Dark Places

I enjoyed this one since it kept me guessing and wondering and going. I wasn't bored. I read it very quickly and just needed to know. I finished it just now and I may have to sit and think about it for a while. I wonder if it's worth re-reading.

Great book with a more satisfying ending than Gone Girl. I'm starting to think I'm going to like anything [a:Gillian Flynn 2383 Gillian Flynn https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1232123231p2/2383.jpg] writes. I will be adding more of her books to my To Read list for 2020.

Pretty strong novel. The characters are deep and fun, the story is intriguing, the setting well defined and the ending unpredictable. Gillian Flynn knows how to write and I fully enjoyed this one.

pros:
— every scene between libby and ben was intense and emotional and the discomfort/relief present was portrayed beautifully
— realistic depiction of sibling dynamics is always appreciated

cons:
— the whodunnit sucked and made no sense and the mom was so stupid and even if it was desperation or whatever did she really not think that at least one of her kids might wake up and be like “who is this random person in our house” and DIE
— the book got very miserable and very boring by the middle of the story and libby really just isn't that fun of a main character and understand i am very forgiving of imperfect main female leads but it took a long time for me to believe that libby cared about her siblings at all (especially her sisters, which, not going to lie, rubbed me the wrong way because she grew up believing her BROTHER murdered them)
— gillian flynn is the gone girl author right? i don't think she likes women. like at all. diondra is the obvious example of this but the fact that libby is somehow the special magical sibling that ben liked and they have this like... undying connection even two decades later... hmmm...
— ok if it isn't obvious i am very rubbed that ben did not like his other siblings more and even libby took 4/5 of the entire damn book to confess any emotional attachment to michelle and debby like this book would have been way better if i knew libby actually liked her sisters early on
— like come on the entire premise of this book rides on the fact that libby was the sister that survived because if it had been debby that had lived none of this would have happened
— all the adults in this book were kind of stupid and here's the thing. you have a book from the perspective of kids, right? and the proper way to handle this kind of dynamic is to obviously place them side-by-side against the adults in their life that failed them and examine what went wrong in a scooby-doo fashion of “the adults are useless”. that didn't happen here, not only were the adults useless but there was also no real feeling of “the kids didn't deserve what happened to them” until near the end
— and even THEN the character i'm talking about (ben) immediately fucking ruins himself. like, for two whole seconds, in the scene with him writing down krissi day (i thought this was good writing actually) and some realization that he was just planning his daughter's life–i thought, wow, ben is actually a good guy? and everyone kind of ruined his life? and he is the worst treated character and definitely has my heart? and then the reveal with him covering up for michelle's murder happened and my sympathy died.

You've gotta love a main character who tells you right out of the gate that she's not a good person. Libby goes on to prove it too: selfish, lazy, manipulative etc. I dig Flynn's fearlessness when it comes to her protagonists. She's not looking for you to worship or even necessarily identify with the character. But Libby is entertaining.

This was a fun-to-read suspenseful thriller. A real page-turner and I was surprised and engaged throughout. It's another book, like Sharp Objectswhere everything is so sleazy, but I guess that is half the fun.

Couldn't put it down. A little gross though, so beware.

I love Gillian Flynn's writing. Her ability to weave a tale has brought me to read all three of her major novels. Unfortunately the subject matter is so so dark and disturbing. Chances are I'll read anything this woman writes though!

What a great suspense, a tragedy really. This was my first Gillian Flynn and certainly not my last. The characters are really well written and the plot, of corse is great. I really, really felt for Libby, that pore girl, and for all the Day family. With both points of view, present and past, Flynn gives us the depth of the misery that the Day family lived before the murders and the misery that Libby is living now. We get to see the impact of it all outside the Day family as well. The buildup of the suspense is good. The last 150 pages were a big surprise to me. I had my mind set for the ending of the story but found out I way off.

Although this was a good read, I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars because, to me, some reactions and even some decisions were a little farfetch. I don't want to spoil anything, but sometimes I thought, what the... But all in all, it was very good.

You can also find this review on my blog.

3.5 stars
cw: suicidal ideation; pedophilia; animal abuse; animal death

I'd go for months without smoking, and then remember: I need a cigarette. I'm like that, nothing sticks.

I decided to read Dark Places in spite of disliking Gone Girl. I could tell that Gillian Flynn was a good writer regardless of how much I enjoyed that book, and I figured I'd give her another chance. I actually chose this one by selecting, pretty much at random, a book from my to-read shelf that started with D for the A-Z reading challenge. I kind of regret not grabbing Sharp Objects, just because the TV show is newly out, but I'll get to that one later.

I did enjoy this book. I found the story really compelling, I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. I felt like Gillian Flynn did a really great job with the pacing, switching back and forth between past and present at just the right moments. The characters were complex and well-done. I found myself having visceral reactions to the things they did while still feeling sympathy towards them.

