Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

105 reviews

tallesttrees's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Murder

kingcrookback's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

This is my second Gillian Flynn after Sharp Objects, and while I rank Dark Places below Sharp Objects, I did enjoy this. It's well-paced and Flynn maintains the tension and intrigue throughout. I wasn't entirely surprised by the ending, largely because the hints were seeded throughout the story well enough that the reveal felt like it fell into place in a way that made sense - which is honestly more satisfying than twist ending geared toward pure shock. I think this might make for a decent reread for that reason. I also enjoyed the exploration of the unglamorous, more unsavory aspects of grief and trauma - Libby's anger, the sluggishness of her depression, her desire to isolate. Like Sharp Objects, this is great source material for a miniseries, in the right hands and with a good cast; shame the 2015 adaptation wasn't well-received.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

velv3tgoldmine's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

loved it loved it loved it until the ending…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

brittanygoodrich's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

sfettig19's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

olxvgxes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Incest and Vomit

suneaters'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was an interesting read. Libby comes off pretty unlikeable at first as a person, but as a character she’s great and so is her narration.

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

livlovread's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

hollymileham's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

very good and gripping im now mildly late for uni...
if theres something about me its that i love past/present pov it gets me every time, the ending was unexpected and i think the story was paced very well. some of it was very disturbing for a little while

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

taffygirl45's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail