Hey friends and happy Labor Day! How is it already September?!
As you may already know I joined a blogger book club a few months ago. Though no need to worry if book reviews aren’t really your thing, these book reports only happen once a month around here. And they’re usually posted on Sunday evenings, but the 3 day holiday weekend kind of got the best of me so I’m posting on a Monday. If you love to read feel free to read along with us! You can get caught up on the books we’ve read and reviewed over in the sidebar on the right (keep scrolling down). And at the end of this post I’ll share the book we will be reading for September.
August was my month to choose a book, and since August is kind of a busy month for me preparing my kiddos to head back to school I chose a short book from an author I’m slightly obsessed with, Gillian Flynn. After reading Gone Girl and Sharp Objects a while back, I became enamored with Mrs. Flynn’s ability to weave a mystery together. Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, she shocks you with something and your mind is literally blown. Her books are dark and twisty. I’m not going to lie, Dark Places definitely sounded the darkest and I was a little scared to dive in; but once I did I couldn’t put it down until all the puzzle pieces were in place.
Dark Places deals with poverty in rural America and the Satanic cult hysteria that was blasted all over the nightly news across the country in the eighties. There are two child survivors of a brutal killing of a family – Libby and Ben. Libby, who is seven at the time, testifies against her brother Ben, 15, putting him in prison for murder. Case closed. Shattered lives go on…………..until twenty four years later when the truth is finally brought to the surface.
The story flashes back between the present day and the past and is told through each of the main characters points of view. It’s a page turner that keeps you guessing with an ending that will leave you unnerved. I stayed up ’til 2 am a couple of nights to finish this one. Then once I reached the end of the book I felt like I had spent hours working on the ugliest puzzle I’ve ever seen – does that even make any sense? I enjoyed the suspense, the mystery and the way that every detail is so perfectly weaved together, but the story itself is sad and depressing, though not in a bad I-wish-I-hadn’t-read-it kind of way. I’m amazed with the way Gillian Flynn’s mind works, and it’s not a surprise to me at all that both Dark Places and Gone Girl have been adapted into movies set to come out this fall. Dark Places will no doubt be a gripping and suspenseful movie bringing these sad characters and their unfortunate lives to the big screen. It’s a fast read so I would definitely recommend reading the book first.
Have you read Dark Places or any of Gillian Flynn’s books? What are your thoughts? Cassie, Kirby and Katie will be sharing their reviews of Dark Places very soon.
Next month’s book was chosen by Cassie; we’ll be reading Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.
This little excerpt from the Amazon book description sounds pretty good right? Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.
Feel free to read along with us!
I listened to Dark Places this summer (I love to have an audio book on my I-pod to keep me occupied while I clean and do projects around the house), and it was SO GOOD. Totally made vacuuming enjoyable 🙂 I didn't realize it was being made into a movie! Ooh, I also love Liane Moriarty…I'll have to try Big Little Lies. Thanks for the recommendation!