My only issue with this is really the ending, which honestly ruined the book a little. Things felt really thrown together and coincidental and just not quite... realistic. I know that a lot of thrillers tend to end kind of wildly, but I think if it had been drawn out a bit more, it wouldn't have felt so jumbled. There's not really anything else I would've changed, though.

Although the end knocked my rating down a bit, I did still like this book and would recommend it to thriller fans – who probably have read it, I may be the only person left who is just getting into Gillian Flynn. I do plan to keep moving through her works, I think she's a talented writer who comes up with some great stories. I hope I like her others even more!

This was pretty good. I liked the mystery and getting different parts of the story from different people. I didn't really like anyone though - that seems to be a theme with me and Gillian Flynn's characters...

Mediocre Thriller

I'm not much of a reviewer so I hope it has just enough.

I picked up this book on recommendation from my boss. She said it was dark and twisted. Well I like some thrill in my life so I was eager to read this.
What I didn't know was that a Satanic theme was going to emerge. I expected some gothy stuff but nope, Flynn went with Satanism. Obviously Ms. Flynn does not understand Satanism or if she did, she did not make it clear that her characters did not understand Satanism. I was immediately dismayed. I am a Satanist so I'm very disappointed with this. The story was different from some thrillers out there but I found myself guessing who the killer was before I even got half way through the book and turns out I was mostly right. Ms. Flynn did deliver a little twist I didn't see coming. Otherwise the characters were predictable and underdeveloped.

I guess that's my cue to stick with true crime?

Please note: these are my opinions based solely on my own personal tastes in literature. And always remember: TRUE Satanism is not the belief or worship in the Christian idea of Satan. We are atheists who do not fear our human nature.

Crazypants. Gillian Flynn writes characters that you just can't stand!

This book was intense maybe in the last 100 pages. The rest of it was basically just build up. I figured the Magda character would play a bigger role, because there was lots of time spent on describing her and the other women who were obsessed with Ben.

I hated Patty. I found her absolutely spineless. She just seemed to buckle anytime anything got hard. It may sound harsh but I am not surprised that she was losing the farm as she couldn't fix ANY problems she had. She would brush anything and everything under the carpet pretending everything is fine. I realize that she was young when she married Runner but that was her first stupid decision and everything seemed to just get worse after that. Not using condoms because she “didn't want to nag” was just unbelievably stupid.

I liked how the story jumped back and forth in time, I understand that the point was to build up the tension but I think that it maybe should have started a little bit later. Every chapter just seemed to drag on with useless details.

I found Libby to be a whiner as well. You would think that what would drive her to find out about her family was to “get some peace” as she tells Ben but she does it for money.

I think I would have liked it better had the killer been Runner but they made him out way too stupid so I never thought it was him.

Overall not bad, but I think it could have been less draggy.

Reading this confirmed that I don't like reading thrillers, just as I don't like watching them. But, I really liked Gone Girl (the film), so when I saw this in the bargain section of a bookstore, I thought - hey, maybe this author writes a thriller I can get behind. Thought wrong.

Let this also be a record that I am far too imaginative and become far too invested in books for thrillers to be a good idea for me, ever, let alone right before I try to fall asleep. Incorporating this book into my pre-bedtime routine resulted in several nights of panicky lost sleep. Not because the book was particularly scary. All it takes it the premise of it all to get my mind going: Satan-worshipping cow-killers, axe-murderers hacking away at a poor farm family in the dead of a winters' night, the psychological trauma that ensues for a survivor of such an incident, etc. etc.

I will say, I did appreciate the ending. Felt neatly tied up and left the whole killing thing feeling less trivialized, more meaningful. But alas, not enough to make me rave about the book: which, though well-written and expertly sequenced, still is just not my cuppa tea.

It feels like it's taken me forever to read this book! It was just so average compared to her other books - I didn't like the characters, I wasn't rooting for any of them, I didn't care ‘who dunnit'. I like to get a creepy feeling from a thriller but this was just plain grim with no creep. The ending managed to save one star but apart from that it just wasn't something I enjoyed at all.

Living in the aftermath of her family's murders, Libby Day is living in dark times and places until one day she is encouraged to challenge her own testimony which led to the conviction of her brother, taking the reader across rural America in the process.

A dark and indeed at times intense novel, the narration is split between 1985 and the present day between multiple characters, protagonist Libby, her mother and aunt including others.

I loved the beginning and the premise of the story from the blurb seemed promising too... and then it droned on and on over 421 pages.

Having built up the suspense over the course of the novel, I wasn't entirely convinced with the ending - the resolving of the whodunnit, to use a phrase. For me personally, it took a long time to get there, with six months between starting and finishing it.

Finishing this has felt like a chore, rather than a pleasurable experience and there's no doubt in my mind that Flynn is a skilled author, who creates atmospheric, mystery novels - I certainly don my hat to her in that sense.

This novel is potentially best read on a sunny beach providing you with a total contrast to the tone of the novel and allows you to consider how blessed your life is in comparison to the Day's in 1985.

