Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

(from goodreads.com)

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Every once in a while I stumble across a book that I cannot put down, even after I'm done reading it.  Dark Places is one of these books.  It is such a page-turner that I finished it in only a couple of days.  It went everywhere with me and whenever I had a minute of downtime, I had my nose in its pages.  I can't quite put my finger on why, but there's something about this book that really makes me want to sit and think.  It's a psychological mystery.  It has honest, grainy human emotions and it looks so deeply into Libby Day's tainted soul that the reader can't help but root for her.  She's so pathetic and yet compelling at the same time.  It's hard to explain.  Maybe it's like when you were a child and went to the sketchy part of town for the first time.  There were homeless people in various states of griminess (yes, I probably made up that word) and as an adult, we know better than to stare at the worst of them.  But, as a child, it's mesmerizing and no matter how many times your mom yanks on your hand or knocks you on the back of your head, you just can't stop staring.  I think that's kind of what it's like when I read this book. 

SPOIILER ALERT*********SPOILER ALERT**********SPOILER ALERT**********

Flynn is a master at creating people and relationships.  Libby and Ben.  Ben and Diondra, both in the past and the present.  Ben and Patty Day.  Patty and Diane.  Krissi and Ben in the past.  Krissi and Libby in the present.  Runner.  Ben and Trey with Diondra.  Libby is a pathetic character, in the beginning of the book.  She is a manipulative, lying, stealing woman who never got over the violent loss of her family.  She witnessed something so horrible that the country seemed to rush to her aid, but rather than being helped to heal, she found herself manipulated by a political agenda then left alone to "deal" and "move on".  Sure, she received therapy, but her aunt had to drive her far for it, so it was only natural that she eventually stop going.  Her Aunt Diane lived in a trailer.  She worked as a doctor's receptionist.  Libby's childhood went from dismal (on the farm) to depressed (with her Aunt Diane) to pathetic (in her adulthood).  She had obvious issues with anger, depression, and trust.  But then again, who wouldn't, in her situation?  How could she have grown up, set goals, overcome small obstacles like the SAT's, when her psyche was trying to deal with her witnessing the murder of everyone she loved and the world was telling her that the murderer is her one surviving family member? 

I love stories with twists.  This book is full of 'em.  I loved how Flynn revealed present and past stories simultaneously, so you constantly wondered what actually happened and whether or not Libby was safe in the present.  I loved how there are so many different things going on and in the end, Flynn manages to tie everything in together.  The Angel of Debt and Patty and Debby.  Diondra and Michelle.  Ben and his choice of inaction.  This makes me wonder if he would have stopped Diondra if Libby and Michelle had been in each other's places that night.  Libby and her choice to flee the house.  Krissi and all her lies.  She was only a little girl who wanted to brag about her high school boyfriend.  When it got her her parent's attention, she embellished.  When her parents told other people, she was stuck.  Her friends then got caught up in the excitement of it all and it was too late.  The stones against Ben were piling up and it's our privelage as readers to get to follow along as Libby digs through the rubble.       

The Child Thief by Brom

Peter is quick, daring, and full of mischief--and like all boys, he loves to play, though his games often end in blood. His eyes are sparkling gold, and when he graces you with his smile you are his friend for life, but his promised land is "not" Neverland.

Fourteen-year-old Nick would have been murdered by the drug dealers preying on his family had Peter not saved him. Now the irresistibly charismatic wild boy wants Nick to follow him to a secret place of great adventure, where magic is alive and you never grow old. Even though he is wary of Peter's crazy talk of faeries and monsters, Nick agrees. After all, New York City is no longer safe for him, and what more could he possibly lose?

There is "always" more to lose.

Accompanying Peter to a gray and ravished island that was once a lush, enchanted paradise, Nick finds himself unwittingly recruited for a war that has raged for centuries--one where he must learn to fight or die among the "Devils," Peter's savage tribe of lost and stolen children.

There, Peter's dark past is revealed: left to wolves as an infant, despised and hunted, Peter moves restlessly between the worlds of faerie and man. The Child Thief is a leader of bloodthirsty children, a brave friend, and a creature driven to do whatever he must to stop the "Flesh-eaters" and save the last, wild magic in this dying land.

(from goodreads.com)

I rate this book an entire galaxy full of stars...out of 5 stars.

In case you can't tell by the rating, I absolutely ADORE this book.  It has everything that I could ever have wanted in a book.  And, the ironic thing is that I bought this at least a year ago and it's been sitting on my shelf, collecting dust with all my other cast-off's from college.  I only got it because there was a bogo ("buy one, get one") half off sale and it was my second choice that day.  Can you imagine?!  I almost didn't get it and I probably never would have read it if I didn't pick it up that day.  Oh, the horror of thinking that I would have missed out on this treasure!

Anyway, perhaps I should get to the point and tell you why I love it, hmm?  Well, its storyline is very loosely based on the classic story of Peter Pan (which, by the way, if you've ever read the original version is much different than the Disney-fied version).  I wasn't a huge fan of Peter Pan (either the Disney or the original), so I wasn't too keen on reading this book, which may be why I let it sit on my shelf for so long.  Peter, a hybrid human/faerie (and no I'm not spelling faerie incorrectly) creature who is forever stuck in the face, body, and impulses of a pre-teenage boy.  He lives in a magical place that is enchanting and scary all at the same time.  He comes to our reality to "steal children," that are part of the dregs of society.  These kids are homeless, runaways, thieves, abused...you name it, they've experienced it.  All except love, that is.  So, Peter befriends them by eliminating the source of their stresses (usually a drug dealer or abusive parent) and plays with them until he gains their trust.  He becomes the new "adult" in their life that they think will take care of them.  Why?  Well, because if we were to let all pre-adolescent children run loose, they would seek order and find someone to lead and take care of them the way a parent does.  They seek acceptance and approval.  Come to think of it, most of us adults have never outgrown that. 

