminds me: don't eat while reading the cow scene, I repeat, do not eat while reading the cow scene!
I think this might be my favourite Gillian Flynn book so far?
We've got:
- An unlikeable but strangely relatable heroine
- A gory murder
- Satanism (always a plus)
- An awkward, murder-obsessed sidekick
- An abusive relationship wherein the woman is the abuser (way too rarely discussed in fiction)
- Did I mention satanism?
I could hardly put this one down. Which reminds me: don't eat while reading the cow scene, I repeat, do not eat while reading the cow scene!
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