“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.”
Book: Dark Places
Author: Gillian Flynn
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Synopsis: Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice" of Kinnakee, Kansas. She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club—a secret secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. They hope to discover proof that may free Ben. Libby hopes to turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club—for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.
What I think about it…
The Characters
I honestly don’t feel anything about these characters especially with Libby. I don’t know what to feel about her. I feel sorry that she lost her family at a young age but I kinda don’t care, too. They’re all so weird for me. Libby was a miserable, kleptomaniac woman in her 30’s and what I hate most about her is her self-entitlement. I feel sorry for her but she’s just horrible. On the other hand, I feel indifferent towards the old Ben. I pity the 15-year old Ben but I still question why he chose the decisions he did. Lyle kinda freak me out and Diondra is a bitch. This book actually is freaking me out. The Kill Club is cool though.
The Story
The story is very dark as it revolves around the murder of the three members of the Day family (Michelle, Debby and their mother Patty). Libby and Ben survived the night of the murders because (1) Libby ran out of the house and hide and (2) Ben was the suspected murderer. Patty is a single mother raising her four kids while her ex-husband, Runner, is busy doing his own thing (yes, they’re separated).
Again, this story is twisted and this is the kind of story I’m expecting from Gillian Flynn after reading Sharp Objects and I don’t like the creeps her books is giving me.
What didn’t work for me…
I kinda felt like it was so slow at the beginning like nothing important was really happening at all. It was so slow and boring that it took me a month to finish this one (I usually finish one book in two days). How slow it was in the beginning is how fast everything happened in the end though I would say that I wouldn’t want it any other way. Again, the characters are either detestable or creepy and I don’t like that feeling. I mean I understand that Libby became that kind of person because she lost her family at a young age and she’s been jumping from one place to another but I still feel like she’s a ticking time bomb like she’s also gonna kill people (I mean, I’m getting that vibe from her). She’s just creepy.
The first few chapters bore me, like, I feel all so jumpy in one of the chapters only to be disappointed by the next one. It is alternately narrated in the present (Libby’s own investigation) and the past (what happens during the day of the murder). It was written nicely but I think the problem for me is that, as I’ve said, the momentum is there in the chapter I’m currently reading but the next chapter is going to be a killer and when I read the next chapter that is the continuation of the other chapter, the excitement isn’t there anymore.
My Verdict
The plot is so dark and twisted. I love mystery and thrillers but I don’t know what’s in this book that creeps me out. The story is good but I feel so much indifference towards Libby that it made almost impossible for me to finish this book. But my desire to know what happened to her family pushed me anyway. And I only have one question in my mind, why did Ben let all that shit happen?
MY RATING
★★☆☆☆
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