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.

The Return of Book Club Mondays (on a Wednesday) – "Gone Girl"

Let’s just say that I haven’t had the time to read a book per week in a few months. It is a bit of a high expectation, given how much everyone has going on these days! But I’m going to do my best to get back on some kind of book review schedule – whether it’ll be every week or not I can’t promise, but I’ll try. 

Also, this post is my 80^th post on An Epic Liz! It seems like kind of a silly milestone, but it isn’t to me!

Gone Girl was a book I’d heard about or read about on a book list somewhere, and I downloaded it a couple of months ago with every intention of reading it right away, but yeah, life. Written by Gillian Flynn, who has written two other novels (Dark Places and Sharp Objects, for reference) that I haven’t read, I looked at the positive reviews and decided to give it a shot. 

Here is the jacket description, thanks to gillian-flynn.com:

Marriage can be a real killer. One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn, takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. As The Washington Post proclaimed, her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit with deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick Dunne’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick Dunne isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but hearing from Amy through flashbacks in her diary reveal the perky perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister Margo at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was left in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

Employing her trademark razor-sharp writing and assured psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

The first thing that I noticed was the voice of the novel wasn’t like most others. The story progressed by journal entries, basically, entries by both husband and wife. The husband being Nick Dunne, the husband of Amy, the woman who had gone missing. The entries switched off between Nick and Amy’s view points. Though it seems like a weird way to read a book, it really isn’t – not weird like Chuck Palahniuk’s Pygmy was, for sure. Each entry chronicled a different day, both prior to Amy’s disappearance and after. It was separated into three different sections to dictate the place in the story, as well, which made it easier.

Both had had bad luck and wound up back in Nick’s hometown in North Carthage, Missouri, which, for New York born and raised Amy, was difficult. The beginning of the book went through how they found themselves in their current situations, and the remainder was the story progressing from both viewpoints, both Nick and Amy, as Amy disappeared and the reader was left wondering what happened to her. As the story progressed, so did Nick's character. From doting, loving husband who thought he had gotten so lucky to a man who nobody believed. Both characters took a sinister approach at times, and the story blew itself open once the truth about the relationship between Nick and Amy came out. The plot progressed effortlessly, and I wanted to know what was going to happen so badly I just kept reading! Before I knew it, hours had gone by!

Unlike most books I read, I did not read much about this book before getting into it. In a world where everything has been reviewed a thousand times on the Internet, it was a bit refreshing to not have any idea what was coming next. One thing I will say, however, is this book absolutely kept me at the edge of my seat, and I finished it in just over one day! I don’t want to give too much away, but there were definitely some sucker punches thrown in for the reader who thought they knew exactly what was going on. 

This being my first read by Gillian Flynn, I will say that it was absolutely fantastic. I could not put it down, even if I wanted to. I had to keep reading, keep figuring out exactly what was going on. One hundred percent one of the most enthralling books I have read in a long while. In that, I will definitely be looking into her other works to see how they compare to Gone Girl. 

Read any good books lately? Don't hesitate to offer suggestions! Also, thank you for reading. I say it all the time, but it is definitely 100% appreciated.