The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Tom here. I'll be the discussion leader for Gillian Flynn's "Dark Places". I read 80 to 100 books a year and 80% of those are in the Thriller/Crime genre.

I've finished the book a couple weeks ago, but plan on rereading it.

I'm interested in hearing everyone's comments for "Dark Places".

I loved this book. Voted for it in the poll. Very dark and unflinching. Flynn pulls no punches with her characters.

I just finished, the ending was better than the beginning. Flynn puts alot into her characters.

I just finished, the ending was better than the beginning. Flynn puts alot into her characters.

In the beginning Libby describes herself: "I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ…Draw a picture of my soul and it’d be a scribble with fangs.”

Is she, are WE, a good judge of ourselves? Do you think she would say the same thing at the end of the book?

I actually have this one waiting on my shelf to be read. Picked it up in a bookstore last month. I'll start it as soon as I finish Lee Child's "The Killing Floor." Looking forward to it!

i read this one a while ago- although i think flynn is a gifted writer this story was too depressing and disturbing for my tastes. i loved gone girl (5 stars)which was also twisted but far more entertaining in my opinion.

i will say libby is a memorable character which seems to be true of all of flynn's characters. hope the group enjoys it


in regard to your question tom, i think libby was a happier person at the end of the book vs the beginning and i think she probably had a somewhat better self image as a result

When later interviewed, here is what (I imagine) Gillian Flynn's neighbors say about her:

"She seemed such a sweet girl. I mean just look at her face on her Goodreads biography and the back of her books. Such a Sweet Face. We had no idea. We just had noooo idea that her mind harbored such Dark Places!"


WARNING: There is an acknowledged error in early editions of Dark Places in which Mrs. Day (nee Krause) refers to her parents as "Day"s...but they were really surnamed "Krause". Nothing is intended in the story by same surnames. This was an editing over-sight.

I read it a few months ago and hated it.......dark, depressing, disturbing. I enjoyed Gone Girl, but not this book nor her other one, Sharp Objects. I forced myself to get through them!

3,5 starts for me.
I read this as soon as it came out, because I loved SO. Unfortunately, I liked it less then other two Flynn novels.
Flynn has this way of writing disturbing and damaged characters who are the same time, at least for me, fun to be in their head. But in DP she just made them too unlikable. I didn't care for them at all...
Mystery was great, though...

Almost done with this. About 75% in. It is the first Gillian Flynn book I have read. I was going to pick up Gone Girl but this was the reading vote. I actually like this book a lot. It is pretty dark and disturbing, but she does such a good job of writing it and the mystery is intriguing. Every time I think I have something figured out there's more information and I think oh I was wrong or no that doesn't fit.

This one was just too dark and disturbing for my taste. I didn't enjoy reading it; however, the mystery itself was interesting.

Lege wrote: "3,5 starts for me... But in DP she just made them too unlikable. I didn't care for them at all..."

I agree. I wanted to give the book 4 stars because the writing was great, the mystery solid, and it kept me turning the pages, but I ended up giving it 3 stars because I didn't like the characters, which made it difficult to care about them. As a result, I didn't enjoy the book as much. I wanted to see how it ended, but I was relieved when it finally did. On the other hand, I loved 'Gone Girl.' Even though the characters in that book weren't very likable either, at least I cared about the protagonist.

Plot and characters aside, I just love her writing. Her facility with language and the way she arranges words on the page is -- to me -- unlike any other author.

(sigh...)

Libby wrote: "Plot and characters aside, I just love her writing. Her facility with language and the way she arranges words on the page is -- to me -- unlike any other author.

(sigh...)"

I agree. She has a way with words, and she offers the tiniest bits of details that make the story come alive. Things I would never think to add.

Libby wrote: "Plot and characters aside, I just love her writing. Her facility with language and the way she arranges words on the page is -- to me -- unlike any other author.

(sigh...)"

Yes, my Chicago friend Libby...recommended her Chicago friend Gillian's second novel...which I read. I called my review: Why I finished this gruesome tale...

Thanks, Libby (sigh)...best book I've read in a long, long time. You can write, too...(sigh)

Jane

From my July 2012 review entitled WHY I FINISHED THIS GRUESOME TALE....

After you finish this book...read the acknowledgments. Flynn doesn't explain why Ben dyes his red hair black the night before the murders or why Libby dyes her hair bright red again the day she discovers the truth. But she does thank her "brilliant, funny, giant-hearted, super-hot husband... What do I say to a man who knows how I think and still sleeps next to me with the lights off?"

I can't help you with that answer, Gillian Flynn, but I do know what to say to an author who's penned such a novel. Give me a few days to recover and I'll read your debut book SHARP OBJECTS. And now I know why your latest novel GONE GIRL just hit the top of the NYT best-seller list.

Dark Places

Don't we have a spoiler thread aspect to this group?

Or you should have said from the beginning that it was a pretty open discussion whether or not you had finished the book

Janebbooks wrote: "From my July 2012 review entitled WHY I FINISHED THIS GRUESOME TALE....

After you finish this book...read the acknowledgments. Flynn doesn't explain why Ben dyes his red hair black the night bef..."

Sharp Objects is my favorite from her... But, it's really disturbing and there is a reason SO is on the list of must read horror novels of last decade.

Katherine wrote: "Don't we have a spoiler thread aspect to this group?"

Katherine...there is no way one of us commentors could spoil this book for you! The language, the metaphors, the images the words provoke, the unlikeability of Libby Day.......just seeps in as you read!

