Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Dark Places

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!

Content Warnings

chris_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

reading_srsly's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark slow-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

3.25

* Multi-timeline

* Dark mystery

* Everybody sucks here

Libby Day was only seven when her family was brutally murdered. As the only blameless survivor, she’s thrust into the spotlight as empathetic donors throw money at her in exchange for sharing her story. She’s able to live lavishly, until the donations stop rolling in and she’s forced to take more drastic measures to maintain her job-free lifestyle. Even if it means taking a harder look at what happened twenty-five years ago, and the role she might have unwittingly played in it.

Originally, I picked up this book for the premise. With social media detectives on the rise, a more modern story on the topic easily rose to the top of my TBR. But there was something about the writing style that made it difficult for me to get into the story at first. The plot itself wasn’t bad, and the unique narrative device of reliving the past from the points of view of the other members of Libby’s family was a refreshing change from the typical mystery narrative. However, there were less clues to ‘solve along’ with Libby as the reader gets concrete insights into the past that are absent from the modern day interrogations.

While the characters felt real in the gritty way that you want to believe and uplift someone who’s been struggling, they were all so unfailingly twisted or self-destructive that after a while it almost felt like a caricature of a town. Nearly every character was unlikeable, with a thin sheen of patheticness and rare moments of humanity to keep the reader from giving up on them entirely.

Objectively, this was a good dark thriller - the average person who wants to face down the harsh realities of the world and read through gratuitous descriptions of the worst aspects of humanity will love this book. But subjectively, I think it went way over the top in a lot of places, and while I can appreciate that the author accomplished her goal in writing an incredibly dark and twisted mystery, I definitely wish the repulsiveness of the world had come across better in the official description.

Content Warnings

libby_lectiophile's review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

jo_in_bookland's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

A dark and bleak slow-burn thriller with many unlikeable characters.
The author really set the mood well with her vivid descriptions of the characters and the settings in Missouri and Kansas.
At times though, I found that there were too many unnecessary details.
I partially read, partially listened to this book (the four narrators did a great job).
Although I liked this book, it's my least favourite by the author (the only one I haven't read is The Grownup), with my favourite being Sharp Objects.
This is quite a dark, depressing and grizzly story so you might want to check TW.

Content Warnings

allisonnd's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Slow start but good ramp up. Really dark

Content Warnings

stellahadz's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This was a solid mystery novel -- in classic Gillian Flynn fashion, some aspects of the book were incredibly disturbing (see content warnings), but never so much that I stopped wondering how the story would turn out. The plot twist isn't nearly as shocking as the ones in Sharp Objects or Gone Girl (the former, by the way, probably being the best plot twist I've ever seen in any thriller novel), but I definitely didn't see it coming.

I felt pretty lukewarm about the whole "Satan worship" aspect of the story -- maybe I've listened to too much of the podcast You're Wrong About, which has several episodes dedicated to debunking Satanic Panic-era myths. (Side note: I'm very curious about whether that show's host, Sarah Marshall, has read this book!) I also wasn't a fan of the way Ben was essentially absolved of his behavior, but as far as we know he stays in prison, which is fine by me.

In an interestingly self-aware way, Dark Places addresses the morbid curiosity of true crime "fans," which sometimes spirals into boundary-crossing if not downright creepy and borderline abusive behavior towards survivors like Libby (although she cleverly spins that behavior to her own advantage). It would be interesting to see how different the story would be if it had been published in the era of social media and true-crime podcasts. Despite Libby describing herself as mean and unlikable, I couldn't help but feel for her and I enjoyed the dynamic of her friendship(?) with Lyle.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in "whodunnit" type stories and the theme of true crime (despite this story not being based on actual events), or anyone who enjoys Flynn's other work. Definitely check out the content warnings before reading, though, because certain plot points might be disturbing and distressing for some readers, even beyond what can normally be expected of a thriller novel.

Content Warnings

mirandahems's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

gets pretty dark there at the end

Content Warnings

More...