Dark Places

Dark Places SHINES!!

This is one of the better authors that I've read in quite some time. Often the assumption with dark material is that it's made out to shock and to create a sense of morbid interactions among the main characters, but this is anything but. The story swallows you and leaves you gasping for air. The characters are fully developed and allow for you to care for their outcomes. Finally, I felt for the characters!! I found myself stopping at the end of each chapter, thinking, and then continuing on to see what the next one would unravel; digging deeper and deeper into the reasons behind the violent murders that took place almost 25 years prior. It's an intense read, but very captivating. I would recommend this book and the author to my demographic (23 years old) in a heartbeat. So, stop reading this review and buy the thing already. It's that good.

7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

CHARACTER DRIVEN PSYCHO THRILLER

Libby Day is one of the best drawn sociopathic, near-pathetic, well-voiced characters I have read in a long while. The plot holds your attention while the Day family unravels in dysfunction. The first sentence in the book says it all. Highly recommended.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Darker than I could handle...

Talk about dark. I understand dark places, though mine are nothing like Libby's, and I thought I could handle this because it doesn't usually bother me. It wasn't Libby's 'darkplace' that got to me. It was the overall darkness of the book. And it really is too vulgar and coarse for anyone with any kind of moral sensibility. So why did I keep reading?! For the worst reason of all - curiosity as to what really happened. I may have done myself harm because of curiosity! The who-dunnit aspect of the story is what kept me going, in spite of the language and sex and gruesome violence. Saying I 'liked' the book isn't quite right - more fascinated in that car wreck kind of way. None of the characters were likable - they were pitiable. I could understand why they were twisted and warped and lacking character. I suppose it is better - more realistic - that Flynn didn't try to redeem them, or make miraculous character-turn-arounds. Libby actually DOES turn around, as much as someone as damaged as she is probably could.

The sad thing is to realize that there are children out in the world today who are in just as much need and trouble, who are falling through the cracks, just like the Day children in this story. Is it because of the poverty, or the ignorance? Those definitely play a role. How about a woman, a mother, stretched so far beyond her capabilities that she can't cope? Definitely. All are hard realities in this story and in real life.

Wouldn't recommend this book to anyone for fear that I might be an accomplice in harming them. I think that the dark things that she talks about in this book isn't something that just anyone can handle. My self included.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Dark Places

Tom Wolfe asserted that "you can't go home again" and it is true that you won't be able to recapture your youth, or many friendships and relationships that only exist back in your memories, but Gillian Flynn teaches us that you can go home again, but that's not always a good thing.
This is an excellent character study of a young girl who finds how easily the bad things in your youth can still haunt you in an instant. No matter how secure in an adult, professional, confident world, when confronted when the dark things from one's past, you find yourself instantly back "home" again. Think of the many episodes of talk shows where someone confronts a school bully 15 years later and finds themselves in tears. Or the reunion reality shows where the nerds instantly feel put down and unworthy in relation to the popular crowd.
The mystery was good enough to keep my interest, but it wasn't the star here. Camille is the star. And she finds herself slowly unable to resist the gravity of the monsters of her youth.
Ms. Flynn teases us with cliches and then pulls them out from under us, masterfully in Camille's relationships.
Looking forward to the next book on my shelf by this author, Dark Places.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Awesome Book!

I got this book recently-and once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down! The story was original and very well written. The ending was a shock for me, which hardly ever happens! The characters were well written, and the plot had a lot of great twists and turns. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a great and suspenseful story.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Sick and Twisted!

I stumbled across "Dark Places" one day in the library. It immediately struck me how similar Gillian Flynn's style is to one of my favorite authors, Jennifer McMahon. There is one key difference, however. The reason you cannot stop reading a McMahon novel is because you just have to find out what happens. The reason you cannot stop reading a Flynn novel is quite the opposite. You actually DON'T want to find out what happens, but you are powerless to stop yourself. As the king of macabre, Stephen King, says in a blurb on the jacket of "Sharp Objects" (which I am currently reading and will review in a future post), "I found myself dreading the last thirty pages or so but was helpless to stop turning them."

Let's start with the main character, Libby Day. When she was seven years old, most of her immediate family was murdered in front of her. She testified that her brother, Ben Day, was the killer. Fast forward twenty-five years later. Ben is in prison, and Libby lives off the money she makes from her trust funds. You know Libby is a not-so-nice girl when she regrets new murders that occur because they will take attention away from "her".

The Kill Club, a group of people obsessed with famous crimes, contacts Libby when they become convinced that Ben did not commit the murders. Money-hungry Libby decides that this is her prime opportunity to make more money. She will tell the club what she knows and contact key players in exchange for hefty fees.

Who is the killer? What is the motive? What happened twenty-five years ago? Libby is certainly not a Pollyanna, and she is not a character you will root for. However, you will desperately want to find out the answers to these questions.

MY RATING - 4

To see my rating scale and to read more reviews, please check out my blog:
http://www.1776books.blogspot.com

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

makes you wonder...

"Dark Places" by Gillian Flynn is a secret yearning to be told. This is the story of Libby Day, whose mother and two sisters were brutally murdered when she was seven years old, and her only brother convicted of the crime. Her testimony put him away. Twenty five years later, broke and desperate, she attends a convention of the Kill Club, a weird assortment of people interested in infamous murder cases. Since they are willing to pay her to find the people that may know something more, but aren't telling, she goes along with it. Finding answers to questions, she had no interest in; she slowly begins to think maybe her brother is innocent. Flynn alternates between Libby's present and that fateful night (seen through the eyes of various characters). We get to understand what happened as the truth slowly unravels. I couldn't put the book down, as each new chapter brought Libby closer to the truth. The ending was a little too fitting but still enjoyable, nevertheless.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Mascerade next door!!!

Rules
Dont give away ur identlty untill they guess right..
And have fun!

Amazing writer!

After reading "Sharp Objects" I was hooked, after reading "Dark Places" I am a fish caught. Gillian Flynn is an amazing writer.

Good first book

Interesting main character

Recommend

I enjoyed this book. Stay with it, it's worth the read

Thank you Gillian Flynn!

What a joy to read - it ain't sweet or fluffy, no vampires, no figuring out the ending before you get there. The writing is edgy, tight. The characters are real, flawed human being - some capable of self-redemption. You get to draw your own conclusions for which I am grateful and delighted.

Gillian Flynn

Libby Day was seven years old when her mother and two sisters were massacred in a blood-soaked home invasion dubbed by the press as "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas." It was Libby's testimony which put her then-fifteen-year old brother, Ben, into prison for the rest of his life for the heinous murders.

I am now officially a fan of Gillian Flynn. I like my crime fiction dark and ugly, and Dark Places delivers. This novel won't appeal to everyone but if you appreciate flawed and unlikable characters, small touches of morbid humor and disturbingly gruesome violence this novel will appeal to you.

Fantastic read!

I loved how real this book was! How does a tramatized child end up? Damaged and broken. Told from the point of view of Libby Day the only survivor of her familys mass murder she has blown through the last of the trust money raised for her by a town in shock. Broke and alone she uses the only thing she has and it to is starting to loose its value... her story. On her reluctant adventure new evidance comes up that makes her question what she thought she knew. This story is dark and seedy and gritty and how one would expect a damaged person to end up. Also by the same author SHARP OBJECTS another tale told by a girl damaged.

Consuming

This is one I could not put down. Try it out.

wonderful

loved the book but weird ending

Just as Dark as the Title Suggests

This book was a fascinating and very dark read. It is definitely not for the squeamish, but none-the-less is a very compelling story. However, like her first novel, the "who-done-it" reveal is less a gotcha and more of a "that's what I saw coming because that is what makes sense." Regardless, the character development is well done and Flynn proves herself, yet again, as a master of writing about very broken and disturbed people. And as in her debut novel, regardless of the flaws, her characters find a way into your heart and you empathize for them from cover to cover. Read it and soon... I hear it's being made into a movie!

good read

was hard to keep my mind off of it while i was reading it. good characters, suspense and ending.

Well written...until the ending

Dark Places is a well written novel. It is a strong story line that holds you to the end. For this reason, I do give it four stars. The characters have real disturbing issues. I was captivated by the story. I don't want to be a spoiler, so I will vaguely express the problem I had with the ending. There is a two part ending to this story. One part made sense, the other left me feeling disappointed that I invested so much time into a novel with such an incongrous conclusion!