**SPOILER ALERT ******** SPOILER ALERT********SPOILER ALERT**

After Peter gains their trust and convinces them that he's the best big brother in the world, he tells them that there's a place they can go to that is everything a child could ever want.  He speaks of fighting monsters, playing with other kids, staying up all night...and the older ones listen with a skeptical ear while the younger ones completely buy into it.  He then takes them into the "mist," which is aptly named.  He leads and they follow.  If they stray, then they get lost and die.  Before entering the mist Peter doesn't tell them that.  He doesn't tell them that he needs to concentrate on a very thin thread of gold that is the path and if he is distracted then they will both be lost and die.  He also doesn't tell them that the reason they die is because there are things in the mist that will kill the living.  Things like monsters, angry ghosts, sirens...basically, it's the stuff that monsters have nightmares about.  Peter doesn't tell them any of that.  He just asks them to say, "I go willingly," and then he expects them to follow.  He loses a lot of the kids that way.  Then, he has a moment of remorse, and he's back out in the world, looking for more lost, starving, miserable children. 

But, you may wonder, why does Peter work so hard to "steal" these children if he's going to let them get lost in the mist?  Well, Peter is bewitched (although some may call it love) by Modron, a.k.a. the Lady.  He met her when he was very young (6ish I believe) and she showed him kindness because Peter reminded her of her lost son Mabon.  She asks her nephew Ulfger to take Peter outside to play and they end up skirmishing and Peter bites off one of Ulfger's ears.  Since Ulfger is royalty, he has his guards hunt Peter for the next many years (time is strange).  The Lady created the mist to keep Avalon (that's the name of the magical island) hidden.  Peter is forced into the mist one day and he finds that tiny gold thread that allows him to know the path.  He wanders around reality and is horrified at the carnage that humans are capable of.  He stumbles onto a farm.  There are men who have killed the locals and have trapped all the children so that they could enslave them or kill them.  Peter rescues the children and sees the potential they have as warriers.  He sees in them a strength and hardness that only comes from experiencing horror.  All the children grow up way too fast, and that's the theme of the book.  Bodies and hearts of children with the minds and convictions of adults. 

These little warriors become Peter's devils and they make a place for themselves in Avalon.  At some point, the Lady lifts the mists and the humans openly come and worship her.  Then, a few ships arrive and appear to settle in although their version of the story is that they were only refilling their supplies.  The Lady sends some of her guard to ask the ships to leave but when the humans see the mythological creatures approaching them they panic and attack.  The kill several of them on sight.  Then Avalon is thrown in to war.  The Lady's brother, the Horned One, unites all of Avalon and attacks the men.  They attack back with their cannons and gun powdered weapons.  The Horned One dies along with most of the devils and Avalon retreats.  The Lady puts up the mist and goes into depression.  Peter spends the next 300 or so years bringing more children from reality and training them to be warriors.  In the meantime, they struggle to survive on berries while running from the more dangerous creatures of the island.  The humans either go crazy or develop warts, pox scabs, and become covered in scales, which makes them even less approachable to the island's inhabitants.  The Lady, in true royalty fashion, goes into hiding and it is up to Ulfger, who turns out to be crazy, himself, to defend and lead Avalon. 

It becomes aparent that Peter loves the children and he mourns the loss of each one, although there are so many that he often can't remember their names.  However, he does whatever he thinks is best for the Lady, which means that he sends the children out knowing that they have a very slim chance of making it back to their refuge.  One of the children, Nick, points it out to Peter that he has given so many lives to the Lady and that she has stolen Peter's soul.  Nick asks Peter, "how many more lives?"  And that haunts Peter, making him feel ashamed of his choices.  At the end of the book, good prevails.  The bad guys die, the Lady lives, the one bad guy who had a good heart gets away, and Cricket (Nick's friend) sees the truth about Peter.  Peter sees the truth about the Lady and he truely begins to mourn his lost children.  He turns his back on her and goes to fulfill a promise he made to Nick.  He chooses to keep his word rather than live and die only for the Lady. 

Peter and Nick are the main characters so of course they have the most character development, but there is enough about the other characters that each of them developes a soul and makes a bond with the reader.  The Captain, whom Peter fears more than anything else on the island, just wants to go home and spend time with his family.  The other lost children seek Peter's approval and desperately try to prove themselves worthy of his attention.  Ulfger, even in his madness, is a sympathetic character who's got some serious Daddy issues.  The Lady, her sister the Witch...they all have very humanistic characteristics that make them seem vulnerable and terrible at the same time. 

My favorite thing about this story is that at different parts of the book, I found myself rooting for different characters.  Sometimes I wanted Nick to win.  Other times, I wanted Peter to win.  Sometimes it was the Lady.  Sometimes Tanngnost was a savior, at others he was the reason everything goes to Hell.  I felt equal parts bad and abhorrance for the Captain and Danny.  The same with Sekeu.  Brom is a brilliant writer.  His fictional world is so unreal, yet very real.  The danger, the rewards, and the hope are so strongly woven into every page of the book.  This is definitely a page-turner.  It's a, "let's order out for dinner so that I can spend more time reading," kind of book.  It reminds you of that moment when you grew up.  It reminds you how poignant it can be to finally find a friend who is loyal and true to you.  It reminds you that the lines between good and evil are not always clearly defined.  It reminds you to look under your bed for monsters before you go to sleep at night.