Customer Reviews

Dark Places

5 star:		(109)
4 star:		(72)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

Now, it is almost twenty-five years later, and Libby, depressed, angry and broke has agreed to attend a meeting of the Kill Club, a strange conglomerate of people obsessed with famous murders. Some of the Kill Club members have become interested in the murders of Libby's family because they are convinced that Ben has been wrongly convicted. After meeting with the Kill Club, Libby, although still sure that Ben is the murderer, decides to try to make some cash from her family's grisly history by charging the Kill Club members to interview people who might have further information about the murders.

In hauntingly compelling prose, this wonderfully talented author deftly unfolds the story of what really happened during the early morning hours of January 3, 1985, and how searching for, and uncovering, that truth will change the lives of Libby and Ben.

The book is told in an interesting intermittent flashback format, with Libby, tough and damaged from her horrific childhood, narrating the present-day chapters in first-person, while the flashback chapters, told in third-person, describe the actions of several key characters on one winter's day in 1985.

Besides Libby, the most fascinating character in the book is that of Ben, the awkward, aimless, angry boy, tottering on the brink of manhood. Ben, yearning for the father-figure which he never had, and being raised in a poverty-stricken household by a single overwhelmed mother, surrounded by bothersome little sisters, is such a troubled, unlikeable protagonist. Yet this author makes the reader see the good in Ben and how much he wants to fit in, even as the story moves the angst-ridden teenager inexorably toward the unspeakable crimes which are at the center of the narrative.

This author's prose style is unique, complex and utterly creative. She is almost Dickensian in her ability to paint a word picture of a situation or a character in a few phrases. For instance, in the first chapter Libby describes herself after the murders: "Little Orphan Libby grew up sullen and boneless, shuffled around a group of lesser relatives...stuck in a series of mobile homes or rotting ranch houses all across Kansas." When Libby sees her brother Ben for the first time in almost twenty-five years, she views him through the glass at the visiting room at the prison: "He looked so much the same, pale face, that Day knob of a nose. He hadn't even grown much since the murders. Like we all got stunted that night."

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.

Highly recommended.

Who killed Libby Day's family? This is the mystery that is presented on the first page and the subsequent chapters detail Libby's attempt - half-hearted at first, to get the answers she so desperately needs in order for her to get on track in life. The book alternates points of view from Libby in present day to various characters from the past - describing the events that led up to, and include the infamous day of the murders twenty-five years previous - January 2, 1985.

The book is paced and the author writes excellent and well developed descriptions of the characters - Libby's mother, aunt Diane, sisters and brother - as well as of the setting of the Kinnakee, Kansas farm and Libby's house on the bluff in Kansas City, Missouri. (As a KCMO native, I was surprised to find a book set in this Midwest city because it is so rare and I really enjoyed that fact about the book.)

Because of the way the novel is written, the various points of view in each chapter are used to advance Libby's determination and investigation into actually and finally finding out who killed her family and why. The plot is revealed in layers and the reader isn't quite sure how all of this is going to come together - but it does. This is not a heart pounding thriller, but a more dark and plodding one - you know that denouement is just around the corner - you're hoping that Libby is going to get the information she wants as she confronts first one and then another of the surviving family and others involved with the search for the killer(s) of her family. Indeed, the hangers on - the Kill Club members - and her father, the loser Runner, only add to her consternation as she seems thwarted at every turn. Even her own brother, Ben, imprisoned by her testimony, seems to put roadblocks up instead of providing answers in the case.

This is not a book for the squeamish and describes some grisly scenes that include depictions of bloody murder and one of senseless animal torture. Libby, the protagonist, is not a loveable character, but one who grows on the reader as we are drawn into her world. We almost feel her lassitude and recognize how much energy her efforts cost her. We root for her, but are wondering if we really do want to know the answers. Is Ben guilty or not? No one associated with this crime is free of criminal association or above suspicion.

All in all - a good whodunit with a very appropriate ending.

Flynn's novel has the effect of blunt force trauma. With icy precision and an eye for the consequences of poverty and despair, this novel hums with discordance and the chronic misery of a family mired in unhappiness. In January, 1985, Libby Day is the survivor of a family massacre, at seven years old the only witness to the murder of her mother and two sisters on their Kansas farm. Libby's brother, Ben, has spent the last twenty-five years in jail for what an avid press describes as "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee Kansas". A sullen, angry teenager, Ben proves an uncooperative person of interest, the public promptly labeling him a drug-addicted Satanist. Now in her thirties, Libby bears the scars of that harrowing night, when she climbed from her mother's bedroom window to escape her family's grisly fate. Carefully coached, Libby is the star witness against Ben, the jury happy to put an end to the nightmare scenario of the butchered Day family, Ben an obvious target.

