ONTD Book Club discussion

Discuss Dark Places by Gillian Flynn!

I am really looking forward to this one. A part of me hopes that it's as fucked up as Gone Girl, or at the very least has the same page-turning intensity.

I just started this book by coincidence. I had to set it aside because I need to study for finals.

The first part of this book gave me the major creeps. It starts off with a bang for sure. I'm so glad we're doing it this month so I'll finish it!

Ia actually read this book just the other month. It kept me reading, I'll give it that.

So I just read the first chap and I have high hopes. The narrator is an absolute jerk but I do really like how it's definitely a committed effort, not like those half ass things where you're like "um am I supposed to like the narraotor?" Here's she's a total asshole and owning it and I'm totally intrigued.

Wigs wrote: "So I just read the first chap and I have high hopes. The narrator is an absolute jerk but I do really like how it's definitely a committed effort, not like those half ass things where you're like "..."

This in a nutshell. Such a jerk, and on the whiny side, but she really is owning it. That and the amazing plot (thus far) makes it worth it.

56% in and it's still super fucked up! I cannot even begin to guess what is going on, but I know there are about 6 people I'd like to punch.

I just read the part where she described the dead bodies in detail. Last night I accidentally ended up seeing a doc which showed pics of people with faces shot off without any warning and I like...cannot unsee it....and now reading about the mom's head just now I was literally shuddering oh god.

I'm still avoiding finishing the song of achilles 36% in and it's just okay so far, imo, I don't like the prose as much as I did in gone girl (although I definitely give gillian flynn props, the contrast between the hoity toity new yorker attitudes in gone girl and the struggling lower class farm folks is stark). I'm kind of confused by why people think that libby is such an unlikeable asshole though, I mean she's clearly psychologically fucked up and I can't really blame her, so I guess it doesn't bother me? I'm curious about just how unreliable a narrator she's going to turn out to be, though, that's what I always hear when people talk about this book.

all in all it's not amazing like gone girl was, but it's definitely holding my interest.

I read the book in just two days and I loved it. I'm not going to spoil anyone but I kinda want a sequel tbh.

Dark Places was my least fave of the Flynn books so far, but hey, I still gave it a 4! I can't wait for her next book.

Just finished! Holy shit. I guessed right for two things, but everything else, WHOA!

(view spoiler)[The cow murdering scene was especially rough, I kept hoping that wasn't going to be the same thing that happened to Patty & Debby. I was also pretty confident that Trey had more to do with things, but he was just a big loser. (hide spoiler)]

I just finished my ramble-review. It's spoilerish, but nothing too crazy.

Read this earlier this year, and I must say it is my least favorite of Flynn's books. It was unique and a book good, but it didn't capture me like Gone Girl and Sharp Objects did.

So it's 3 am and I've stayed up late two nights in a row to finish this book. I cannot even process what I just read yet, but for now I will say WOW

I finished this book last night. Overall I liked it. I was a little disappointed by the big reveal though.

Okay sooo I'm like 1/3 of the way through or whatever and I have so many predictions. Right now I'm like...conspiracy thinking that Ben still did it and the entire book is a red herring lol but we'll see we'll see. Nobody tell me though, I'm just postulating.

Oh and this is only a tiny tiny spoiler but is anybody else upset about (view spoiler)[how she killed that dog? I read that last night and was like omg :( talking about it twitching as it was dying cuz it got hit by the corner of the counter jesusssss

I get really really upset when I read about pets dying because of a past experience as a child where my cat was maliciously killed by my neighbors so like anytime now, any fucking time I read about something tragic to household pets I like curl up in on myself and can't handle it well.

Feed (the zombie book) nearly killed me on that front. (hide spoiler)]

Just finished it and ugh, that ending. It was more "satisfactory" than Gone Girl's I guess, so I'm surprised more people didn't like it. It didn't keep me as glued to the page as GG (Ben's chapters especially were a struggle to get through sometimes), but I really enjoyed it overall. (view spoiler)[I had a feeling Diondre was somehow involved, but I still can't get over what a crazy asshole she was, just killing Michelle like it was nothing. I'm glad that there's the last Ben chapter to show that he thinks that it was right for him to do penance for just standing by and letting it happen, but even then he's still so deluded about protecting her ugh. (hide spoiler)]

I never hated Libby like so many other people say they did though, does someone who disliked the narrator want to extrapolate on why?

Wigs wrote: (view spoiler)[ "Oh and this is only a tiny tiny spoiler but is anybody else upset about how she killed that dog? I read that last night and was like omg :( talking about it twitching as it was dying cuz it got hit..." (hide spoiler)]

That bothered me a lot too, one of the reasons I put it down for a while.

