68 pages • 2 hours read
Dark Places
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
Dark Places is a 2009 mystery thriller novel by American author Gillian Flynn. The narrative moves between two time periods, 1985 and 2009, as the protagonist, Libby Day, tries to solve her family’s brutal murder. The novel deals with the consequences of the 1980s Satanic Panic and the fallout from the 1970s Farm Boom for a community in the rural Midwest. Flynn is the author of Gone Girl (2012) and other popular mystery thrillers.
Dark Places garnered many awards. It was a New York Times bestseller, a Best Book of 2009 for Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker’s Reviewers’ Favorite Book from 2009, among other accolades. The novel was adapted into a film starring Charlize Theron in 2015. This guide uses the eBook published by Crown in 2009.
Content warning: The book includes scenes of graphic murder, violence against children, Satanic worship, and references to addiction, death by suicide, and child molestation.
Plot Summary
Protagonist Libby Day, 31, is the only survivor of a horrific murder in which her mother, Patty, and two sisters, Michelle and Debby, were killed. Her brother, Ben, was convicted and is serving a life sentence. The murders occurred when Libby was seven, and the public created a donation fund that was released to her when she turned 18.
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By Gillian Flynn
