Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Dark Places

I also enjoyed the switching perspectives that showed us Patty and Ben Day in third person limited. I also liked the Kill Club and I felt like it was satirizing true crime fans, but to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them actually are like that. Regardless, I was just happy to see Libby make a friend for once in Lyle even if she does just want his money.

Patty misinterpreting Ben’s list of names for his child with Diondra as him liking Krissi and other girls, the baby clothes as from his victims, and dyeing his hair as rebellion or something as opposed to something Diondra told him to do is really tragic and then she dies without ever realizing. It’s also really sad to read the missteps of Debby that led to her death.

Ben’s chapters are rough to read. We see him deeply struggling in the throes of poverty in Kinnakee, Missouri at only age fifteen while also trying to impress jackoffs like Trey (“I-barely-knew-Ben-but-I’ve-seen-his-dick”) and Diondra,

Ben’s older sort-of-girlfriend

. We can understand his pain and his resentment towards his mom and his father Runner.

Ben is fifteen and trying to impress his girlfriend and Trey even as they make fun of him and make him do things he really doesn’t want to do like kill a bull. As an adult, we see him as a forgiving and kind guy just happy to see his sister again, the only surviving family he has (Runner living in toxic waste doesn’t really count). It’s hilarious that he’s more forgiving of Libby’s testimony than grown women like Magda and co. At first even I felt like it’s making her out to be the bad guy if her testimony is false, but Ben was right: it’s clear she’s being coached and anyway it wasn’t that that convicted him. But he’s also deeply troubled and his behavior with Krissi Cates, a fifth grade girl, is abhorrent.

Fifteen and eleven is just weird as hell. At age fifteen, eleven was the age of my baby sister.

Eleven year olds were babies I should be watching out for and taking care of, not kissing even if they’re “attractive” (Gross, Ben). But the parallel of Krissi and Libby being coached by psychiatrists is great and how they connected near the end was nice.

However, when the back summary said Libby was back to being “chased by the killer”,

I sort of expected more chasing. Mostly, it’s Libby solving this whodunit with the help of Lyle and the KC. She asks Ben for help, but he’s clearly keeping some information close to his chest. So Libby finds Runner, Krissi’s mom and then Krissi, Trey, and then finally Diondra, who now has a daughter named Crystal, Libby’s niece. Near the end Crystal accidentally reveals she read from Michelle’s diary and that she must have been involved or know who was, so Diondra and Crystal try to kill her while Libby runs from the house to escape just like she did twenty five years ago. Revealing that the “Angel of Debt” was involved was really clever after introducing him much earlier on as this made-up sounding killer a lá the Smily Faced Killers in real life. Two killers was interesting, but it’s super hard to believe Ben would just let Diondra strangle Michelle for knowing she exists. Patty doesn’t exactly have the funds to hunt them down and Michelle is a child. And then the Angel of Debt killing Patty which ok, that was the plan, and then chopping up Debby…why exactly? She saw him? And he just never noticed Ben or Diondra? That kinda toned down the enjoyment of the eventual reveal of what happened that night. But the ending with Ben out, feeling like it was okay to be in jail for so long for penance of not saving his family (though he did save Libby from Diondra) and for having “something dark and violent” in him was very satisfying.

Content Warnings

chrisandbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a pretty slow build, but the twist was good. Most of the characters are unlikeable, but the dysfunction kind of draws you in. Throughout the story, I found myself simultaneously frustrated and bewildered with the characters’ actions, but at the end of the day, I still found myself rooting for them.

Content Warnings

More...