Book Review: Dark Places

Title: Dark Places
Author: Gillian Flynn
Year Released: 2009
Grade: A+

When a book can dig it's hooks into you and not let go, then you know what you're reading is something special. This is how I feel about Gillian Flynn's Dark Places, a propulsive, deeply unsettling and layered mystery. It kept me up until three in the morning because I could just not put it down. It's disturbing prose, multifaceted characters, and it's many twists and turns made my eyes stay glued to the pages.

The story centers around a woman named "Libby Day," the lone survivor of a massacre that claimed the lives of her two older sisters, "Michelle" and "Debby," and her mother, "Patty," when she was only seven years old. The culprit behind the murders: her brother "Ben", whom she had a big hand in sending to jail. Her coerced testimony is what put him away and she has always been steadfast in her belief that her brother killed their family. However, a group called the "Kill Club," which examines and investigates famous murders, believes that "Ben" is innocent. The leader of the club, a boy named "Lyle," offers to pay "Libby" for souvenirs she kept of her family, but also to go digging for more information on that terrifying night and find out what really happened.

The novel weaves back and forth through time between "Libby" in the present, as well as her mother "Patty" and her "Ben" on the day leading up to the murders. It's this amazing way of telling the story that really entranced and sucked me right into the plot. All three of these characters are fleshed out extremely well and the way their story lines all come together is thrilling. I don't want to give too much of the story away because this is a book where the developments are just too exciting to divulge and really should be left for people to discover on their own.

This is a scary, disturbing, twisty mystery-thriller with some gallows humor to boot. I LOVED Gone Girl and I can't wait to see how they turn this story into a film as well. Flynn's other novel, Sharp Objects is also high on my "to be read" list. I highly recommend Dark Places, it's one of the best novels I have read in a while and if you're looking for a great book to read, this is it.