Jane

Someone on an Amazon discussion thread...mentioned that at her booksignings Gillian Flynn mentions talks with the French director of SARAH'S KEY about the casting for Libby Day. And hinting that it may be Amy Adams. I posted this tidbit in the comments to my review...and someone said it was now Charlize Theron.

Who do you think could portray this unmarried 30-year old who eats white bread sandwiches with mustard and chunks of cheese and sleeps on unwashed sheets?

Katherine wrote: "Don't we have a spoiler thread aspect to this group?"

There is a spoiler feature that can be used when writing a comment. If you click on the "some html is OK" which appears above the comment box you will see the coding to hide the text. There is also information on how to make something bold, italic, or underlined - it's all the same process.

Thanks, Jane.

Janebbooks wrote: "Who do you think could portray this unmarried 30-year old who eats white bread sandwiches with mustard and chunks of cheese and sleeps on unwashed sheets?"
Rooney Mara (from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) might be good, though she'd have to dye her hair. She's tiny and tough, like Libby.

I loved this book. The first chapter is a really good teaching tool (I write, and teaching writing) for making an unlikeable character into someone the reader will follow, anyway. Dark Places is my favorite Gillian Flynn, though I like her other two books as well.

What an interesting concept, Lori... I'm going to have to re-read that first chapter..

I agree that it is a dark and depressing read, but that is a legitimate side of the genre, and she has done a remarkable job of making the character interesting and keeping the story tight. I think Lori (msg26) makes a very valid point. Writing unlikeable characters is a very tricky thing to do effectively, and Flynn has.

Carrie wrote: "Lege wrote: "3,5 starts for me... But in DP she just made them too unlikable. I didn't care for them at all..."

I agree. I wanted to give the book 4 stars because the writing was great, the myster..."

I was thinking about the book, which I recently finished and have been trying to figure out why I didn't like it as much as it probably deserves to be liked. The writing is so solid and so is the mystery. The plot is tight, the structure sound, so what was it? I think you're right...it's the characters. But this might be Flynn's thing. The characters in Gone Girl weren't all that likeable, and yet I found myself really rooting for the husband.

In this book, I cared about the mothers and sisters (but they were dead), but Ben frustrated me (wouldn't he be more open with his sister, whom he hadn't seen in forever...even despite the circumstances!) and Libby just never evolved enough for me. Yes she faced the past for the first time, her loss, her family, but her basic behavior, I wish, had evolved more as the book progressed and she came more to terms with what happened the night of her family's murders.

Still, I really liked this book. It was dark and disturbing, definitely more dark and bloody than Gone Girl, but still well written and tightly plotted enough to keep me turning those pages.

Tatiana, I have to agree with you on the characters. I only felt some sort of compassion for the mother and the sisters. My main problem with the entire story line was the fact that Libby became abruptly willing to seek out such important people to her past for small cash pay-outs. It didn't seem believeable to me that all it took was $300 here and $500 there to open up such deep wounds to a protected past. Why did it take so long when she seemed overly willing to seek these people out?

I agree, that was my problem with the book as well. I don't want to see people who abused me because I don't want to relive thoise feelings.

Alicia wrote: "Tatiana, I have to agree with you on the characters. I only felt some sort of compassion for the mother and the sisters. My main problem with the entire story line was the fact that Libby became..."

Because she had just been told that she was broke. Did you read the start of the book? Her fund was about to run out and she had no income!!!!!

I read this book last year and it got me hooked i read it in a couple of late nights. I thought there were some parts I thought were a little sick and disturbing, also, it seemed to me pretty easy to figure out the outcome but I always like trying to figure it out before I actually finish! :)

I really enjoyed this book, even the slower parts were easy to push through. I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Wow I must have struck a nerve! Yes I read the beginning. My point was that based on her lack of self respect she could have easily found a different way to support herself.

Alicia, I got that you understood Libby's circumstances but still questioned them. As an author, I can assume that Flynn was probably trying to figure out a reason why, after all these years, Libby would finally start investigating the murders of her family. Flynn created a financial motivation for Libby, which obviously you didn't really buy. It didn't seem so far fetched to me (ie I believed it) because Flynn had also conveyed that Libby had trouble holding down a traditional job because she was so non-functioning. (Those days she spent in bed, her stealing problem, her attitude problem.) I also wished that Libby was a little less non-functioning and had worked harder to find a real job. Perhaps financial motivation could have gotten her to the first meeting, but after that it would have been nice to see her have more of a personal, vested and acknowledged self-interest in finding out the truth.

I'm about 80% in and I want to finish it before judging but I have read Gone Girl and Sharp Objects and I have to say that this one is the least enjoyble

I am in the process of reading this right now. Gillian Flynn has an exceptional talent for creating flawed and unlikable characters who, in spite of their lack of moral compass, seem to draw me in and keep me attending to their odd neediness.

VickiLee wrote: "Gillian Flynn has an exceptional talent for creating flawed and unlikable characters who, in spite of their lack of moral compass, seem to draw me in and keep me attending to their odd neediness."

Perfectly said!

Yes, indeed, VickiLee. You nailed it.

Yes, Gillian Flynn definitely makes some unlikable characters. Yet, I get drawn into the story and I really enjoy her writing. It takes a lot of talent to have people wanting to read your books despite unlikable characters!

Ok. I thought I was the strange one because I really like her books. She seems to have a really good talent in terms of articulating her characters and their actions.