Dark Places

“I can feel a better version of me somewhere in there—hidden behind a liver or attached to a bit of spleen within my stunted, childish body—a Libby that’s telling me to get up, do something, grow up, move on. But the meanness usually wins out.”

This statement shows the internal struggle that characterizes Libby throughout the novel: her belief in her inherent badness versus her desire to create a better version of herself. She connects the murders with her stunted growth, both physically and emotionally, and believes that she has to erase the past in order to move on. By the end of the novel, she learns to accept the past, rather than hiding from it.

“He took off his hat, and on his head was a jet-black crown of hair, ruffed like an old Labrador. It was such a shock, like swallowing ice water too quickly, her red-headed boy, Ben’s defining characteristic, gone. He looked older. Mean. As if this kid in front of her had bullied the Ben she knew into oblivion.”

The first disturbing incident in the novel is Ben coloring his hair. The change is sudden and without explanation, so his family does not know what to think. The description of Ben looking mean and aggressive foreshadows violence and makes the change ominous. Flynn uses irony here because Diondra, a character who has not yet appeared in the story, is engineering Ben’s style change.

“I assumed everything bad in the world could happen, because everything bad in the world already did happen. But, then, weren’t the chances minuscule that I, Libby Day, would meet harm on top of it? Wasn’t I safe by default?”

Contradictions define Libby and reflect her history of trauma. The murders shape her entire worldview, and she compares every action or event to what happened that night. Her book Brand New Day! alludes to her suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, and though she never states it outright, her actions—especially her responses to stress—show that she still fears for her safety.

“Fact: Somewhere around 2 a.m. on January 3, 1985, a person or persons killed three members of the Day family in their farmhouse in Kinnakee, Kansas. The deceased include Michelle Day, age ten; Debby Day, age nine; and the family matriarch, Patty Day, age thirty-two. Michelle Day was strangled; Debby Day died of axe wounds, Patty Day of two shotgun wounds, axe wounds, and deep cuts from a Bowie hunting knife.”

Flynn uses the Kill Club as a device to present the exact details of the murder without it sounding like forced exposition. Libby cannot go into the details of the murder because she is still traumatized, and any thoughts of her family lead her to Darkplace. Lyle cannot state the details in this matter-of-fact way because he is considerate of Libby’s feelings. The Kill Club lays out the Day murders like a depersonalized event in a police report rather than a tragedy that happened in someone’s family.

“The whole idea made her incredibly sad. That in this house of women, her boy had colored his hair in the night by himself. Obviously, it was silly to think he’d have asked her for help, but to do such a thing without an accomplice seemed so lonely.”

At this point in the novel, Patty does not know about Ben’s girlfriend, and his loner nature reinforces her belief that Ben dyed his hair of his own accord. Patty feels sympathy for Ben and tries to understand him, especially his status as a teenage boy who is growing up around women and girls. Ben’s tense, secretive behavior at home is yet another false clue Flynn provides to explain Ben’s motive for killing his family.

“[…] I couldn’t picture Runner getting away with it, he wasn’t smart enough, and definitely not ambitious enough. He couldn’t even be a dad to his lone surviving child.”

After speaking with Barb and the Kill Club, Libby entertains the idea that Ben may be innocent. This leads to the question of who is responsible for the murders. Runner emerges as one of the main suspects, but Libby, who knows him personally, understands that Runner could not have and would not have committed the murders in that way; his main characteristic is negligence rather than violence.

“Was I really going to go talk to people who might have killed my family? Was I really going to try to solve something? In any way but wishful thinking could I believe Ben was innocent? And if he was innocent, didn’t that make me the biggest bastard in history?”

This moment in the novel corresponds to the “Call to Adventure” in the Hero’s Journey narrative structure. Libby has spent most of her life in a state of avoidance regarding her family’s murder. Now, circumstances are forcing her to take an active role in confronting the past and questioning the choices she made at that time.

“At one point she grabbed his arm and leaned into him and he knew he should tell her not to, but it felt so sweet and not at all weird and just nice, not like Diondra’s sex-crazed scratching and yelling or his sisters’ poking and roughhousing, but sweet the way a girl should be.”

