Warning: This novel contains a few small spoilers, but the story’s resolution and culprits are not fully revealed.
Gillian Flynn has been able to make quite a name for herself, and although the lion’s share of her popularity may be attributed to Gone Girl, there have been other novels written by her. And while everyone’s opinion of her novels can span a cornucopia of thoughts and emotions, most readers would agree that she can spin a fantastic story that usually involves a psychotic female character somewhere in the mix. In the case of the novel being reviewed today, this trend is certainly obvious.
Dark Places can best be categorized as a thriller in a general sense. However, some of the story’s main focuses are the twisted and demented motivations of people, as well as the lengths some will go to sacrifice and cover up family misdeeds. Essentially, the Day family, consisting of a mother, a deadbeat father who comes and goes as he pleases, several daughters, and a son, are destitute and living on the family farm in a 1980’s Kansas town. One evening, Ben, the son, supposedly murders all of the family members except for Libby, who somehow makes it out alive.
Fast forward 25 years later. Libby is approached by a group obsessed with her family’s case, and due to her desperate grab for money, decides to meet with them to answer questions about a variety of topics related to her family’s demise. During that time, Libby begins to wonder if her brother was in fact the main culprit. She begins to unravel some of her preconceived notions that might have been fabricated by the psychologists, police and others in a way that made Ben an easy scapegoat. As she continues to investigate some of the key players in the case, consisting of family members and the supposed living victims of Ben, she realizes that a cover-up may have in fact been allowed to occur. During his teenage years, Ben was accused of molesting several fifth grade girls, and also was picked on by his high school classmates for being poor and wimpy, among other disturbing tendencies that will not be divulged.
Each chapter in the story tells of a specific scenario for a specific character. These chapters alternate back and forth from the 1980’s to the present. Additionally, the novel itself does a great job of varying from mundane exposition to manic page-turning goodness. And although the essential characterizations and happenings are similar to what one might find on an episode of The Jerry Springer Show or the latest installment of stories on Investigation Discovery, the desire to discover who and what were the motivating factors that led up to the story’s climax make for a compelling story.
Readers be warned: a few of the chapters go into fairly graphic detail of murders and mutilations.
This particular novel has a forthcoming movie adaptation starring Charlize Theron and Chloe Grace Moretz.
The Gaston College Libraries has a copy of this novel for checkout.
As always, please feel free to leave any comments and questions at the end of this post.
Gaston College Book Club 