And now fucking Hemlock Grove did the same thing

I can't watch that show anymore after i saw ep 11

you pull that kind of shit and it is a dealbreaker

not that it was a good show in the first place but that literally broke my heart into pieces when i was already having a bad day


you kill household pets, writers, I die inside

Jamie wrote:
I never hated Libby like so many other people say they did though, does someone who disliked the narrator want to extrapolate on why?

I wrote about a bit in my review, and I'll shove all this under tags.

(view spoiler)[I disliked Libby for many reasons: greed, apathy, desperation, killing the dog, treating Diane so terribly, ignoring her own memories for so long. It wasn't until about halfway through that I could handle her for more than a few chapters at a time.

(hide spoiler)]

oh btw this kid from The Voice is my Lyle

lol



one of those times when you start reading right after you watch tv and you kind of incorporate what you saw, but to me it makes sense anyway since Lyle's supposed to have like wavy hair and be young and have a femme face etc

Ugh. Hemlock Grove, I finished watching it last night... Not really sure how I feel about it.

i just really can't get over what i mentioned it hurt me so much. i like felt so disgusted with peter i don't want to look at him ever again

Wigs wrote: (view spoiler)["Oh and this is only a tiny tiny spoiler but is anybody else upset about how she killed that dog? I read that last night and was like omg :( talking about it twitching as it was dying cuz it got hit..." (hide spoiler)]

Oh crap, I just got a copy for my Kindle but I don't think I'll be reading it now. :( How bad is it? (view spoiler)[My first cat was poisoned and I had to put my 15-year-old cat to sleep not even two months ago and am still very upset about it so I'm not sure I can handle a scene where someone kills a pet. (hide spoiler)]

Emy in response: (view spoiler)[I'm someone that easily freaks out at pet deaths and in this case I didn't think it was the worst I've read, I got over it quite quickly while reading. Let me go ahead and tell you exactly so you'll be prepared. It's not a surprise as the character is recounting a memory from when she was 14. Basically the dog is biting her and she gets mad and she throws the dog. She did not mean to kill it but it hits the kitchen counter and dies. Then her aunt comes home and sees. It's a side story, like a page, and then that's it. It's upsetting but for some reason I feel better when it's semi accidental I don't know.

Not even CLOSE to the horror of Hemlock Grove where the main character deliberately kills his own pet cat that's been there for 11 episodes because of witchcraft purposes it made me so sick to my stomach. What...writer, what fucking out of their mind writer, thinks I want to sympathize with that kind of main character? Absolutely disgusting. (hide spoiler)]

Wigs wrote: Hemlock Grove

Everyone in it was terrible... (view spoiler)[Roman was a rapist drug addict. The episode with Ashley Valentine almost made me stop watching. (hide spoiler)]

I'm so behind you guys. I'm only 21% in. No idea what to think at this point. At least I don't hate Libby like I did Nick in Gone Girl. I actually hope my false memory theory (one of a couple) is wrong, I don't want her to have done it.

I'm still scared for what's to come.

I'm like over the halfway point rn and I just absolutely cannot tell what is a red herring and what is not.

I think right now there's like 3 choices but I'm totally terrified of (not really as spoiler but just a guess) (view spoiler)[Ben's scary ass friends. Diondra and Trey are literally the fucking worst. I don't know if they made Trey scary just to distract but all this Satanist stuff is making him look pretty guilty. (hide spoiler)]

But tbh watch it be someone completely different. Idek.

Ugh, they're going to be on canvass? I already hate them from that one Ben POV. Bleehhhh. So everything is going to change up then. Right now my preferred theory is (view spoiler)[that Patty did it. They were foreclosing on the farm. She was losing everything and didn't know what would become of her kids so murder/suicide. And Ben blew off her head before she could get to Libby or him (hide spoiler)]. But I know that's too easy.

omg i didn't even think of that theory at alllll omggggggggggggggg what if what if

if it really is that i'm going to be sad i looked at your prediction lol

Im not used to read mystery type things so I don't get too cray with conspiracy

Hahah, I highly doubt it's right. Too many things left in the air. Like for that to work I think that Len dude would have had to have helped. Because of that bloody dress shoe print, plus she really would have had to be gone to do what was done to Debby.

Oh God, I'm a mess with predictions and conspiracies reading mysteries!

Okay so I'm like 3/4 of the way through and (prediction) (view spoiler)[I'm totally thinking it's Runner now! Lord I want to like finish and find out! (hide spoiler)]

I love all the predictions! I had so many! I'll reveal my main theory after you guys finish.