Ben’s feelings for the much younger Krissi complicate the allegations against him. The narrative establishes that he finds Krissi attractive, even more so than his age-appropriate girlfriend. Krissi is one of the few people in the book who, at first, does not make him feel emasculated—he even wants to name his unborn daughter after her. He is conflicted about his desire for physical contact with her, and they eventually kiss. Ben, aware that it’s inappropriate, decides not to cross that line again; despite this, rumors begin circulating that he sexually assaulted Krissi.

“‘But,’ I said, and gulped down a sob like a kid. ‘But my testimony. I think, I may, I don’t know, I don’t know …’ […] ‘Oh that.’ He said, like it was a minor inconvenience, some snag in a summer vacation best forgotten. ‘You don’t read my letters, huh? […] It only surprised me that people believed you.’”

When Libby confronts Ben for the first time since the murders, she is sure that he will be angry with her. In Libby’s mind, she is responsible for Ben’s conviction because she was the only witness. Contrary to her expectations, Ben never held her accountable because she was a child, and her account of the murders was obviously false. If Libby had read Ben’s letters, she could have let go of her guilt a long time ago, but she was too afraid of revisiting the past.

“It is always consoling to think of suicide; it’s what gets one through many a bad night.”

This is a quote from the late 19th- and early 20th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that Ben reads in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. Ben’s thoughts of suicide help him cope with the internal and external difficulties he faces. Ben does not fit in and feels out of place in every aspect of his life.

“They’d liked Ben’s patter, but Trey was spookier. He sat there almost cross-legged, eyeing them in a way that seemed friendly on the surface, but was entirely without warmth. And while his body was folded in a casual way, every limb was held at a tense, sharp angle. There was something deeply unkind about him.”

Flynn characterizes Trey as unpredictable and dangerous. He is an example of a character with violent tendencies who does not commit murder. Flynn sets him up as a potential suspect, especially during the scene of the cow massacre. His influence on Ben also strengthens the possibility of Ben’s guilt; these implications add suspense to the mystery.

“My stomach lurched at a lonely image of me trapped here or somewhere like it. It wasn’t so unlikely, for a woman with no family, no money and no skills. A woman with a certain unwholesome pragmatism. I’d spread my legs for nice men I knew would be good for a few months of free meals. I’d done it and never felt guilty, so how much would it take to find me here?”

When Libby visits Krissi at the strip club, she relates to Krissi’s situation. At this point in the novel, Libby still sees herself as someone with no support system and no means of taking care of herself. Krissi’s experience exemplifies how the events of that time negatively influenced her life in a way similar to Libby’s.

“She never wrote Mommy, I thought, we never called her that even as kids. I want my mommy, I thought. We never said that. I want my mom. I felt something loosen in me, that shouldn’t have loosened. A stitch come undone.”

This is one of the first times Libby allows herself to remember her family, and it begins to break down her emotional resolve. Libby’s defiance is a defense mechanism that keeps her from feeling vulnerable. Now, childhood emotions resurface and reveal her emotional vulnerability, which Libby fears will lead her back to Darkplace.

“I wish I could say [Diondra] was my girlfriend. She was, just totally out of my league. I don’t even remember getting a note from her.”

This is Ben’s first lie to Libby in the present day. So far, her interactions with him have suggested that he was wrongfully convicted. However, his denial of knowing Diondra after the narrative has already confirmed their relationship makes him seem suspicious, and the possibility of his guilt resurfaces.

“Anyway, in the past month, it was clear she was definitely pregnant, at least if you saw her naked. She still went to school, dressed in those giant baggy sweaters, and she left her jeans unbuttoned and partly unzipped, and the mound got bigger, […] and one day, she grabbed his hand and he felt it, no doubt—that thing was kicking and all of a sudden he saw the swipe of a little foot move under the surface of Diondra’s skin, smooth and fast.”

The next chapter confirms that not only are Ben and Diondra dating, but she is also pregnant. This makes his earlier lie incredibly suspicious, since Ben is still the prime suspect in the Day murders. Ben’s denial of knowing Diondra in the previous chapter, and Diondra’s absence from the present timeline, raises the possibility that he killed her as well.

“I’d wanted so badly for Runner to give something up, make me believe he did it. But seeing him only reminded me how impossible it was that he killed them all, how dumb he was. Dumb, it was a word you used as a kid, but it was the best way to describe Runner. Wily and dumb at the same time.”

