March Book Review: Dark Places

If you've been following me the past few months, you know that I joined a REAL LIFE book club in my neighborhood as well as a virtual book club started by the Circle of Pine Trees blog.  You can click the button on the right side of my blog "A Year in Books" to join up - it's never too late!

With my real life book club I am trudging along through the book Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Seriously, when the club leaders said we would have 2 months to read this book, I scoffed. I'm a very fast reader, I can simply absorb books.  WOW have I been put in my place.  I need at least 6 months for this baby!  And thanks to all those who commented or emailed me telling me not to give up on Middlemarch.  Actually I don't dislike Middlemarch, but it is very tedious and very detailed and very very long.  It's like reading all of Jane Austen (with less humor and lighthearted romance) wrapped up into one book.  And I happen to be an Austen fan (Sense and Sensibility is my absolute FAVE Austen).

So, enough about that - I'm on like page 178 of a kazillion pages!  Basically not even a third of the way through.  I am not sure if I will finish by the time our next club meeting happens.

To keep myself from getting too overwhelmed, I've been slipping in some quick reads.  My book to report on for March (for the virtual book club) is Dark Places.  This book is by Gillian Flynn, the same author of the popular read, Gone Girl.  I didn't read Gone Girl but when someone offered me Dark Places and I saw it was the same author and had heard a lot of people had liked Gone Girl, I decided to give it a whirl.

I did NOT like this book.  Really, it didn't have anything to do with the writing or the author.  BUT... the subject matter was disturbing.  The main character is a pretty messed up gal (around 30 yrs old during most of her narration) and most of her family was brutally murdered.  When I read a book, I often fall in love with the characters even though they are very different from me or from other characters I read about.  I like several genres of books and love all kinds of characters, current, historical, international etc... However, I did not like spending time with the characters in this book.  The main character wasn't necessarily BAD but her life was totally depressing to me - as were the lives of most of the characters.  Some chapters I could hardly read because they depressed me so much.  This book is not a bad book - it just wasn't my type of read and literally left me with chills and a completely yucky feeling as I read it.

Did you read Gone Girl?  Was it any different?  Do you like this type of book or characters.  I'm wondering if I'm a total odd-ball for feeling this way about the book.  I'd love to hear your opinion.