Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

 

Rating (1-5) - 📘📘📘

Genre - Suspense, Crime Thriller

Format - Paperback

Length - 370 Pages

*Amazon Blurb*

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas". As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived, and famously testified that her 15-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who've long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details, proof they hope may free Ben, Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she'll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club...and maybe she'll admit her testimony wasn't so solid after all.

As Libby's search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby's doomed family members, including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town.

Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started...on the run from a killer.

*My Review*

There isn't anything more horrible than a child witnessing her family being killed, but how much did Libby actually see? Libby shuts herself off from the world and survives off money that people had donated to a fund for her. Unfortunately Libby couldn't hold a job and the funds grew dry. I kept wondering why she wasn't getting some kind of services to help her as she clearly has psychological issues. In any event, she gets approached by member from a "Kill Club" that tries to solve unsolved murders. Libby agrees to reconnect with people from her past simply because she needs the money to live off. Eventually the story of what really happened that night comes out. 

The story has some pretty gruesome scenes in it so if you are squirmy about those, you'll either want to skip them or the book altogether. At no point did I like Libby as a person. The only person that I sort cared for was Libby's mom. She was trying her best to provide a better life for her kids and even in the end she failed.