Book Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

My Rating: ★★★★☆

Genre: Adult Fiction, Thriller, Mystery

Plot: Libby day was seven years old when she stood before a court and said that her family was murdered by her brother Ben. Now in her thirties, Libby is contacted by a group of conspiracy theorists who believe that her brother is innocent. Libby begins questioning her memory and, with the help of the socially-awkward Lyle, starts to research and retrace the steps of everyone involved that night.

Pros:

• The plot twist at the end.
• Libby is tiny-short. Go short people!
• I liked that it switched between past and present.
• Gillian Flynn's storytelling abilities are phenomenal. 
• Libby's snark is seriously the best.

Cons:

• It took a long time for the story to get going.
• I wasn't sure about Diondra and Trey.
• I really want to know what happens to Ben in the end.

Favorite Quotes: 

• “The truly frightening flaw in humanity is our capacity for cruelty - we all have it.”
• “It was surprising that you could spend hours in the middle of the night pretending things were okay, and know in thirty seconds of daylight that simply wasn't so”
• “I am not angry or sad or happy to see you. I could not give a shit. You don't even ripple.” 
• “I don’t know anyone’s name. If one of those women died, I couldn’t even say, 'Poor old Mrs. Zalinsky died.' I’d have to say, 'That mean old bitch across the street bit it.'

My Thoughts: It took me a really long time to read this book. The plot is slow until the last 1/4 of the book story, which is really hard to get through when you've got a million other books to read. But the twist at the end really made it worth waiting. I love the way Gillian writes. Like Gone Girl, this book kept me guessing until the very last page.

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
B&N
Book Depository
Gillian Flynn

Writing update!

So, I started querying last week! I was feeling down about things and needed to take my mind off life, so I sat down and wrote about ten drafts of my query letter before it was just right, then found five agents and sent my letters out.

I received my first rejection today, but I'm not really that upset about it because my book would just BARELY fit within the type of books that they normally represent, so it was a really long shot. I'm going to polish my letter a bit and send a couple more letters out this week.

After I finished my letters, I made an author page on facebook. It might be too soon, but I want to keep everything in the same place, and since no one reads this blog or checks their email, that's the best way to do it.

I also started working on the outline for Project #2!! Right now I'm just doing the outlines and character bios (in a notebook, by hand, as I do), but I'm hoping to start the first draft this week! I've already written bits and pieces of this book. It's been my back-burner project since 2010, but I've been working the idea in my head for so long that I feel like it's time to get it all out. I won't be posting any details about it any time soon, except maybe the occasional teaser quote.