It felt triumphant to have predicted the perpetrator of the Day murders - though I don't know if I can rightly claim that since I'd reached around the 80% mark. It took none of my satisfaction from the novel and I still devoured the ending.
I enjoyed this book, but it took me a while to finish because of the dark content. I recommend reading surrounded by people who love you, happiness, and light to stave off the dark and keep it from slipping into you too powerfully. I'd equate the worse parts to slogging through a sludgy swamp with an alligator on your tail - nasty but you have to do it.
This brutal and dark story is told through three viewpoints: present day Libby Day - who is a survivor of the brutal massacre of her family and famously testified that her older brother was the killer in court 24 years ago; 1985 Patty Day on the day of the murder - an over-worked mother of four who's struggling to make ends meet; and 1985 Ben Day on the day of the murder - Libby's older brother and alleged Satan worshiper who's serving life in prison for a crime that many people now, 20yrs later, don't believe he committed.
Libby has run out of the money that she received from well-wishers in the years following the massacre, and at the age of 31 she needs a new source of income. She makes a decision that changes her life when she responds to a letter from the treasurer of the "Kill Club" (an organization for enthusiasts who are either major fans of, like to dress up as, or are actively solving/tracking murders and their victims) asking for her to make an appearance at one of their meetings. She finds out she can make money not only by showing up, but by delving into her past and interviewing people who might know something about the day of the murders. (It is the consensus of the group that Ben wasn't the killer)
Libby is mean, and I loved her. She's an angry, tough, kleptomaniac who does terrible things, but Flynn somehow always keeps you on her side. She was so traumatized, and it wasn't simply the gore of finding her family murdered, but you mourned with her for what she'd lost in all of them, even years later.
It was painful - like she was losing them every day, because in a way, she was. She lost entire relationships that should have grown ripe and old along with her well into her 70s. Gossip with her adult sister, nieces and nephews, advice. She had been thick as thieves with her sisters; she loved her mom and she loved Ben. All these people, and the future that could have been, were taken from her in a fell swoop that shattered her psyche, and launched her into a sort of existence that didn't quite qualify as living.
Patty is an exhausted but loving mother, and through her eyes we examine Ben like a diamond cutter turns over a gem under a magnifying glass, but add in a lot more fear and unease. Libby is working with facts/people/interviews. She doesn't often go to that "Dark Place" where the memories of the murders reside. Patty? She's just discovering Ben's darkness. She wants to examine, to understand and undo, to blame herself for her poor parenting, to think of sweet memories of Ben, and also to do nothing. To crawl under some covers and hope it all goes away. Hers is the voice that reminds us that he's a teenager, a son, a brother. Could he really have done this? Patty is fragile and weak, but she's doing the best she can, and through her perspective we can analyze Ben and wonder if he could really murder his family.
I was also saddened in her perspective because I kept getting glimpses of what could have been, for all of them.
Ben's thoughts begin as those of a hormonal teenager who's not quite old enough yet to know the world doesn't revolve around him. He's bitter, and not without reason. He's constantly bullied, disregarded, getting the short stick. He has a hard time connecting, and the people he thinks he loves are sociopaths. His thoughts get increasingly darker, and that's scary to watch.
And all the characters in this novel are brutal. They're all very broken, sometimes blatantly evil, selfish, liars, weak, self-pitying, manipulative and very real. The darkness in this book is like a tangible thing.
Be prepared for gore, surprising twists, and disgust when you read this book. Disgust at characters abandoning kids and USING people, disgust at dog crap being left on top of and ground into carpet, disgust at bloody descriptions of brain matter, and dying things.
Dark Places was a paper masterpiece, with a cast of characters that are utterly depraved, and flawed, embodying the darkest parts of being human.
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