Gillian Flynn is the author of the popular novel "Gone Girl," which I previously reviewed. As much as I liked Gone Girl, Dark Places was even better.
The main character, Libby Day, is a woman who was just a little girl when her entire family was slaughtered in the middle of the night at home. Her teenage brother, Ben Day, was tried and convicted of their murders, and she has not seen him since. Her testimony helped put him away, and she believed he was guilty.
Libby is approached by someone in a murder club, a group of people who discuss and sometimes try to solve infamous crimes. The club believes Ben is innocent and blames Libby for unjustly putting him behind bars. Based on her interactions with the club, Libby goes on a kind of quest to learn the truth about her family's murders.
This was a fascinating look at a unique and sympathetic situation. Libby Day is nothing like I would have imagined a mass murder survivor to be. Gillian Flynn has a way of making even the most insane situations absolutely realistic and shocking. She is also great at making an unlikeable person into a character that you can't stop reading about.
She also has a taste for the disgusting. What might have been a sentence about someone throwing up is instead a two-paragraph description of the color, smell, consistency, and more of the puke. Her details and phrasing are memorable and impressive, if sometimes off-putting. But that is life.
I have now read all three of Gillian Flynn's novels, including Gone Girl and Sharp Objects. "Dark Places" is by far my favorite. A dark and witty read that you won't want to put down.
Crime and legal writers, check out my writer's guide revealing the Top 7 Mistakes Made by Writers of Crime, Mystery, and Legal Drama.
Libby is approached by someone in a murder club, a group of people who discuss and sometimes try to solve infamous crimes. The club believes Ben is innocent and blames Libby for unjustly putting him behind bars. Based on her interactions with the club, Libby goes on a kind of quest to learn the truth about her family's murders.
This was a fascinating look at a unique and sympathetic situation. Libby Day is nothing like I would have imagined a mass murder survivor to be. Gillian Flynn has a way of making even the most insane situations absolutely realistic and shocking. She is also great at making an unlikeable person into a character that you can't stop reading about.
She also has a taste for the disgusting. What might have been a sentence about someone throwing up is instead a two-paragraph description of the color, smell, consistency, and more of the puke. Her details and phrasing are memorable and impressive, if sometimes off-putting. But that is life.
I have now read all three of Gillian Flynn's novels, including Gone Girl and Sharp Objects. "Dark Places" is by far my favorite. A dark and witty read that you won't want to put down.
Crime and legal writers, check out my writer's guide revealing the Top 7 Mistakes Made by Writers of Crime, Mystery, and Legal Drama.
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