I'm not very far in yet but I have two theories, both stemming from Patty's chapters. Can't wait to see how they play out.

oh god im' getting close to the end now and I'm like just filled with this overwhelming sense of dread. I had nightmares last night of my fam getting killed and it's like wow I shouldn't like read this late at night. Not that it's scary but this like impending sense of doom is coming over me as the chapters are counting down the time til the murders

watch it be some rando crazy who just comes in and none of the people we know are the killer lol


oh and also I really like how Runner is fleshed out. he feel so real, so grimy, so infuriating. I feel like I KNOW someone like this even though I don't because of how real she makes him seem.

shit

is

going

down

and i suddenly put two and two together right before it started lordttt

i'm going to shut up now


also like

i just watched antichrist before reading this and i KNOW i'm going to have more nightmares tonight

i feel like a negativity sponge rn

I'm not too far into the novel yet; I just finished the part when she visits Ben in jail for the first time ever. I must say that I love how Gillian Flynn creates her characters, especially the narrators. They're so...complete, I guess, full of these little details and quirks and habits that they are practically real.

Did anyone else get super annoyed when Libby goes to that Kill Club meetup? Those people were all so fucking smug!

Also, every time Libby mentions "darkplace" I think of this:

Okay I just finished! Do not open if you have not finished the book! (view spoiler)[

Okay wow I so didn't know the Angel of Debt thing was going to come back I like how that came full circle. And as soon as Trey said Polly Palm in the feed store I was like Diondra killed Michelle!! cuz of the blackmail and that whole gossip clash.

I'm still really mad at Ben though he just kind of watched Diondra kill Michelle and that makes him an accomplice, and enabler. And he alrady hated Michelle. Just like standing there with his hands on Diondra's shoulders I mean c'mon.

So do you think that 24 years in prison is enough of a punishment? Do you think he should be let out? I dunno I just found Ben to be so questionably disgusting at times, I didn't think he sounded like such a good person. I mean yes as a teenager everyone is a bit disgusting but like he got Diondra's name tattooed on him even after she killled his sister being like oh yea she's still my woman I dunno I just don't understand that but oh well. (hide spoiler)]

Anyway though I totally loved reading the book and guessing guessing guessing so I am giving it five stars for being completely absorbing and of course well written.

Wigs wrote: "oh and also I really like how Runner is fleshed out. he feel so real, so grimy, so infuriating. I feel like I KNOW someone like this even though I don't because of how real she makes him seem."

Runner = My father. I was cringing the whole time. What a shitbag.

Wigs wrote: Re: Ben

Going to put my response behind some tags.
(view spoiler)[ I, too, found Ben "to be... questionably disgusting." He was spineless and his only sense of purpose was devoted to Diondra and Crystal. Notice how she named the baby Crystal, not quite the name Ben wanted, but close enough to either be sweet or bitchy. I'm guessing bitchy.

Ben just let everyone bully him and blindly went along with people. I tried to like him, but I really couldn't. I didn't get what he could have done to enchant all those Murder Club people.

Also, this was the image of Ben that popped into my head the second they mentioned the tattoo and it never left.



I think I figured out Michelle's killer around the same time, but I still expected Trey to have more to do with it than he did. He seemed like such a big deal to Ben. Before that trip, I thought Ben had killed Michelle, Diondra had tried to kill Patty, then Trey killed Debby and finished Patty off. He seemed like the type to keep a mother alive while her children where murdered in front of her. With this theory, I was wondering how Ben got out alive because I thought Trey wanted him dead.
(hide spoiler)]

Wigs wrote: "Okay I just finished! ..."
(view spoiler)[See I think 24 years would have been fair IF he had any remorse at all. He still felt good about protecting Diondra and it was just gross. At the beginning of the book I didn't like Libby but I felt a little sorry for Ben, thinking he was misunderstood. By the end I loved Libby and was creeped out by Ben. Ugh and that thing with Krissi weirded me out. (hide spoiler)]

Stacey wrote: "Wigs wrote: "Okay I just finished! ..."
[spoilers removed]"

THIS!

Thanks Wigs, those details were actually really helpful.I'm going to give it a go even though I'll most likely be upset by it anyway, but it somehow feels like it won't be so bad now that I know it's coming.

Pardon my ignorance, but (view spoiler)[what was the drug Ben, Trey, and Diondra snorted before they slaughtered the cow (hide spoiler)]?

I'm definitely going to finish this tonight!

Trying to read this on my iPhone is infuriating. Grr.

Lol I know I have to use the safari app to check under the spoilers. I dunno the answer to the q but I plan on looking it up at home

Wigs wrote: "Okay I just finished! Do not open if you have not finished the book! ..."

yeah I don't even know how I felt about (view spoiler)[ben at the end. obviously he grew up quite a bit in jail but he seemed to not have any remorse for what diondra did to his baby sister and his devotion to her creeps me out tbh. god when patty was just so accepting of her death and then she had to see her daughter getting murdered as well...so fucking brutal, I felt AWFUL, imagine your last moments being such severe guilt and regret and helplessness like that ugh. that was the hardest part of the book for me to read tbh I just felt so bad for her. :( (hide spoiler)]