Dark Places: Book Review

BLOG NOTE: I've decided to start to blog again daily because I have the time again. But I'm thinking of changing the structure a bit. More on that when I work it out.

Summary
Libby Day's entire family was butchered when she was only seven years, old and the one locked away for their murders was her brother. But now that Libby's an adult, a club investigating her family's murders makes her doubt everything that she's ever believed.

Overview (No Spoilers)
The characters are hard to like, which is usually a turn off for me, but there were enough bits of sad and recognizable humanity in Libby to keep me going. I felt bad for her mother and didn't care at all for her brother or his friends as characters. For a murder mystery, the imagery was very well done. I'm not used to mysteries being particularly artsy in their descriptions. At the same time, I felt the plot, structure, and pacing, were all complex enough where I was compelled to keep reading but couldn't predict the end.

Book Club (Spoilers)
We talked about this book in my actual book club and a lot of people did not like the end of the book. They seemed to feel it stretched the credibility of how much Libby could change. But I didn't feel as if she was that changed at the end. She indicates that Diane had always forgiven her before. With such certainty and the fact that she's all Diane has left, I actually thought it was surprising that Diane didn't forgive her earlier and began to wonder if she might be dead. Also, while didn't care for Ben and I think he was pretty guilty for allowing his girlfriend to murder at least one of his sisters, I was less annoyed with him as an adult and could understand perfectly well why he would feel honorbound to keep the secret to protect Diondra and his child. Although, I did hate Diondra and I'm surprised her baby wasn't born malformed with all her drug use.