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A review by parksidereads
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
5.0
You know when you finally peel away all the papery layers of the skin off an onion and then go to cut into it only to find you’ve missed the slimy translucent film that still needed to be pulled away? Well… That’s how you feel reading Gillian Flynn’s novel Dark Places… The twisting plot, horrific people, and ever changing suspects leave an icky sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach. Even so, Flynn has the ability to make the reader connect with these characters with little to no redeeming values. Why must I yearn for them to find a ‘good ending’?
This is the second Gillian Flynn book I’ve read (the first one being Gone Girl) and am happy to report it is yet another page turner. Dark Places takes you through the days leading up to and of a grousome butchering of a mother and her daughters in 1985 while at the same time you’re spending time with the one surviving daughter, Libby Day, in present time as she looks back on that horrific day and to discover what really happened. If you love a good ‘whodunit’ mystery and you’re not at all squeamish, this IS your next read.
The deeper I got into the book the more my mind was consumed by gritty and raw thoughts, especially when I was reading late at night. As I fell asleep with the characters, their actions, their thoughts, and what they were going to do next my psyche jumbled everything together and allowed these characters to leave their fictional existence and enter mine… I’ve always found this a sign of a good book, when you get so engrossed the lines between fictional and reality blur you’re forced to step back and remind yourself the characters do not exists. I immediately started reading Flynn’s novel Sharp Objects after finishing Dark Places and as I was drifting asleep reading the pages I kept inserting Diondra (a character from Dark Places) into the pages… At that point I knew (1) Flynn had a done an amazing job at hooking her reader and (2) I was yearning for more out of Dark Places. As with Gone Girl Flynn had taking her ending and set it right next to a beautiful gift box and ribbon… Not quite nice enough to put in the box and tie the bow… leaving me feeling cheated of that ‘good ending’ (with no lose ends) I desired.
This is the second Gillian Flynn book I’ve read (the first one being Gone Girl) and am happy to report it is yet another page turner. Dark Places takes you through the days leading up to and of a grousome butchering of a mother and her daughters in 1985 while at the same time you’re spending time with the one surviving daughter, Libby Day, in present time as she looks back on that horrific day and to discover what really happened. If you love a good ‘whodunit’ mystery and you’re not at all squeamish, this IS your next read.
The deeper I got into the book the more my mind was consumed by gritty and raw thoughts, especially when I was reading late at night. As I fell asleep with the characters, their actions, their thoughts, and what they were going to do next my psyche jumbled everything together and allowed these characters to leave their fictional existence and enter mine… I’ve always found this a sign of a good book, when you get so engrossed the lines between fictional and reality blur you’re forced to step back and remind yourself the characters do not exists. I immediately started reading Flynn’s novel Sharp Objects after finishing Dark Places and as I was drifting asleep reading the pages I kept inserting Diondra (a character from Dark Places) into the pages… At that point I knew (1) Flynn had a done an amazing job at hooking her reader and (2) I was yearning for more out of Dark Places. As with Gone Girl Flynn had taking her ending and set it right next to a beautiful gift box and ribbon… Not quite nice enough to put in the box and tie the bow… leaving me feeling cheated of that ‘good ending’ (with no lose ends) I desired.