Book Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Dark Places is about a woman, Libby Day, whose mom and two sisters were murdered when she was seven. She famously testified that her older brother, Benjamin, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Libby is running out of money from the trust fund created for her by the donations to sympathetic strangers. She meets a group of people, members of The Kill Club, who are unconvinced that Ben was the killer. They pay her to talk to the people involved that night and find out the truth of what happened the night of the murders.

Cover: The original cover (from Gillian Flynn's website) shows two wooden panels locked by a padlock. After Gone Girl was published, new covers for both her previous books, Sharp Objects and Dark Places, were released. I got the newer version which I much prefer over the original. I also like how it matches somewhat with Gone Girl since I got that book first.

Characters: The book switches has a different point of view for every chapter but Libby is the main character.  I love that Gillian Flynn wrote characters are that deeply flawed. I neither loved them nor hated them, but I did understand their choices (even if I didn't agree with them). They are realistic, although I felt that Libby's kleptomania was unneeded. Then again, I don't know the statistics on the relationship of childhood trauma and kleptomania.

Plot: I enjoyed the plot overall, as well as how she switched the time periods for certain point of views. I was very happy that there was not an extra romantic relationship even though I was expecting it. It was definitely unneeded and would have taken away from the main themes of the book.

My biggest problem with this book was that the summary gives away too much information. We're told that Libby finds herself running from the killer again, so we're made to assume that Ben wasn't the killer. However, Libby still believes that Ben is the killer for a good portion of the book. I guess it could be argued that Ben was still guilty but I did not see it that way when I read the summary. Also,  the part where she's actually in danger is near the end of the book and it lasts for barely a chapter. The summary built it up too much so I was expecting a lot more than what was written.

Other Notes I normally have a hard time rereading books, even ones that I loved. For some, I go back and read certain parts immediately after I finish the book. This didn't happen with Dark Places. There was no particular chapter, event, or conversation that really stood out to me. So the chances of me reading Dark Places again is really low. That doesn't mean that it wasn't a good book though. I would definitely recommend it for people who enjoy darker works of mystery and suspense.

Rating: 3/5

This was actually the very first book that I read in 2014. It has taken me a long time to get this review up, mainly because it's the very first book review that I've ever written. Hopefully book reviews will start getting easier as I do more.

Post A Day April

I am going to attempt to publish one blog post for everyday in April. It's going to be a challenge because, let's be honest, having more than 3 posts in one month would be an achievement for me. Perhaps I am being a bit too ambitious and should just stick to posting once a week. I'm still going to try it though. I think it could be a good challenge to keep me motivated to actually post on this blog.

Originally, I found a website that had 30 writing prompts for their monthly challenge. But they either deleted it or changed the link to it because I can no longer find it. I'm in the process of finding another one that I like but if I can't, I might just find random prompts to use on days when I don't have any ideas for what to write about.

The hardest part for me besides choosing a topic is the revision process. Even though editing blog posts is easier and faster than editing essays or novels, I still have a very hard time with it. I hate reading things that I've written because that means I have to admit that my first draft isn't perfect. I also tend to have a fair amount of mistakes because I think a million miles per hour but my fingers can't type that fast. Well, we'll see what happens. Wish me luck!

Have you done any type of monthly challenges before? If so, how did it go?

March 2014 Las Vegas Trip

I went for a 3.5 day (Thursday through Sunday) tri to Las Vegas for my boyfriend's spring break. It probably seems like the only thing I do is go on trips but I promise that it's not. His sister turned 21 so it was to celebrate her birthday. My boyfriend and I also celebrated our 5 year anniversary during the trip.

We only went to one buffet, which was The Buffet at The Wynn. It was pretty good, definitely better than my experience at Wicked Spoon in the Cosmopolitan in August. We also went to Tacos El Gordo (the one on the strip) twice. The first time we simply wanted to try it because it's pretty popular. The second time was because my boyfriend read the address to another restaurant wrong so we just went to Tacos El Gordo because it was close.

On Saturday, we watched the Cirque du Soleil show Mystère. It was a decent show but I was somewhat disappointed. I prefer shows that actually have a story line. I watched Le Rêve in August and KÀ in October and I enjoyed both of them more than Mystère. The best part of the show was actually the live music. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I haven't seen those types of circus acts before. Watching rhythmic gymnastics has also given me very high expectations on flexibility/contortion acts.

I really enjoyed my trip overall. Unfortunately, it flew by way too quickly. We actually spent a lot of time in the casinos. I'm not a big gambler but everyone else likes to gamble. I did find an Alice in Wonderland slot machine that I really enjoyed. There were also Family Guy ones that were fun but t's hard to win money from them.

One of my friends actually invited me to go to Vegas with her sometime in April or May. Since I'm still waiting for my DI results, I couldn't give her a definite answer yet. If I do go, it'll be my 4th time in a year even though I'm not big into gambling, clubbing, or drinking. It will still be fun if I end up going though.