Dark Places By: Gillian Flynn

“The truly frightening flaw in humanity is our capacity for cruelty – we all have it.”

-Gillian Flynn, Dark Places

I picked this book up on my first trip to a bookstore since the pandemic. I can’t tell you how great it felt to be able to physically touch books and explore the shelves. I probably could have bought ten more titles but I limited myself to just a few.

Just like pretty much everyone else, I was very familiar with Gillian Flynn having read Gone Girl a couple of years ago. While I was browsing the bookshelves I came across her section and at first was going to pick up Sharp Objects but all of the copies had the cast from the miniseries plastered on the cover. That kind of thing always turned me off. I get promoting the series/movie but I just want to focus on the original work.

Looking at her section, I couldn’t believe that Flynn has only written a handful of books. It’s crazy that she has had this much success and recognition so early on in her career. I mean everyone knows Gone Girl and are now talking about Sharp Objects because of the success of the show.

Anyway, I notice this book, Dark Places, which I had never heard of before so I figured I’d give it a try.

Overview: Twenty-five years ago, Libby Day’s family was brutally murdered. As the only survivor of the massacre, Libby testifies against her brother Ben who is convicted of the crime. Dealing with depression and guilt, Libby is barely scraping by when she receives a letter from the Kill Club- a society obsessed with true crime. The club offers her money in exchange for information, the only problem is that the Kill Club doesn’t believe that Ben committed the murder and is determined to prove his innocence.

My thoughts: Great book. The characters are unlikable and unreliable and it would be a disaster in any other hands but with Gillian Flynn it just works.

The book goes back and forth between the day the murders happened to present day making it so that the reader is the only one who knows the full story. Again, the characters are not the type that you necessarily want them to succeed, you just, want to know what really happened.

The overall story is engaging and I found myself reading many more pages than I had intended to. It only took me three days to finish the 500+ page book so that is saying something about the readability.

Dark Places, takes its theme from the satanic panic of the 80’s which, if you are a fan of true crime, you now know that most of the hysteria from this time period was all unwarranted and many people were labeled satanist when there was no evidence of this. Having this be a running theme throughout the story, I found myself wondering if this was all due to the panic or if in fact, Ben did believe he was acting on a higher power.

The one thing that I did not care for was that the ending seemed a little far fetched. Without giving anything away, the conclusion required so many coincidences to happen in order for the events to have unfolded and it is not entirely believable but it was very unexpected.

Also, I would have probably read an entire book devoted to the Kill Club. It was such an interesting aspect of the book that I feel it could have carried a little more of the plot. Perhaps later on we will get more stories from this interesting society.

Overall, great book full of unexpected moments and a book that you will want to continue reading until the very end.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Would I re-read?: No, I don’t think anything is gained by re-reading

Should it be made into a movie?: No; but lets be honest it probably will