I liked the characterization. But I dislike books that are mean and bleak for bleakness' sake. Or just black, for the fun of being black. Ready to move on to richer tales now.

The Days were a clan that mighta lived long
But Ben Day's head got screwed on wrong
That boy craved dark Satan's power
So he killed his family in one nasty hour
Little Michelle he strangled in the night
Then chopped up Debby: a bloody sight
Mother Patty he saved for last
Blew off her head with a shotgun blast
Baby Libby somehow survived
But to live through that ain't much a life
—SCHOOLYARD RHYME


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.


Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs.


Coffee goes great with sudden death.


I like other people's things better. They come with other people's history.


Stunted human beings who got awkward every time we tried to express ourselves.


And so you told the lie that they thought was the truth.


You gotta believe in something, right? Everyone has their thing.


“I know a little bit about trying to do the right thing and fucking up completely,” I added.
“You talking about Mom?” Ben said.
“I was talking about me.”
“You could have been talking about all of us.”

this was on all accounts disturbing.


This novel is a fascinating murder mystery, but it is so much more than that. It is a wise, evocative character study – a glimpse into the lives of people who are lost and are struggling to find their way in a dangerous world. Some never find a path, some show others a path, and some find refuge – which can be either heaven or hell. But all of these people – for better or worse – matter, and their intertwined lives are a lesson to the reader that even the tiniest action may have huge unintended consequences.

It was vile and scary, but I kind of liked it because I suspected everyone.

This is easily the darkest of Flynn's first three novels. Despite my self-proclaimed affinity for dark and raw prose, bits of this prompted the occasional cringe. It was a holistic storyline, covering the necessary details and leaving little to truly criticize. Flynn has a knack for taking reality, imposing the fantastic and seemingly improbable, while inspiring a sense of commonplace in the reader. While I read this book, I became entrenched in the life of Libby Day. When I was not reading, I contemplated the absurdity of the world Flynn illustrated. Especially... well, I guess you would have to read it.

I wasn't able to really get into the book until the end. The climax of the story is gripping and tense (once I started the last few chapters, I had to finish it), but the end ultimately felt rushed.

I terribly enjoyed this. It gets you caught up from the firts pages on, not being able to stop until you learn more, understand more. I don't know about the ending but yeah, all in all I enjoyed it a lot.

If you'd like to read this review on my blog.

Rating: 5/5 stars.

Dark Places is the story of a little girl's survival to the brutal murders of her family, by her brother, and whatever happened afterwards with her. Now, an adult, she finally see's back on that day, and starts to question what really happened that day, all those years back...

Man is this shit fucked up. But, it's good as hell.

I absolutely adored and loved this book. It was disgusting, horrifying, scary and absolutely perfect. This books borders on the side of sanity, and you could catch some poison of it, but damn is it worth it.

All of the characters, every single one, are unreliable characters. Each in their own special way. The main character is unbelievable useless and lazy, and with some untreated mental problems, and the rest are a mixture of ignorant people, tired and exhausted people, angry teenagers, and psychopaths. And yet, you root for their well being (most of them) and for their success out of this mess. And for some, you want them to burn in hell. But then, later on, not quite.

My views on this characters changed so much throughout the book that I don't even know anymore. It was like...



Moving on. The mystery in itself was damn well constructed. It was mysterious all over the place, and the various POV where spot on. They actually helped build the book even more. All those things said and misunderstood, all those secrets. They make the book even better. And, of course, extremely well executed.

Of course, I being me, kind of saw where the mystery was going, what tracks it was following. But, even thought that, it still managed to surprise me how and who finally executed the final twist. So yeah, extremely well pieced together.

Lastly, the world building, even thought not necessary to the genre, was well done. I imagined myself being in there, with all the rest of the characters. And even thought I've never been to places remotely like this, I still felt it in me.

And the definition the author gives to what a Dark Place is, loved it, perfect, it's a new quote on my book quote (not that I have one, but you feel me?).

“I can never dwell in these thoughts. I've labeled the memories as if they were a particulary dangerous region: Darkplace”

gasps in the background

Challenge: Read a mystery or thriller

I tried to read this a few months ago and could not get into it. I think it was partly because I couldn't stand reading from Libby's perspective and I also wasn't really in the mood. The characters are just not likeable at all and it wasn't as fast paced as Gone Girl was.

However, when the mystery aspect was introduced and the flashbacks started, the story started to pick up for me and I needed to know what happened next. I think that's what Gillian Flynn does best. She's able to hook the reader and make them want to read on to see what is in store for the characters.

As I said, the characters are not likeable at all and sometimes it was almost annoying to some extent. No one in this story seemed to have any good qualities, which felt a bit unrealistic and made it hard for me to concentrate in the story completely. I did like Libby's development throughout the story and I was glad the hints of romance were not actually addressed.

All in all, it was a very good mystery/thriller book. I will definitely continue reading Gillian Flynn since I love the way she always accomplished to keep you on your toes.