Dark Places in Audiobook Junkies

May 04, 2017 Susan rated it it was amazing

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas of 1985 has left an indelible mark on Libby Day. She survived and her older brother was put away for killing his mother and 2 of his 3 younger sisters. Libby was shuffled from house to house as a kid and once she made it to adulthood, charity provided her a life with little responsibilities. Now the money has run out and Libby has to move on with her life one way or another, such as getting a job. However, she has no life skill Dark Places by Gillian Flynn The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas of 1985 has left an indelible mark on Libby Day. She survived and her older brother was put away for killing his mother and 2 of his 3 younger sisters. Libby was shuffled from house to house as a kid and once she made it to adulthood, charity provided her a life with little responsibilities. Now the money has run out and Libby has to move on with her life one way or another, such as getting a job. However, she has no life skills. So when she’s approached by Lyle Wirth from The Kill Club about selling some childhood mementos and perhaps giving a talk about her past, she’s tempted by the money. It’s the first step to delving into her past and with that comes a path forward to the rest of her life.
I picked this one up on a whim. I was looking for something a bit darker, something with some mystery to it, and this book did not disappoint. The author gave me so many characters that were absolutely fascinating even if they weren’t likable. There were times when I wanted to both slap Libby and root for her. She has more strength in her than she knows and through this journey she learns a little about that. The tale is dark and at times rather gritty and yet there is so much hope in this story. Libby survived a horrendous thing and yet she has done nothing with her life other than skate by. Her brother, Ben, was in a difficult, frustrated place before the event and Libby hasn’t spoken to him since that day. Ben hasn’t been able to tell the full truth of the event all these years. Then there’s Lyle, who’s part of this Kill Club. I was on the fence about him for much of the book but in the end I liked him.
Speaking of that Kill Club – what a creepy idea! Though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were such things. Think scifi convention except it’s for folks who closely follow serial murders or massacres or unsolved murder cases. Many of the participants are retired police or investigators. Some of the more macabre participants dress up as the perpetrators or victims. All of them have their own theories of how things went down. The Day Massacre (AKA the Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee) is no exception. I really felt for Libby when she met with these folks and some of them were down right combative over the facts of the case. And yet it’s also so obvious that Libby has never really reflected on that night, peered into her memory and taken stock of the known facts. Once again, I had split feelings towards the Kill Club. I wanted to tell them to get a real hobby but also applaud them for pushing Libby into exploring the little mysteries about that night that were still unanswered. It takes a talented author to keep pushing me as a reader in this fashion.
The hunt for the truth was well done. There are flashbacks throughout the tale told from both Ben Day’s teen self and also from Libby’s mom’s point of view. Patty Day was in a tricky place back then, trying to raise all her kids on her own, working all the time, and occasionally getting a shake down from her ex-husband. As Libby looks through her childhood mementos (trying to decide what to sell to the Kill Club enthusiasts), memories come back and she has questions she wants answered. There’s plenty of characters showing off their darker sides and then there’s some characters that simply made bad mistakes.
The ending had a twist that I didn’t see coming until just before it happened. Wow! Yeah. That explained several things but was also tough and touching at the same time. People are capable of great evil but also capable of great sacrifice. This book is definitely one I will be thinking about for some time to come.
The Narration: The narration was really good for this book. I’m not sure who did which roles, but all the character voices were distinct and each narrator did a great job with voices for the opposite sex. Rebecca Lowman, Cassandra Campbell, Mark Deakins, and Robertson Dean made a great cast for this book. Whichever lady that voiced Libby did such a lovely job with her myriad of feelings. Sometimes Libby was snotty and disrespectful and sometimes she was thoughtful and trying her best to absorb some hard truths. The main voice actor for Ben did a great job there as well. He was a teen boy in a house full of females struggling to impress his fellow highschoolers and he sounded every inch of it. ...more

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May 04, 2017 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, intense, female-lead, mystery, suspense, crime

The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas of 1985 has left an indelible mark on Libby Day. She survived and her older brother was put away for killing his mother and 2 of his 3 younger sisters. Libby was shuffled from house to house as a kid and once she made it to adulthood, charity provided her a life with little responsibilities. Now the money has run out and Libby has to move on with her life one way or another, such as getting a job. However, she has no life skills. So when she’s approached b The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas of 1985 has left an indelible mark on Libby Day. She survived and her older brother was put away for killing his mother and 2 of his 3 younger sisters. Libby was shuffled from house to house as a kid and once she made it to adulthood, charity provided her a life with little responsibilities. Now the money has run out and Libby has to move on with her life one way or another, such as getting a job. However, she has no life skills. So when she’s approached by Lyle Wirth from The Kill Club about selling some childhood mementos and perhaps giving a talk about her past, she’s tempted by the money. It’s the first step to delving into her past and with that comes a path forward to the rest of her life.

I picked this one up on a whim. I was looking for something a bit darker, something with some mystery to it, and this book did not disappoint. The author gave me so many characters that were absolutely fascinating even if they weren’t likable. There were times when I wanted to both slap Libby and root for her. She has more strength in her than she knows and through this journey she learns a little about that. The tale is dark and at times rather gritty and yet there is so much hope in this story. Libby survived a horrendous thing and yet she has done nothing with her life other than skate by. Her brother, Ben, was in a difficult, frustrated place before the event and Libby hasn’t spoken to him since that day. Ben hasn’t been able to tell the full truth of the event all these years. Then there’s Lyle, who’s part of this Kill Club. I was on the fence about him for much of the book but in the end I liked him.