An unlikely heroine, Libby is profoundly depressed, suicidal and nearly out of funds from a trust set up for the surviving victim of the crimes. A product of her environment, Libby is a manipulative liar and opportunist, a thief of people's belongings, anything to momentarily assuage the gaping hole in her life without family or hope. Approached by the Kill Club, a loose group of true crime aficionados, Libby seizes an opportunity to earn some desperately needed money by selling selected family memorabilia and visiting the brother she has not spoken to since her testimony in court. Her world already painfully distorted by the murders, contacting Ben is but another step down a dark path toward oblivion. Fearless, Libby has been waiting to die since that terrible January night.

This novel is shocking, brutal and disconcerting, an unsparing exploration of people and their motives, a harsh landscape that questions long-held assumptions about the human capacity for violence. The Days are the object of ridicule, their hand-me-down clothes and indelible mark of less-than. It is easy to recoil, to point the finger of guilt at the angst-riddled teenager, Ben, and donate money for the profoundly disturbed survivor, who bounces from place to place wreaking havoc on those who provide shelter. And as the facts of that night are revealed, layer after layer of ugliness is exposed, a confluence of violence that fills the air with screams, then silence. From the Day family to Ben's questionable associates and his flirtation with the forbidden, from bone-crushing poverty and the banality of true evil, Flynn crafts a masterpiece of cold-blooded horror with no happy ending, daring the reader to look away. Stripping the mask of innocence from the predictable response to a heinous crime, Flynn stares into the void, daring us to do the same. Luan Gaines.

The thing that stands out in my mind about this book is that you are "inside" the minds of these totally dysfunctional characters. We all "talk" to ourselves when we're alone ... in our cars, rooms, shopping ... wherever. But here you know what they are thinking and feeling in situations that make one squirm. All of this character revealing is a slow-go ... you just want to get to the heart of the story and that is what pushed me along, to reach the end. And here's the thing, I thought I had it figured out but I wasn't prepared for the ending! That's why 2**'s; otherwise 1*. I am still thinking about that ending a day later. This book is not for everyone. It is definitely dark, detailed, rambling and irritating, but if you can make it to the end, you'll get your pay back.

Gillian Flynn's an awfully talented writer, but I must admit to not being a fan of the types of stories she chooses to tell. While DARK PLACES contains a lot of great prose and some compelling moments, it's ultimately a rather mean-spirited novel that doesn't add up to very much.

DARK PLACES is a crime story about dysfunctional people doing nasty things to one another. Its brutally effective, but its narrative power is diminished by Flynn's failure to provide her characters with any true depth. Instead, she presents a cast of caricatured characters who are for the most part either borderline psychotics or pathetic neurotics. While all these characters are colorful, very few of them rang true to me, and almost all of them are unlikable.

To Flynn's credit, she does construct an interesting mystery in DARK PLACES, and the novel does succeed as a pageturner. But I found myself deeply let down by the mystery's resolution, which is based on an almost ridiculous series of coincidences. The ending reads like something that Flynn threw together at the last minute, which is bitterly disappointing given the long build-up.

In short, DARK PLACES is a compelling novel, but one that features a lot of ugly characters and dark situations. If you like novels like Scott Phillips' THE ICE HARVEST or Flynn's first novel SHARP OBJECTS, you may enjoy this book a great deal. But in the end, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

The basic plotline of this story was excellent. Youngest daughter in a single-mother family of four survives the slaughter of said family and then testifies that her brother was the killer. Nearly twenty-five years later circumstances arise that make her question everything she's ever known and the ensuing story about finding answers leads us to a resolution. I thought this premise sounded very interesting and that the novel would provide me with a little bit of thought-provocation and a lot of suspense.

Unfortunately, the way each of these characters were written made them very unsympathetic to me as a reader. Many may disagree with me, by saying that anyone who experiences the brutal death of a family member has the right to be selfish throughout the rest of his or her life. But, I disagree with that theory and the actions of Libby Day, her tone in telling the story and her mood towards those around her who only wanted to help did not endear her to me at all.

What redeemed this novel for me were the flashback chapters told from the perspectives of Ben and Patty Day, accused brother and murdered mother respectively. Hearing the story told, in the day leading up to the murders, from their points of view were the pieces of this book that made me keep reading instead of tossing the book aside for something better. In these chapters, the author did a remarkable job of laying out the puzzles pieces that no one had been able to put together up to that point.

This story has many layers and I'm sure that different readers will get many different messages from it. I was disappointed that I didn't like the main character more, but that didn't stop me from wanting to get answers about what really happened "that night" just like she did.

This is not a novel to be read easily on a beach or vacation. You need to be open to giving all aspects of this story a lot of thought and you need to realize that there are no "warm fuzzies" anywhere within this novel, even when the mysteries are solved. If you go into it with that knowledge, then I think you'll enjoy your read much more than I did. I'm afraid I picked up this book thinking it was just like any other mystery, but it's so much more than that.

