Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Overview

Finished- 12/03/24   Platform- Purchased on Kindle

       Another amazing book from the bestselling author of "Gone Girl" and "Sharp Objects." I read this book alongside my wife and I got to say, it took my breath away. I could not put it down, desperate for more info on what happened to this family. The murder of the Day family in the early morning hours of a cold January morning in 1986. 2 young girls, Debbie and Michelle Day, along with their mother Patty Day, were found brutally murdered in their Missouri farmhouse. The youngest of the family, Libby Day, pointed the finger at the oldest, Ben Day. Decades later, she starts to wonder if maybe she was coerced into that statement. That maybe things didn't happen how she remembers them. This book bounces between the present with Libby searching for answers and the past, slowly walking you through that day.

      Underneath the horrors that is molestation, murder, drugs, and Satan worshipping is an amazing well-paced mystery that will keep you up at night, just guessing at 'who dunnit.' 

      “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.”

STOP HERE AND READ THE BOOK IF YOU'D LIKE. THE NEXT PART CONTAINS SPOILERS, OR BE A LITTLE REBEL LIKE I KNOW YOU ARE AND READ ON.

****SPOILERS****

     My belief that Ben had nothing to do with the murders definitely wavered over time. This book made you think one thing and the next chapter, something new is revealed and changes your whole mind. I did not see Patty staging her own murder for the life insurance though. I know she was doing what she thought was best but there are always other options then assisted suicide. I would've bet money on Runner being part of it. He was so scummy the whole book, human version of a piece of trash. Gillian Flynn is impeccable at writing the nitty gritty of the darkest of society. You love and hate her characters all at the same time. Libby's internal debate on whether she made the right choice all those years ago, weighs on her. She believes she knows what she saw but the more she found out about that fateful night, made her second guess, all at the expense of Bens life. Ben truly believes, even though he wasn't the one to kill Michele, that he should pay for it. He sat by all while Diondre killed her, staying silent when his sister slowly slipped away. When Libby found Diondra living under the assumed name Polly Palm, Diondra and her daughter, Crystal, attempted to kill her when she figured out what really happened. It was all because of Libby's kleptomania, that the DNA on Diondra's hairbrush she stole, connected her to the original crimes. This book had so much going on, it was hard to know what was relevant and what was just added for shock value, until the very end. I believe that this will be a book that will stick with me for years, the kind of book that I will compare to others in the same genre.  I absolutely loved it and I'm eager to hear what everyone else thinks of it. I give this book a resounding 5 stars and 100 percent recommend.