Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

Ali Mark
Jan 19, 2016
4 min read

Published in 2009.

Pages: 345.

Number of books by author: 18 Novels.

Genre: Fiction.

After Libby's family is murdered, she receives a lump sum of cash that she intends to live off of for as long as possible. And when the money starts to run dry, she takes advantage of someone interested in a meet-and-greet of sorts with the surviving daughter as a payday of sorts. But when the group opens up the opportunity for more investigations, she finds that the payday is less important than the outcome of the investigation.

You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:

Family life
Murder
Police/Detective Work
Amateur Detective Work
Book-to-Movie

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.91. I think it was more deserving of a 3.00.

For a Best Selling author, with two movies (including this one), I was expecting my socks to be blown off my feet and into outer space. They more or less slid off in the last 50 pages. I was really disappointed with this book. The first 75 pages were simply a struggle. It was like watching paint dry in the dark. It was so repetitive - my family's dead, my brother did it (this isn't a spoiler, don't worry), and I'm running out of money, wah. It was simply a pity-party that I didn't think was going to end. Once we got into the gritty investigations, things started to be more compelling.

It seems to be a nuisance lately, and maybe it's because it's happening in a lot of the books I'm reading, or maybe it's just the way they're being done - but the flashbacks in this book were exhausting. Every other chapter is a flashback by one of three characters. And maybe 10% of, what, 100 pages or so felt like it was actually relevant to the book. A lot of it was showing personality traits and bonds (or lack thereof), but it could've been done in a million different ways. This was just annoying. I knew that I was going to be reading someone's flashback or diary entry or whatever you'd like to call it since everyone's basically dead in this book. I don't like predictability in a book - I

want excitement, I want energy, and when you know you're going to read a flashback, and most of it is just filler, it doesn't give you much to look forward to. Now, that 10% that was powerful and helpful to the story, I'd love to see that continued in a better outlet. It was really intriguing when you got something that led you to believe you figured out the killer before Libby did. But majority of the flashbacks were giving you details that weren't crucial to the story line so Libby did her own reminiscing in the beginning, and throughout when meeting with other individuals.

And that was one of the best parts of the book - was the way in which each character stood alone. There was no question that each character had their own personality, with their own flaws and quirks. Even the characters who were dead, that we'll never meet, stood out in their own unique way. If I were to have to map out characters, the personality traits were all so specific to that character that there wouldn't be much (if any) overlap. And when you're dealing with the number of characters we saw (probably 10 or more), each one had a specific aura about them. I never felt that character traits were recycled from one another or that the author was bored with trying to get creative about a new character's presence. All of the details were really well illustrated - never questioning what end was up.

The amateur detective component of this novel was probably what made it for me. I think, whether as kids or as adults, we're always trying to piece things together - trying to figure out the final piece to a problem. (And it helps that my dream job would be the BAU of the FBI.) This book really nailed the detective work, even though it was initially a hesitant investigation for a quick buck. But I think that's what made Libby's character so likable. In the beginning, she knew what was truth and then as people questioned her with their own personal investigations, she unfolded her own investigation to prove that what she did many years ago was more than right. It was really cool to see her exhaust herself with this lead or that, breaking down doors and pathways that she wouldn't otherwise done if money hadn't been the initial interest. It never felt as though she was a professional, but it definitely was noted that she had a knack for piecing things together and that she had resources the average person wouldn't because of her relationship to the murders.

The Movie: I decided to watch the movie, despite it's low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes (25%). It was certainly shot like a low-budget film, which kind of fits in with the middle-of-nowhere theme. I think it did the book justice... worth a "watch-after-you-read" type of book.