Book Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I finally finished Dark Places. By finally, I mean it probably took me about two months to read it, which is a pretty long time for me. I was in the market for a new book to read when I came across a killer (hehe, pun intended) deal on iTunes so I knew I had to get it. Read on for my review:

Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn
iTunes & Kindle eBook: $2.99
Amazon paperback: $7.83+
Personal opinion: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The book follows present Libby Day, a thirty one year old survivor of what her town referred to as "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas" in which her mother and sisters were brutally murdered, allegedly by her misfit older brother, Ben. At just seven years old, Libby was asked to testify against him, and her "evidence" sends him to jail for life. Twenty-four years of repressed memories later, questions about that fateful night surface when Libby is contacted by a group of people who are convinced that Ben is innocent. She reluctantly agrees to work with this group to get down to the bottom of what really happened that night. Amazon reads, "as Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer."

Similar to Flynn's best selling novel, Gone Girl, each chapter in Dark Places alternates between characters, the present, and the past. I love this type of writing style, so it was probably my favorite part of the book. Much like the title implies, Dark Places is just that...dark. I even skipped over some flashback scenes entirely simply because I felt they were too gruesome and nightmarish to plant in my already overactive imagination. Maybe that's just me being a pansy. Let's get real, it probably is. Aside from that, my only complaint about the book is that it starts a little slow, hence why it took me awhile to get into.

If you're looking for a gripping, haunted mystery with a real twist this summer, this book is gold. It isn't my favorite book I've ever read, but I must say that I'm looking forward to the movie out next month starring Charlize Theron. Believe it or not, I didn't even know they made it into a movie until after I was done. Talk about a cherry on top!

Have you read Dark Places yet? What did you think about it?