Gillian Flynn, author of “Gone Girl,” has managed to write yet another intriguing novel. “Dark Places” chronicles the life of Libby Day, the sole survivor of a massacre in her own home, which claimed the lives of her mother and two sisters.
Similar to “Gone Girl,” the novel bounces back and forth between the past and the present. The story is centered on the Day Massacre and its sole survivor, Libby. The story everyone believes is that Libby’s brother, Ben, was a Satan worshipper and killed his mother and two young sisters in a satanic ritual.
Ben was accused of molesting a young girl just days before the massacre. As a young child, Libby testified against her brother and ultimately sent him to prison.
Twenty-five years later, Libby visits her brother in prison for the first time and discovers that he does not blame her for falsely accusing him. Libby notices that Ben seems to be comfortable in prison, serving his time for another reason that he does not reveal.
Libby has lived off of donations from other people her whole life and begins to run out of money. She finds an easy pay roll when she meets Lyle, a man who runs a “kill club.” This club is obsessed with famous murders and killers and some members go so far as to solve cold murder cases.
Lyle pays Libby for information and artifacts from the massacre, but as they both dig deeper into the life of her mother and brother, they find information that leads them to suspect that it was not just a planned set of murders carried out by a serial killer.
Flynn has a gift for writing novels with unpredictable plot twists. Her characters are so detailed that you feel as if you know them and have them completely figured out.
“Dark Places” is narrated by many different characters and switches between the past and present. Knowing this, you would think it would be easy to get lost along the way or even become bored. Instead, the constant change in timeframe and characters keeps the reader interested.
Once again, Flynn waits until the very end of the novel to reveal the truth, and only then is the reader able to put all of the pieces, woven throughout the story, together.
I would recommend reading “Dark Places” when you have a lot of spare time, because it is a book that is definitely hard to put down.
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