Saturday

Dark Places

by Gillian Flynn

"The actual stuff my family owned, those boxes under my stairs, I can't quite bear to look at. I like other people's things better. They come with other people's history."

Dark Places tells the story of the days surrounding a gruesome murder, allegedly committed by a teenage boy named Ben Day, as a type of sacrifice to the devil. Each chapter is from one of the characters points of view.  There's Ben's story, along with his mother's, his aunt's, his sister Debbie's, Michelle's, and his littlest sister Libby's.  Their narratives paint a grim picture of their impoverished life in Kinnakee, Kansas. These stories are inter-spliced with modern-day Libby's story.  Libby is the only surviving member of the Day family that was present on the night of the massacre, other than Ben Day - prisoner and murderer. Out of money and filled with anger and depression, Libby is forced to confront her past, think about the 'dark places' of her childhood and revisit the horrifying night when her big brother killed her sisters and mother.

This story was gripping, haunting, disturbing, and thought-provoking.  Did Ben actually kill his whole family as a sacrifice?  Was he really disturbed like everyone said?  Did he mean to kill Libby too, or did he mean to save her? Did Ben commit the murders at all?  Was Libby over-coached by lawyers as a young child to wrongly accuse Ben of murder?  

Flynn did it to me again.  I was obsessed with this story and with trying to figure it out.  After Gone Girl's intense plot twist, I was searching for clues.  I was pretty proud of myself; I thought that I had the ending all figured out. . . Or did I?

Read it. That's all. 
♥ Meg xoxo