Dark Places | Book Review

 - I really liked it. 

      Gillian Flynn is definitely one of my new favorite authors. Her writing style is brilliant, in a way it even reminds me of Stephen King and his thrillers. Dark Places is a mystery novel that keeps you turning the pages fast until the very end. It still took me quite a long time to finish it because it is merely impossible to read it while you are alone. So surround yourself with sunshine, teddy bears and people you love before reaching out for this book, otherwise you’ll feel depressed and suicidal. This is definitely not a complaint, in fact just the contrary – it shows how efficient is Flynn in her writing.

      What I enjoyed most about it was the narration – the story was told from different points of view, alternating from the present to the past. Sounds confusing but it really is not - it just contributes a lot to the mystery of the murders. Hearing about the events from different perspectives really engages you as reader – you see how everyone had different experiences, how not everything is plain black and white and that sometimes what may seem like a small, simple mistake can lead to horrible consequences. The narration confuses you but not in a bad manner - instead it makes you wonder and consider who do you personally believe is the killer. The facts are just laid out in front of your eyes, nothing is said directly, just hinted, and it is all left to you to figure out until the very end.

      The characters are full of life, in a way that it makes you feel you practically know them. Throughout the whole story you change your emotions towards them – you are suspicious at first, but then you get to know them and empathize with their fears, mistakes and desires. Libby, the main character, has gone to hell and back at such a sensible age. It leaves her broken – she can’t have a normal relationship, she can’t sleep without the light on and she just can’t lead a normal life. So she wants to find out who did this to her, who broke her life by killing her family. Ben, her brother, who is in prison for murdering his mother and two sisters, is a disturbed boy from what we see of him as a teenager. The chapters from his point of view are so unsettling and frightening that you are convinced that he did this horrible crime. But as the story goes you are introduced to all this other possible scenarios which seem evenly convincing. So who in fact killed the Days?

       The only reason I give this book four stars is the ending. In my opinion, it was rather dull and not satisfying. The story was going so interesting and engaging and suddenly, within twenty pages, it was all revealed to us. It just seemed unrealistic for the events to happen so quickly – catching the murderer and him confessing so fast. My expectations were already really high and I expected something more vivid that will leave me out of breath. It is still a pretty amazing book – if you liked Gone Girl, definitely go check this out, it deserves more praise.