Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
Excellent writing, suspenseful, and kept me engaged throughout. I could hardly put this down, and was eager to see where the plot would go. I started not feeling a connection to the main character, Libby, due to her complete apathy and inability to function in today's society, however the author slowly pulled me in to her story and made her more relatable as the story progressed. I am eager to read more by this author.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
One thing about Miss Gillian Flynn...she's going to write a well-rounded, character-driven thriller. And one thing about me...I'm going to eat it up.
I realized after the first chapter that I had actually read this back in 10th grade (8 years ago). I was really shocked that I'd forgotten about it until I reached the last 40% of the book. Now I know why. But I want to mention first that this book is good. It's very dark and gruesome. Flynn's characters are all well-rounded. It can be unrealistic to have most characters be psychologically unstable, but Flynn pulled it off. A lot of times with these kind of books, authors will just "wing" disturbing characters by throwing a bunch of random sociopathic traits at them. But you can tell that Flynn did her RESEARCH.
My main issue with this is that the pacing did not match the revelations. The pace was very slow after the 60% mark. We were finding out so many things about the tragic (yet disturbing) murders, and yet the story was going at a snail pace. The end was very unsatisfying (and rushed) and felt a bit uncharacteristic of Libby in my opinion.
All in all, it was a good book. Not my favorite by no means, but I'm still excited to read more books by Flynn.
Lots of weird stuff in here, so definitely look up the trigger warnings.
Audiobook review: 4/5
The woman narrator did a good job. Her voice was actually pleasant (except when she did Patty's dialogue). The male narrator (the one who took care of Ben's POV chapters) was extremely annoying. His voice was extremely monotonous and boring. For his chapters, I switched to my Kindle because i didn’t want to deal with the narrator’s voice.
I realized after the first chapter that I had actually read this back in 10th grade (8 years ago). I was really shocked that I'd forgotten about it until I reached the last 40% of the book. Now I know why. But I want to mention first that this book is good. It's very dark and gruesome. Flynn's characters are all well-rounded. It can be unrealistic to have most characters be psychologically unstable, but Flynn pulled it off. A lot of times with these kind of books, authors will just "wing" disturbing characters by throwing a bunch of random sociopathic traits at them. But you can tell that Flynn did her RESEARCH.
My main issue with this is that the pacing did not match the revelations. The pace was very slow after the 60% mark. We were finding out so many things about the tragic (yet disturbing) murders, and yet the story was going at a snail pace. The end was very unsatisfying (and rushed) and felt a bit uncharacteristic of Libby in my opinion.
All in all, it was a good book. Not my favorite by no means, but I'm still excited to read more books by Flynn.
Lots of weird stuff in here, so definitely look up the trigger warnings.
Audiobook review: 4/5
The woman narrator did a good job. Her voice was actually pleasant (except when she did Patty's dialogue). The male narrator (the one who took care of Ben's POV chapters) was extremely annoying. His voice was extremely monotonous and boring. For his chapters, I switched to my Kindle because i didn’t want to deal with the narrator’s voice.
This book was disturbing like sharp objects but it didn’t hit as good as a thriller.
dark
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was super excited because ‘Sharp Objects’ is one of my all time favourite books but Dark Places truly didn’t compare. I’ll start off with the good, Flynn is absolutely amazing with creating a dreary southern gothic esque atmosphere which makes the reader feel slightly less sane. Then I always really enjoy how her raw, gritty and somewhat unlikeable her protagonists are.
“I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.”
Despite there being some things I enjoyed there was also a lot that fell off for me. I found the constant switching between the past and present really took out any suspense and momentum for me so I wasn’t quite motivated to read on. Then I found the reasons for the murders and the conclusion quite random and anti climactic. Lastly, throughout this book we’re somewhat trying to be conscience of Ben’s innocence but honestly he was such a horrible person he was well deserved to be locked up.
“I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.”
Despite there being some things I enjoyed there was also a lot that fell off for me. I found the constant switching between the past and present really took out any suspense and momentum for me so I wasn’t quite motivated to read on. Then I found the reasons for the murders and the conclusion quite random and anti climactic. Lastly, throughout this book we’re somewhat trying to be conscience of Ben’s innocence but honestly he was such a horrible person he was well deserved to be locked up.