Book Club Monday #17: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

After reading Gone Girl, I knew I had to check out the rest of Gillian Flynn's novels. Luckily, I got both Sharp Objects and Dark Places for Christmas from my sister! I opted to take the plunge and go for the longer one first, that being Dark Places. 

The book had the same familiar, haunting tone that Gone Girl did, and the same intriguing voice. One voice being that of Libby Day in the present, and the other being of Ben Day, her brother, and her mother, Patty Day. They switched off, very similar to the way Gone Girl was written.

Libby Day is the only survivor of a massacre in her family's home when she was a child, which took the lives of her mother and two sisters. As an adult, she lives a troubled, sheltered life mostly by herself.  Her brother, Ben, who was fifteen at the time, was sent to prison on Libby's own testimony of his guilt. The murders were called "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas" by the media, as two members of the family had been killed via axe, and one had been strangled. Libby had been living alone for many years, on a fund created by a book she wrote as a child. A group called the Kill Club found her twenty-five years later. The Kill Club is a true crime enthusiasts' group, who finds Libby and who, after meeting her and purchasing both memorabilia and time from her, start to convince her to follow the truth behind that night - the night she referred to as 'darkplace'.

This being the second book I've read by Gillian Flynn, I can say that I really and truly enjoy her writing style. I enjoy the varying viewpoints, with the story coming from two different angles and continuing to move and build up. Dark Places and Gone Girl both used the same writing style, but both told completely different stories. As the end of the story grew closer and closer, it was easier to see what the truth behind the murders was, but it was not one hundred percent obvious until the last hundred pages of the book, at least. One thing I absolutely love about Flynn's style is her way to maintain interest and not let a story get drab or old. Her writing style haunts, much like her stories, and it's a rare quality to find in a lot of authors - a quality I admire about her books most of all.