Dark Places by Gillian Flynn...

I recently read Gone Girl, also by Gillian Flynn, and enjoyed it so much I wanted to read everything she wrote. This book proved that I had made a wise decision.

Three things to know when reading anything by Ms. Flynn (in my opinion).

1. Expect a well written story. She is able to keep me interested (which is sometimes hard to do!), she understands words and how to use them, and she uses enough descriptive phrases that I feel as if I understand the scene she is portraying. It's a sign of a good book when you feel like you are a first hand witness, you begin to care about the characters, and you become emotionally attached to them.

2. Watch out for the plot twists. Holy crickets on crutches, this girl can throw you for a loop. I'm usually pretty good at figuring out a story, deciding who's guilty and whose not, and congratulating myself in the final chapter. Not this time! Just when I think I have it all settled...along comes the twist I wasn't expecting, the adrenaline packed second half, the reason I can't stop reading until all is said and done. Dammit Gillian, your books are making me lose sleep!

3. Expect non traditional characters...and expect to dislike most of them. Somehow, Ms. Flynn has managed to incorporate the absolutely worst characteristics of human society into her main characters. All the reasons you should hate them...are the very reasons you find yourself rooting for them. You want them to succeed, to discover their worth, to go down fighting.

So...Dark Places. This is the story of Libby Day, the lone survivor of a family massacre. Lone except for the older brother Ben, who Libby convicts as the murderer. As a young girl, her testimony alone convinces judge and jury of his guilt. And never does she question the validity of her memories.

That is until she meets a strange and weirdly likable group. This "Kill Club" has deemed Ben innocent and works to force Libby to confront her past, and the demons she has spent years hiding from.

The book works by combining a series of flashbacks and present day..allowing us to establish a relationship with Libby, Ben, and their troubled mother and sisters...the family lost in the murders. Libby is likable, if only in a flawed way. She is real, easy to relate to, and sympathetic. You rally for her to overcome herself...if not understanding why she is the way she is.

Ben. All at once you will want to rescue him, hate him, feel sorry for him, and despise him. He will disgust you, and yet you will find yourself drawn to him in an unexplainable way. You will both want to save him and lock him away somewhere forever. He gets under your skin in such a despicable way...and yet you are unable to look away. Sort of like a proverbial train wreck.

Over all, I enjoyed this book. At the beginning, I felt that the flashbacks were a little redundant and flowery...but as I started to understand the character development, they became indispensable to establishing mindset and circumstance. The secondary characters initially seemed confusing and insignificant, but were feathered into the book in a way that allowed their personalities and nature to develop nicely.

My rating? 4 out of 5 Bananas. I would absolutely recommend this book to others. I will say though, in conclusion, that this book, and its author, may not appeal to everyone. It is dark and twisty, has a spattering of language and sexual circumstances, and is most definitely a specific genre of reading. I probably would refrain from letting my teenage girl read it...and I can tell you that my mother couldn't finish Gone Girl as a required reading for her book club. So keep that in mind.

See you soon for another book review.

Happy Reading! XO!
AB