My Thoughts upon COMPLETING "Dark Places" (Vaishali)

I really liked reading a lot of the analysis people posted. I actually think I’m probably going to be the harshest critic and could rant about what I didn’t like but I think the best way to put it really is that you can see in this book that Gillian Flynn is not a seasoned writer. I’m very intrigued to read “Gone Girl” now (after having seen the film), to see whether she’s worked through the issues I have with her writing. 

I agree with Stephanie that I honestly wasn’t too engrossed in the book. I’ll attribute that to the fact that, though Karen is right that none of these characters are likable, I honestly think that these characters were too black and white for me. I could probably talk about every character but I’ll start with Libby. 

I was disgusted by Libby's thoughts of jealousy when other victims were getting attention. I understand she tried to say “yeah, I know, I’m a bad person” but I didn’t feel that she was actually feeling any sort of conflict about her really mean thoughts. She was unapologetically a terrible person, in my opinion. Which brings me to the fact that I didn’t quite see the transition of her starting to care about the case. There was a line where she says something like “I would have gone to see [ someone ] even if they didn’t pay me.” I didn’t think it was realistic that she went from having only one motivation in life, acquiring money in the most lazy way possible, to saying something like “I would have done it for no money.” I’m not saying she didn’t develop a desire to find out the truth, I just think the writer did not subtly bring the readers to feel that she had grown. 

I think what makes “Gone Girl” so great (having only watched the movie), is that the storytelling is so on point. I think that’s exactly what she is working on in this book, but isn’t able to master. The face that earlier in the day, the axe and shotgun had been opportunely placed and then coincidentally, all the murders happen at once--I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. I actually think there’s more potential for the movie because maybe putting this in a visual context will work better, as opposed to “After chopping the wood, she placed the axe near the fire”. 

I have more to talk about and am looking forward to reading more of what people have to say. I think reading all your comments made me like the book better. Antara sometimes will describe the plot of a “really bad” movie she’s seen and I’ll be hearing it and say, “Actually, that sounds pretty good!” because she picks the interesting parts, tells me those, and embellishes. I think that’s kind of what your guys’ posts did for me!