Book Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Title: Dark Places
Author: Gillian Flynn
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Kindle for iPad
Books I've read this year: 94

Dark Places is right. On the one hand, I've had so much fun reading Gillian Flynn's three books this summer. They were all terrifying and put a human face on evil in a way I hadn't seen before. I mean, the people in her books are crazy. Specifically, Flynn writes some really freaky women-- women who kill, women who don't know how to grow up, women who destroy and seem not to have souls. And because of that, I'm also sort of glad to get a break from these devious and damaged characters.

In Dark Places, Libby Day is the only member of her family who survived when her brother killed her mother and two older sisters more than twenty years ago. Or at least that's how the story goes. When Libby, who has never had to grow up, get a job, or take care of herself (she's been living on donations her whole life) comes to the end of her gravy train, she finds that she can finance her lifestyle by hiring herself out to a group of people who believe her older brother, Ben, to be innocent. As Libby delves deeper into the story for the first time, she's surprised at what she finds.

I love the style of narration in Dark Places. It alternates between chapters of what happened on the day of the murders (from several different points of view) and chapters of what happens in the present day as Libby starts sleuthing, and the stories connect in the final chapters.