Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Dark Places

Mannnnn. After reading two of my least enjoyed books of 2021 this was such a breath of fresh air.
I previously read Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects- a book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I honestly had no idea what to expect from this book, but, boy oh boy did Flynn do her thing, again.

The plot of this book was engrossing from the jump. I loved how typically there is a guilty character who is played to be innocent of a crime or action. Flynn flipped this script and instead has it a character who is innocent (at least of the crime which they are convicted of) sitting in prison. I thought that this was such a nice way to have a plot be set up as it is immediately interesting. As a reader and consumer of true crime media, I am painfully aware of false testimonies and lying to courts, but, this was something that I had yet to have encountered in a book.
I appreciated the way the story was told wherein it switched from the main protagonist- Libby day in the present, one of two survivors of the annihilation of her family or other characters in the past. I thought that this was an exceptionally clever way of writing this mystery. There are other books who have attempted this, but, I feel gave too much away to the point where the mystery was immediately shattered. In this case, Flynn does a great job of upholding the mystery throughout, which is hard to do, but she does it well.

I feel that, having read two of Flynn's works, now, that she shines in making characters feel real. However, they are not all likable. Many of her characters are terrible people. And the ones that aren't have suffered a tremendous amount of tragedy and trauma. I think that Flynn writes complex characters so fucking well that it feels like real people. Real people would act in a way that would behoove themselves, not so much the story, and that is what happens in this story. I felt so many times like I was hoping that Libby would do something- but, she didn't- but that is how traumatized people act in my experience. I appreciated how Libby's PTSD is part of her character rather than being a plot convenience to get her to act in one way or another. Flynn absolutely writes characters consistently which is very nice.
And, when she wants you to dislike someone she actively makes you dislike them- fuck Diondra and Trey.
I have to say that Ben's character, while on the surface is frustratingly stagnant, is one of the characters that I was s most interested in.
He is shown to be a non-entity, but, his indecisiveness was directly responsible for the death of his younger sister. I think that he is a great depiction of what it looks like for an adolescent person to be swept up by means of peer pressure, and the hope and cancerous desire to fit in- by whatever means necessary.

I found this book sad. Not only sad but truly gut-wrenchingly sad. The depiction of poverty, generational and otherwise, as well as trauma and how people deal with it, it is so sad.
Libby's mother was driven to assisted suicide that led to the death of herself and her daughter in an absolutely horrendous way.
I found the final chapters to be utterly terrifying. I didn't know whether Libby was going to pull through or not- a symbolic sacrifice for aiding her brother's incarceration? And, reading the actual firsthand account of the massacre was stomach churchingly terrifying.
I think that Flynn writes violence so well because she writes it for what it is- violence. It already is scary. It already is upsetting and horrifying, and she doesn't romanticize it.

I thought that the ending of the book was a pretty good twist- I was constantly curious who was going to be the real killer- and for a while I thought Ben was going to come out to be the real killer but would have been freed akin to Primal Fear, but that is not how it played out.
I thought that the inclusion of 2 separate and unrelated killers was a great twist, though I do wish that the second killer was someone who we had come to know a little longer.
Though, Peggy's death was absolutely soul shattering as it inadvertently led to the death of her daughter.

Overall, I can safely say that I am a fan of Gillian Flynn. Her characters are always interesting to read, and the stories are such a great ride- emotional, dark, and ultimately the progenitor of a proud, albeit dirty and stained grief.

Sincerely,

Anxiously excited for your next work!

Content Warnings