Book Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Libby Day was just seven years old when her evidence put her fifteen-year-old brother behind bars.
Since then, she had been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?
She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.
Who did massacre the Day family?

(plot summary from Goodreads)

This was the first book I read after taking a long break from regular reading due to exams, and I am so glad it was the first one I chose. Dark Places is the second novel by Gillian Flynn, her first being titled Sharp Objects (which I am yet to read), and her third being Gone Girl (which it seems that everyone has read). I don’t want this to become a review of Gone Girl but I would say that both novels are equally as good, and I devoured both of them in a matter of hours.  

As the title suggests, Dark Places is, well, a very dark novel. The plot centres around Libby Day, whose family were brutally murdered when she was just seven years old. The narrative switches between her brother Ben and her mother Patricia in the hours before the murders, as well as Libby in the present tense, as she tries to find out what happened during that fateful night. Splitting the narrative between three characters is a strong device because it really helps to keep the novel enthralling, by slowly releasing small hints, as well as red herrings. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Libby is far from a reliable narrator- she is almost bankrupt after spending the money she earned from public donations and book deals, and she is unwilling to seek employment because her anxiety sometimes renders her unable to leave her house.

Indeed, she only tries to find answers about her family’s deaths because she is promised money by the ‘Kill Club’, a group of people obsessed with famous murders. This was one aspect of the plot that I didn’t really like- the Kill Club seemed too unrealistic and just a convenient way of spurring the protagonist into action, rather than a legitimate reason. Despite this, I liked the fact that Libby was an unreliable narrator because it amplified the tension in the novel and kept the reader guessing until the very end. I would say that this was the main strong point of the novel; Flynn is extremely gifted in drip-feeding information and building up suspense to an intense level, thereby keeping the reader utterly gripped.

The only other aspect of the narrative that I was ambivalent about was the satanic theme which developed, particularly towards the end. I’m no stranger to a dark and gruesome tale yet I thought this was perhaps a step too far, given the brutal nature of the original murders: it pushed the novel into the horror genre, and I think it would have been an equally powerful story without this element. Although, this is balanced by the theme of family which is an important feature- Libby’s brother is in prison because of the potentially inaccurate evidence that she gave as a child, and her estranged father is an alcoholic. As a result, it is very interesting to see how she interacts with them in her search for the truth, and how they were before the murders occurred and the family unit disintegrated.

On the whole, I would give this novel 4.5 out of 5 stars- it is by far one of the best novels I have read in a good while and I will certainly be re-reading it in the future.