Skip to content

Dark Places

Pages
541
Published
2009
Language
English

Synopsis

When she was seven years old, Libby Day survived the night her mother and two sisters were slaughtered in their Kansas farmhouse. Her testimony helped send her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, to prison for the murders — and for twenty-four years, Libby has lived off the dwindling sympathy of strangers: numb, broke, and doing everything she can not to think about any of it.

Then the money runs out, and a secretive group of true-crime obsessives who call themselves the Kill Club comes looking for her. They are convinced Ben is innocent, that Libby's childhood account was coerced, and they will pay her to dig back into the case. Desperate for cash, Libby starts tracking down the people from that winter — and the more she learns, the less certain she becomes about what she really saw that night.

Told across the single, terrible day in 1985 and Libby's grim present-day investigation, Gillian Flynn's Dark Places is a pitch-black thriller about family, poverty, and the lies we tell to survive the truth.

Vibe

Writing4.0Impact3.0Characters4.0Plot5.0Atmosphere5.0

About the author

G
Gillian Flynn

Gillian Flynn is an American author, screenwriter and producer born February 24, 1971, in Kansas City, Missouri. She studied English and journalism at the University of Kansas and earned a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She worked as a television critic and feature writer at Entertainment Weekly before publishing her debut novel, Sharp Objects (2006), followed by Dark Places (2009) and Gone Girl (2012), which has sold over 15 million cop...

Characters

Libby DayProtagonist

The sole survivor of a family massacre, digging back into the case decades later for money.

Ben DaySupporting

Libby's brother, imprisoned for the murders on the strength of her childhood testimony.

Patty DaySupporting

Libby's overwhelmed mother, whose final day is traced in the 1985 timeline.

Lyle WirthSupporting

A member of the Kill Club who pays Libby to reopen the case.

Michelle DaySupporting

One of Libby's two younger sisters, killed in the 1985 massacre.

All characters in Dark Places

Frequently asked questions

  • Is there a movie adaptation of Dark Places?

    Yes, "Dark Places" was adapted into a film. The movie stars Charlize Theron as Libby Day and was released in 2015.

  • How does Dark Places compare to Gillian Flynn's other novels?

    This novel shares the dark, psychological intensity and unreliable narration found in Flynn's other works, but it delves more deeply into the impact of past trauma on a family and community, rather than focusing solely on a marital relationship.

Read all 12 reviews