Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

158 reviews

dennistraub's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Violence, and Murder

allifaro's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

My word for it is just: gross. I think the story was well written, but not my cup of tea. I say gross because there were just details, I felt unecessary, but maybe they help paint the picture. It has a satisfying ending though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

hellishpelican's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The title is no joke. This book is dark. And I've read write a few King books. That said, it was a good pageturner that evoked a LOT of different feelings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual assault

Content warning: There are some really tough-to-get-through scenes involving an inappropriate relationship between a teen boy and an 11 year old girl involving kissing and masturbation.

katydied's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty

chris_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Minor: Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Fire/Fire injury

hsnails's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I should've known from the title that this would be a "dark" book, but I expected darkness like Flynn's other books. The main character, Libby, describes herself in such dark ways it was hard to take her seriously.


Despite this, I was enthralled with the plot. I enjoyed jumping through time, getting pieces of the puzzle along the way, gaining the dramatic irony as we learn things before Libby.


A portion of it did get too gory for me and I had to skip forward. But it didn't ruin the book.


Overall, I give it a 3/5. I felt that the middle dragged on a bit in an attempt to build the suspense, and by that point I couldn't help but laugh how "dark" it was, but I enjoyed the mystery and writing enough to stick through to the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Pregnancy

libby_lectiophile's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Gillian Flynn is truly a master of her craft. Dark Places is engrossing and keeps the reader turning pages. The story and plot are believable, but the pace stalls toward the middle and end of the book. 

I love her use of language in this quote, found in Chapter 11: 

While I stilll had the energy, I knifed bright yellow mustard onto my white bread, stacked thick smushy chunks of Velveeta on top, and swallowed the sandwich while negotiating with three different but equally bored phone operators to reach the Bert Nolan Group Home for Men.

The story is excellent for the first half of the book. The chapters alternate between present day, which is mainly told from Libby’s  point of view  (main character) and Jan 1985, leading up to the day that the murders happen. Libby, Ben (her accused brother) and her mother all have chapters from their first person point of view. This helps the story come together well. 

What I didn’t like is 1) the

unnecessary subplot that involved Ben being accused of molestation after he, at 15, kissed an 11 year old girl

; and 2) the decision to include satanic worship as an actual phenomenon underlying the murders. 
The long scene where

Ben axes a cow to death in graphic detail

is graphic, violent and completely superfluous to the story.  Finally, I hated the inclusion of

a random killer that was hired by Patty to kill her so that the kids would get life insurance

Patty isn’t the type of character that seems to fit with

hiring someone to stab and kill her at night where her children might possibly see her or find her dead

Final thought: 

Engrossing, well written story. Annoying subplot of molestation that doesn’t tie into the overall plot, unbelievable hit man hired by Patty to kill Patty, and most of all, too graphic and too gory with the satanic teenager angle. The scene where he butchers a cow does not tie into the ending nor provide a foundation for the ending. It’s just gory and graphic and makes you want to skip an entire 15 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, and Pregnancy

emmalikescats's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Murder

teddylouise00's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

HOLY FUCK. I just stayed up till 4am reading the last 100 pages, I couldn’t stop. Took me a little while to really get it going but when it goes it fucking FLIES. Devastating and heartbreaking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

rachels_lit_reviews's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia