Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (audio book review)

4 of 5 stars

I am feeling so incredibly unmotivated and since there are already a zillion reviews of this book here, there and everywhere, I shall be brief. Is there really a need for a zillion plot synopsis-ez, anyway? My lazy side says no, no, there’s definitely no need today.

I didn’t like the characters but I still liked the book. I don’t know why. I just did. I didn't like it quite as much as Gone Girl but it still kept me hooked. Please don’t ask me to explain. As I mentioned, I’m too lazy for all that today.



Libby, Ben, Melissa, Deandra, Runner and whoever else I’ve already forgotten? Yeah, they’re all jerks in their own little ways and are mostly horribly unlikable people, with all sorts of human failings. Only mom was sympathetic. That poor woman had terrible taste in men and a bad luck cloud hanging over her head but she did as best as she could to provide for her kidlets.

Libby is the main character and she’s a depressed, selfish, miserable mess of a woman who can’t seem to function in society if society is not paying her way. Ugh, spare me your boo-hoo-ery and get thee a job. I have no sympathy for this type of person but you don’t care about that. Anyhow, this is the story of unlikable Libby. When Libby was seven, her mother and two sisters were murdered. And yes, that is horrible but she’s now 31 and still trying to live off sympathy. Because Libby has run out of cash, she decides to accept an offer from a group of creepers called “The Kill Club” who live and breathe for secretive true crime conventions. They pay her to start digging into the events that destroyed her childhood. This finally gives her some oomph and she uncovers all kinds of ugly tidbits and secrets. Oops, I guess I cannot get through a review without rehashing some of the plot.

It was this darkness simmering just under the surface that I loved so very much about the story. It kept me guessing and it kept me reading and I couldn’t get enough of the deep, dark, awful secrets. Perhaps I am just as bad as those “kill club” freaks.

The story jumps back and forth between the present day and the days leading up to the massacre and is written in such a way that it hooked me instead of frustrating me. I listened to this on audio which I highly recommend if audio is your thing. There were several narrators and they all did the writing justice, adding emotion and nuance to the written word.

Can you enjoy a book even if you hate all of the characters in it, or am I some sort of freak?  

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