Dark Places

I think a 4.5 rounded up. Can’t deny how well this came together and how little I had figured out about the ending.

What hurts the story is that it’s a bit dated. There are some false/exaggerated sexual assault allegations that are very pre-#MeToo. It also drags on a bit too long by the end.

But I found myself interested from the beginning. None of the POVs are especially likable, but I was sympathetic to Libby and Patty, especially since Libby reads so clearly as someone suffering from depression. The characterization in general is really strong, which I find uncommon in thrillers.

I found myself understanding some components of the ending ahead of time, but I could not fully flesh it out. That made for an enjoyable time with the reveal. I don’t know that you could guess everything before the end, which might bother some readers.

Definitely one of the best written of the the thrillers I’ve read!

That sure was a book I read!

There are a lot of things I could comment on-- the weird inaccuracy with what I know of the true crime community, given that literally all my friends are true crime freaks-- but whatever. I read this book after Sharp Objects because I wanted to figure out something that's been bugging me since chapter two of SO.

Does Gillian Flynn hate women, or is her protagonist just a female misogynist? It makes sense for Camille, less so for Libby, but Libby seems to hate fucking everyone. And, you know, that's a style. If you wanna write everyone like you're JK Rowling describing Rita Skeeter, it's a choice.

But, that question solved, I'm left waving my hand at these deus ex machina murderer characters. Why do they murder? Because they're murderers! Anyone can just be completely unhinged, for no fucking reason, as the plot demands it. I'm sure it ties up lose ends, but like... it always pulls me out of it because the utter murderyness is the same. They're just full of brutality, because.

Needless to say, I'm reading Gone Girl next.

pros:
— every scene between libby and ben was intense and emotional and the discomfort/relief present was portrayed beautifully
— realistic depiction of sibling dynamics is always appreciated

cons:
— the whodunnit sucked and made no sense and the mom was so stupid and even if it was desperation or whatever did she really not think that at least one of her kids might wake up and be like "who is this random person in our house" and DIE
— the book got very miserable and very boring by the middle of the story and libby really just isn't that fun of a main character and understand i am very forgiving of imperfect main female leads but it took a long time for me to believe that libby cared about her siblings at all (especially her sisters, which, not going to lie, rubbed me the wrong way because she grew up believing her BROTHER murdered them)
— gillian flynn is the gone girl author right? i don't think she likes women. like at all. diondra is the obvious example of this but the fact that libby is somehow the special magical sibling that ben liked and they have this like... undying connection even two decades later... hmmm...
— ok if it isn't obvious i am very rubbed that ben did not like his other siblings more and even libby took 4/5 of the entire damn book to confess any emotional attachment to michelle and debby like this book would have been way better if i knew libby actually liked her sisters early on
— like come on the entire premise of this book rides on the fact that libby was the sister that survived because if it had been debby that had lived none of this would have happened
— all the adults in this book were kind of stupid and here's the thing. you have a book from the perspective of kids, right? and the proper way to handle this kind of dynamic is to obviously place them side-by-side against the adults in their life that failed them and examine what went wrong in a scooby-doo fashion of "the adults are useless". that didn't happen here, not only were the adults useless but there was also no real feeling of "the kids didn't deserve what happened to them" until near the end
— and even THEN the character i'm talking about (ben) immediately fucking ruins himself. like, for two whole seconds, in the scene with him writing down krissi day (i thought this was good writing actually) and some realization that he was just planning his daughter's life--i thought, wow, ben is actually a good guy? and everyone kind of ruined his life? and he is the worst treated character and definitely has my heart? and then the reveal with him covering up for michelle's murder happened and my sympathy died.