Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Horrible book. I was so entertained by Gone Girl that I wanted to read all of Gillian Flynn's novels. I'm done at this one. It was so dark and disgusting that I could barely make it through the book. Extremely negative circumstances overall. The very ending held out a bit of hope, but I would never want to read a book like this on purpose again. There is a lot of blood, gore, dysfunctional relationships, and general ugliness. The language is really bad and the darkest parts of peoples' personalities are revealed. Horrible book.

A woman named Libby who is in her early 30s had her family murdered by her brother. The true killer is researched by a reluctant Libby and I would say her brother isn't totally innocent. This portrayal is far beyond what a person would describe as trash. Sick book.

I would give it a 1/10.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Great book. Very well-written in how descriptive it is. I felt like I could understand how people in the book felt and I felt I understood what it was like in New York even though I've only ever been in the airport there. I didn't know Missouri was considered the Midwest though. I thought that was North Dakota and Minnesota, maybe Ohio.

The twists in this book were totally unpredictable by me. It was a bit much at the ending, but the rest of the book was so good, that's ok. The language obscene.

I would give this book a 9 3/4 out of ten. Excellently written, excellent story. I could understand the characters... Until they got really out of hand.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

I thought I never read this book before, and maybe I didn't, maybe I saw a movie of it, so the book was not surprising. I knew what was going to happen before I read it. It was OK. Sad. It was about a girl who was raped by a popular guy in school. No one believed her. At the ending of the book everyone did believe her. The book chronicles her day-to-day challenges in dealing with the effects of the rape. I would give this book a 71/2 out of ten.