Before the narrator had even finished saying the words "We hope you have enjoyed this unabridged recording..." I was going to Overdrive in a frantic attempt to get this book off of my iPad as quickly as possible. It had tainted it somehow. I needed it gone. The first half of the book I was enraptured by. I normally only listen to audiobooks while at work, going back and forth between podcasts, spotify and whatever audiobook I have downloaded, all depending on my mood. But I could not stop listening to Dark Places for all of yesterday. The walk to my car from my desk seemed incredibly long, me traversing the short distance in silence without the narrator's pleasant lilt in my ears. And then at some point my mood shifted. As more and more of the story became clear, I grew anxious with dread, like I could sense that the book was going to be a disappointment. The characters who weren't Libby and her sisters became more and more vile and I found myself hating all of them, hating every foreseen misunderstanding that appeared and yet feeling zero sympathy for anyone. And by the time the end came, I just wanted it over with. 
 I never read Gone Girl. I learned the twist fairly early on, was spoiled for the entire plot and after that didn't see much point. But Dark Places had been on my to read list for a very long time, long before Gone Girl was the monolithic hype machine everyone in the book community seemed to be talking about. I vowed to not allow myself to learn anything about Dark Places out of fear that the experience would be ruined like Gone Girl was for me. I've read that Gillian Flynn has a penchant for creating unlikeable characters and after reading Dark Places I have no problems believing that. I hate it when the main criticism I have is the overly stated go to argument nay sayers like to spout; it seems like I'm somehow cheating, that now I'm just another one of those people who "don't get it." But man... I really hated everyone. Everyone except Libby, who I think I was actually SUPPOSED to dislike for most of the book. Even in the beginning when Libby was being rude for no real reason, acting like a spoiled brat as opposed to the mid 30 year old adult she was, I liked her and understood why she was the way she was. She was clearly suffering from depression, which made perfect sense giving the horrific crime she lived through in her childhood. That doesn't excuse her horribly rude behavior, but I couldn't really fault her for it, even upon learning some of the utterly horrific things she did when living with her aunt. 
 However, the other POV chapters, Patty and Ben (Libby's mother and brother) brought nothing but abject loathing on my part. I suppose I should feel bad for Patty, understand her plight more and act more like a caring human being. Patty is a single mother divorced from her wholly revolting deadbeat of a husband, a miserable cockroach of a human being, and now has to care for 4 children on her own while also running the family farm that is massively in debt. She too clearly had some form of intense depression, unable to leave her bed for days at a time, and yet I could not feel for her at all. Patty's tendency towards unintentional neglect I suppose should have made me feel a mixed set of emotions but I was as judgmental towards her as everyone in the town. She WAS a bad mother. I don't care how well intended and overwhelmed she was, she was endangering her children. None of this means that I feel she deserved to be murdered but I also couldn't bring myself to be on her side when she went into bouts of woe about how she knows she's a bad mom but doesn't know what to do. These are your children. If you are able to recognize that you are being a neglectful parent, you can at least TRY to reach out to others for help. 
 Ben was just vile. The book starts out with only two views of Ben: Libby's hazy memory of the night of the murders, certain Ben was the one who committed them and the opinions of a group of women who have been conversing with Ben while he's in prison and believe he's a misunderstood angel who is innocent, I tell you! The ladies are also vile, by the way. They actively scream, belittle, harass and abuse Libby, the clear victim of the massacre but OH NO. POOR MISUNDERSTOOD BEN :( :( HOW COULD LITTLE LIBBY WHEN SHE WAS 8 OR WHATEVER TESTIFY AGAINST HIM???? SHE CLEARLY IS THE AGGRESSOR HERE. 
 Sigh. I'm getting mad and not very coherent. 
 Right. Back to Ben and why I hated him. As we saw more of Ben's internal struggles it began intensely clear how messed up he was. He had so much anger towards everyone who he perceived to have wronged in at all. Even passing looks made him flame up in an internal rage about what they surely must be thinking about him. For as much as I disliked Patty, at least I wasn't like Ben. Ben hated everything about his mom, about his sisters. He hated his entire family. Ben was incredibly fixated on how he wasn't a "man" being the only boy in the house and since his father was decomposing pond scum made flesh. I already have little tolerance for what society claims men should be like to be OFFICIAL men, but had even less tolerance for Ben's internal conflict with trying to prove himself. Killing things? Standing by "his woman" who was even worse than he was? Wanting to behave like even more of a shithead (pardon my language) than he already was behaving? KILLING MORE ANIMALS because he wanted to gain power through Satan (no really, that happened)?? I just.. no. I will not spoil whether or not Ben actually did the killings but rest assured that he is NOT a good person. If he isn't guilty than I am convinced he would have killed someone at some point. 
 I do feel bad giving this book such a low rating. It was incredibly well crafted in terms of the actual writing. I finished the book not because I felt obligated to, but because I really wanted to know what happened. I was engaged by the story and WANTED to see it to its end, I couldn't leave it unfinished. But I wanted to vomit afterword. The ending left me nothing but dissatisfied and disgusted by Ben and Patty. They are pathetic people whom I abhor. Pathetic, unlikable, horrible people. And please do not think that I just want to read escapist stories with happy people and happy endings. I frequently read novels that are overly dark in their subject matter, and will gladly take a character that is complex and unlikeable over a Mary Sue. But Dark Places' characters didn't even seem conceivable in their ugliness. Earlier this year I read Tampa, a book from the point of view of a female teacher attracted to her middle school students and purposefully entrapping and abusing them. I would gladly reread Tampa before I ever touched Dark Places again.