Because I wasn't expecting it, I'm not sure I appreciated all those levels as much as I could have. But, there's no denying that this is a very well-written, inventive story given to us by an extremely talented author.

Although I had some (plot) problems with Gillian Flynn's first novel, Sharp Objects, it was clear that she was a talented writer. I can still recall her protagonist from that story, and I think I always will.

The same is true, with this novel. The characterization is stellar, and the dialogue is spot on.

Brief summary, no spoilers:

This is the story of the brutal murder of a family, back in 1985. Only two members survived -7 year old Libby, and her brother Ben, who was 15 and was sent to prison for the murder of his mother and two other sisters.

The story is told in alternating chapters, as we switch from the viewpoint of Libby in the present time, to those of other family members back in 1985, in the hours before the crime.

It's an interesting technique - we get to see Libby as a very troubled, dysfunctional young woman, put reluctantly into a situation where she is trying to resolve the crime that shattered her. She hates to think back at that time, but she must.

So while Libby is racing to find answers, the narrative from 1985 slowly reveals what happened. The chapters play off each other perfectly, and it's just impossible to put the book down towards the end.

I do have a few quibbles, which are difficult to discuss without spoilers, but I will. I found myself a little frustrated with what I can only call very (un) fortuitous events that happen to one character in the chapters from the past. I know that people can have bad luck, and coincidences do happen, but it was all just too much, and felt a bit contrived. Sometimes less is more.

But I am giving this novel 5 stars, because the writing is just terrific, and as with the author's previous book, I know that these characters, and particularly Libby, will stay with me for a long, long time.

Recommended.

How can there only be one review for this book? Dark Places is an amazingly deep and fully realized story. It is suspenseful and feels completely real. I hate it when people give away the stories in their reviews... I don't want to know the story, I just want to know if it is a good book. I can read the synopsis of the book myself. So, my review is short and sweet... this is a fabulous book. A great and creepy novel. Complicated characters we have never before met. A story we don't already know the ending for. Gillian Flynn writes a gritty, no-holds-barred thriller like no other female writer I've ever read. I'd love to know the woman who can make these stories come alive with such conviction.

Boy, can Gillian Flynn write. It amazes me that this is only her second novel for she writes with such passion and authenticity. There is no loose footing here as she tries to find her literary pace. She is gifted and at the same time very dark. Her first novel SHARP OBJECTS was also an excellent novel that traveled a path definitely on the darker, more disturbing side. It is amazing that Ms. Flynn could have gone even further to that dark side with her second novel. But she definitely has and succeeds in spades.

The novel opens with the introduction of our heroine Libby. She was the sole survivor of a true massacre when her mother and 2 sisters were killed in their home when she was 7. She testified against her brother Ben who has been in jail ever since, Libby is now 25. Many caring people had set up a trust fund for Libby, the sole survivor of the Day family Satanic Massacre. She is running out of money and hooks up with a club of true crime enthusisasts KILL CLUB who are willing to pay her for artifacts and research on the murders.

Libby is not very likable at all and the beginning of the novel is slow for it really is difficult to care about her. Biut what author Gillian Flynn manages to do with this beginning is amazing. The story unfolds going from present day to the time of the killings and keeps going back and forth and we get to see the story from the perspective of many participants. The unfolding of the mystery and lives of each character in the days leading up to the murders is meticulously told and the reader can begin to feel like they are reading a true crime novel. Also, we see how much Libby is dealing with the aftereffects of the murders and how they have formed the person she has become. She evolves in very realistic ways as she works to solve the mystery of who really murdered her family. Was it her brother Ben or not?

The story is very graphic and very violent. It might be too much for some to take. The thing I can honestly say is that none of the violence is gratuituous. It all serves a purpose in the telling of the story. Through all the gore and blood this novel emerges as a very literary piece of work. It is a deep character study of the lifes of many people and how one event and the build up to it affected them all. Even if you figure out the ending before getting there it still develops a wallop. So yes, the story is disturbing so be prepared. But it is very well written and a journey you will love if you can handle it. It is a rare thing to find a thriller that is actually a well written piece of work and that is what we have here.

I have gread admiration for the author Gillian Flynn and love how in her acknowledgements she thanks her husband and says "What do I say to a man who knows how I think and still sleeps next to me with the lights off?" Her sense of self and sense of humour is obviously how she can approach these dark subjects and make them work. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Highly recommended.

I loved this book. Like the title implies, this is a dark story. But it is also a well written and very engrossing story. I really got drawn in by the mystery of who killed Libby Day's family. I liked Libby, she made an interesting heroine, even though her past had left her bitter and depressed. The book slowly unravels the mystery of what really happened by alternating Libby's story, her mother Patty's story, and her older brother, Ben's story. This is a great book with great character development. Give this book a try if you enjoy dark mysteries that delve deeply into the tragedy of a family, and the ramifications to those who survived.