Bleak & Twisted
Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl became such a publishing sensation—and deservedly so—that one of her earlier books, Dark Places has pushed into the bestseller lists again.
Like the calculative protagonist of Gone Girl, the main character in this book too has plenty to be angry about. When Libby Day was 7, her 15-year-old brother, Ben, killed their mother and two older sisters; she remained “the lone survivor of the Prairie Massacre” – a tabloid darling.
The Days’ home life was far from ideal and the wretchedness seeped into her soul. “I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ.. I was raised feral, and I mostly stayed that way.”
The charity hand-outs that kept her going all these years are running out, so she takes up an invitation to appear at the Kill Club, an underground cult that follows true crime cases, only to discover that these crazies believe Ben to be innocent and want her to help them prove it, when it was her testimony that sent him to prison. There’s money to be had, but also, 24 years later, Libby wants to dig to the truth.
Flynn’s characters are so twisted, you are relieved that they live within the pages of her books. Dark Places is as bleak and macabre as can be.
Dark Places
By Gillian Flynn
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 349
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