Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I have read Gone Girl a while ago and I just adored that book. I thought it was really clever and shocking, with an amazing story and on top of all that - ingenious writing.

Naturally, I decided to pick another one of her novels, and I ended up choosing - Dark Places.

This is a story about Libby Day, whose family (mother and two sisters) was killed back when she was seven years old. Her own testimony put her brother, Ben, behind bars. After 24 years, Libby is sort of mindlessly wandering through life and just basically living off of the money she got from donations. After she starts running out, she starts meeting with this sort of weird "club", composed of people who are fascinated with murder mysteries. They sort of get her questioning everything that happened throughout that night.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Flynn's writing is so atmospheric and eerie, and you are transported into this story, instantly, from the first page, It's gripping and holds your attention throughout. You just want to keep reading, and you don't want to put the book down until you know what is going on. The story is told both from the present day perspective in which we see how Libby is dealing with everything, but also we see the events of the night of the murders. And that day, back in 1985, we see from the perspective of her older brother Ben and her mother Patty. This is a very clever way to tell this story. Because both (or all three) perspectives lead to the culmination and "the reveal". They all sort of intertwine together and it just works perfectly.

Gillian Flynn has a very strong sense of the human nature. She is able to write such flawed characters. I think that this book doesn't really have any really likeable characters. But Flynn is still able to make you feel interested in these characters and care for their destinies. And even if you don't you still want to know what happens.

The only down side to the book was that for me, personally, the "mystery solution" got kind of, sort of obvious about half way into the book. But that didn't ruin the book for me. I still think it was pretty brilliant.

Definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a thriller mystery and above anything, to anyone who enjoys really good writing.

Rating: ✯✯✯✯