Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

SPOILERS BELOW!

Honestly, the mind of Gillian Flynn must be an interesting place, Gone Girl was brilliant, clever, dangerous, sharp. Dark Places is different, its not as sleek, Libby Day is a messy protagonist in every sense, shes steals, she sees herself as incomplete. The book skips between various narratives, the plot focuses on Libby Day whose entire family were hacked to death when she was a child, she escaped, her brother was convicted based on her testimony and her father had already walked out. Raised by her aunt and foster homes adult Libby is damaged, surviving from donated funds she is forced to sell the story of her tragic past in order to keep the money rolling in. In the process she meets people convinced of her brothers innocence and Libby starts to question whether she had her brother sentenced to life for something he didn't do. 

We follow Ben, her brother, when he was a kid, troubled, sick of belonging to a poor family and desperate to better himself, dating a trainwreck and hanging round with the wrong people, there is one particularly disturbing chapter regarding a young girl but overall, Bens was a fairly innocent and confused lad, easily led, as is proven by the end. When Bens side of the story is unravelled we discover his girlfriend murdered one of his younger sisters that night, after encouraging Ben to sacrifice cattle with her, oh and shes pregnant, so Ben leaves her out of his testimony and spends his life protecting her and his daughter from jail. You also follow Patty Day, the mother of the family, struggling with finances, about to lose her livelihood, not the best mother or the worst. When Pattys heartbreaking end is explained you discover that Ben murdered no-one, his only crime was butchering a cow and standing by, afraid, whilst his sister was strangled to death by his girlfriend, Ben is messed up, but he didn't butcher everyone he loved, if anything he needed to be sectioned, not imprisoned. Gone Girl kept me turning the page until i reached the end, Dark Places didn't tap that same vein but it was a read that was both awful to take in and yet, made me want to reach the end, just to find out exactly what had happened to the Day family. Flynn tapped into a group of society who have obsessions with murders, serial killers etc, perfectly, disturbing and intriguing. I gave the book three stars. It left me with a slightly sick feeling in my stomach, but books are supposed to cause strong reactions. Even more disturbing than Gone Girl, absolutely makes me want to read her other novel, Sharp Objects.