Libby’s trip to Oklahoma to see Runner confirms her intuition that Runner is not the murderer. This disappoints her, even though it is unsurprising. Libby’s desire for Runner’s guilt despite her knowledge that the murder would be out of character for him shows her desperation to solve the mystery so she can move forward with her life.

“To Satan we bring you sacrifice, we bring you pain, and blood, and fear, and rage, the basis of human life. We honor you, Dark One. In your power, we become more powerful, in your exaltation, we become exalted.”

The greatest irony of the novel is that the teenagers accused of Satanic worship turn out to actually worship Satan. Unlike Flynn’s misleading portrayal of Ben as violent and predatory, the accusations of Satanic worship are true. But the situation is still different than it appeared, because it is not Ben’s ritual: it’s Trey and Diondra’s. Their prayer to Satan shows that they want power, and they believe one achieves power through violence. The declaration that fear and rage are “the basis of human life” is a thematic statement that raises the question of human nature: whether violence, such as the cow massacres and the Day murders, are aberrations or the result of humans’ natural instinct for violence.

“Doesn’t this all seem too weird, like we’re missing something obvious? A girl tells a lie, a farm goes under, a gambler’s bets are called in by a, jeez, by a Devil-worshiping bookie. All on the same day.”

Coincidence plays an important role in casting suspicion on certain characters. Flynn deepens the mystery by making some events, such as the farm foreclosure, relevant to the murder. Others, such as the “Devil-worshipping bookie,” are red herrings, events meant to misdirect the reader. Only at the end of the novel does it become clear how these events connect.

“Diondra opened the door, decidedly undead.”

Libby’s visit to Diondra resolves the question of whether Ben murdered her. Diondra appeared in most of the chapters told from Ben’s point of view, but until now, she has not been able to speak for herself. Libby’s visit provides the opportunity for Diondra to tell her own side of the story. It also introduces Crystal, Diondra and Ben’s daughter, revealing to Libby one more piece of the puzzle.

“The Days weren’t quite dying out yet. They were in fact flourishing, with this pretty, tall girl who looked like me but with all her fingers and toes and without my nightmare brain. I wanted to ask a flood of nosy questions: Did she have weak eyes, like Michelle? Was she allergic to strawberries like my mom? Did she have sweet blood, like Debby, get eaten alive by mosquitos, spend the summer stinking of CamphoPhenique? Did she have a temper, like me, a distance like Ben? Was she manipulative and guiltless like Runner? What was she like, what was she like, tell me the many ways she was like the Days, and remind me of how we were.”

At first, Crystal seems like a blessing to Libby, someone who gives her a connection to her family that is not filled with memories of the murder. This passage reveals how desperately Libby wants to reconnect with her family and remember happier times. She even wants to know Crystal’s negative qualities, in the hopes that she might recognize and relate to them. Crystal and Diondra’s later attack shatters any chance that they might share a future.

“He brushed his flashlight over the tops of the reeds and saw a flash of her red hair amidst the bland yellow and he yelled, ‘Libby, stay where you are, sweetheart!’ and turned and ran back to the house.”

“He brushed his flashlight over the tops of the reeds and saw a flash of her red hair amidst the bland yellow and he yelled, ‘Libby, stay where you are, sweetheart!’ and turned and ran back to the house.”

“Ben, whatever happens, don’t blame yourself. […] My life has been determined so much by accidents, it seems nice that now an ‘accident on purpose’ will make things right again. A happy accident. Take good care of each other, I know Diane will do right by you. I’m only sad I won’t get to see what good people you become. Although I don’t need to. That’s how sure I am of my kids.”

Patty’s suicide note devastates Libby because her plan turned out so differently than she intended. Her assertation her children will grow up to be good people is a direct contrast to Libby’s belief that the Day blood is bad. In the end, however, Patty is proven correct; Ben was not the murderer, nor was Libby responsible for putting her brother in jail.

“He didn’t want to do it, but no one got to see his face, he had to protect himself first and he had to get her before she woke the other kids up—he knew there were more, and he knew he didn’t have the heart to kill all of them. That wasn’t his mission, his mission was to help.”

Debby’s presence forces Calvin to change his plan, which ends in tragedy. Killing Debby goes against Calvin’s code of only performing “assisted suicides” and leads him to lose control and brutally murder them both. His guilt over Debby’s murder drives him to confess in the end.