Speaking of that Kill Club – what a creepy idea! Though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were such things. Think scifi convention except it’s for folks who closely follow serial murders or massacres or unsolved murder cases. Many of the participants are retired police or investigators. Some of the more macabre participants dress up as the perpetrators or victims. All of them have their own theories of how things went down. The Day Massacre (AKA the Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee) is no exception. I really felt for Libby when she met with these folks and some of them were down right combative over the facts of the case. And yet it’s also so obvious that Libby has never really reflected on that night, peered into her memory and taken stock of the known facts. Once again, I had split feelings towards the Kill Club. I wanted to tell them to get a real hobby but also applaud them for pushing Libby into exploring the little mysteries about that night that were still unanswered. It takes a talented author to keep pushing me as a reader in this fashion.

The hunt for the truth was well done. There are flashbacks throughout the tale told from both Ben Day’s teen self and also from Libby’s mom’s point of view. Patty Day was in a tricky place back then, trying to raise all her kids on her own, working all the time, and occasionally getting a shake down from her ex-husband. As Libby looks through her childhood mementos (trying to decide what to sell to the Kill Club enthusiasts), memories come back and she has questions she wants answered. There’s plenty of characters showing off their darker sides and then there’s some characters that simply made bad mistakes.

The ending had a twist that I didn’t see coming until just before it happened. Wow! Yeah. That explained several things but was also tough and touching at the same time. People are capable of great evil but also capable of great sacrifice. This book is definitely one I will be thinking about for some time to come.

The Narration: The narration was really good for this book. I’m not sure who did which roles, but all the character voices were distinct and each narrator did a great job with voices for the opposite sex. Rebecca Lowman, Cassandra Campbell, Mark Deakins, and Robertson Dean made a great cast for this book. Whichever lady that voiced Libby did such a lovely job with her myriad of feelings. Sometimes Libby was snotty and disrespectful and sometimes she was thoughtful and trying her best to absorb some hard truths. The main voice actor for Ben did a great job there as well. He was a teen boy in a house full of females struggling to impress his fellow highschoolers and he sounded every inch of it. ...more

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Jan 20, 2015 Samantha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

From the opening chapter told by Libby Day I was hooked. Gillian Flynn appears to have this great knack of throwing out her line, hooking the reader and then slowly reels them in over the course of the novel.

The story is told from three perspectives and although it does skip from past to present it is done in a uniform way so that the reader is not confused or lost at any time. The story essentially is about a family tragedy in Kansas, Missouri during 1985 and is told by the one surviving family
From the opening chapter told by Libby Day I was hooked. Gillian Flynn appears to have this great knack of throwing out her line, hooking the reader and then slowly reels them in over the course of the novel.

The story is told from three perspectives and although it does skip from past to present it is done in a uniform way so that the reader is not confused or lost at any time. The story essentially is about a family tragedy in Kansas, Missouri during 1985 and is told by the one surviving family member Libby Day, her brother Ben, and her mother Patty. Through these different perspectives we learn the hidden secrets of these three and how on January 3rd 1985 Libby's family is murdered and her brother blamed for the events.

Patty a divorced mother of four is desperately trying to keep the family farm going while bringing up her children. Exhausted, working so hard to keep all ends up in the air she neglects to really see what is happening in her family, she starts to worry about her son being involved in satanic rituals; afraid to over react and push him further away from her but needing to protect him she finds herself drifting away from her son, not really knowing him. Her ex husband and father to the children Runner turns up periodically when he wants money, never helps her to keep the farm going, doesn't worry how she manages only sees her as a meal ticket. She can't confide in him about the children who he doesn't understand or really care about anyway and Patty finds herself constantly alone except from her sister Diana.

Then we have Ben - fifteen, troubled youngster in that he always feels inadequate, his father when he is around appears to mock him, he has no real friends, gets lost in his music Heavy Metal behind a padlocked door to keep out his sisters in particular Michelle. A loner who is desperate to belong somewhere he gets involved with some older college kids who also mock him but appear to accept him the way he is. He meets Diondra a girl well out of his league, older and smarter than him who uses him when she wants some fun. Ben takes the reader through the story from his point of view and although he can act weirdly we begin to question whether he could have murdered his family.

Libby Day Ben's little sister - 7 years old when the tragedy happened, starts the reader on the journey of unraveling just who did commit those murders. When we meet Libby 25 years have passed since the murders and her brother Ben has been in jail all those years. Now a young woman in her 30's deeply affected by what happened she has become a suspicious, complex, selfish and sometimes violent character. Flynn does not try to portray her as a victim more as a survivor who has had to cocoon herself in a hard shield. Having spent the years surviving on well wishers money she is now out of funds and must either work or find another way to keep herself. She hears of the Kill Club when one of its members contacts her for a 'guest' appearance for money and she embarks on a journey of discovery, secrets and lies that changes her life forever.

A pacey page turner of a novel, good developed characters, broken, flawed Libby, weird moody Ben and their exhausted down trodden mother all make for a satisfying read. Good secondary characters keep this little time bomb ticking along with the Gothic and dark references reflecting the period, tight knit community prejudices and opinions and the innocence of youth all coming together to make this novel work.

I like the way Gilllian Flynn pulls you in and does not let you go until she's ready.

Has to be another 4 stars for this one. ...more

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