Weekly Reads (Listens): Dark Places

After listening to, and loving the narration in Fangirl and Eleanor and Park, I looked up all the books that Rebecca Lowman had narrated, and up popped Dark Places, that has been on my to-read list since I read the disturbing psychological thriller Gone Girl . I've heard that Dark Places and Sharp Objects are both even more disturbing. On one hand, that makes me super excited to read them, but I feel like I have to be in the right "mood" ya know? So I picked up the audiobook, and was hooked immediately.

The narration is great, told by three different narrators, as it's told from multiple character's perspective. I found myself leaving for work early and sitting in my car to spend more time listening to the story when I arrived at the library. In typical Gillian Flynn fashion, it was awesome and I wanted to devour it.

My rating: 4 stars.


Summary from goodreads:

"I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ."

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club… and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.