Dark Places Themes

Money makes the world go 'round. It's also the root of all evil. So does that mean evil makes the world go 'round? It certainly feels like that in Dark Places: all the main members of the Day famil...

Psychotherapist Michael J. Formica wrote in Psychology Today that guilt is a wasted emotion. We think Libby would have something to say about that. There's a lot of guilt in Dark Places, and many o...

They're creepy, and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. Yeah, not the Addams family—we're talking about the crazy Days. Despite being a little monstrous, the Addams family at least seemed to lo...

Journals, diaries, old family photos. All of these things serve as reminders of the past. You can look them as if they're a window to a world long forgotten, or you can box them up and hide them aw...

Only Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz wants to go back to a farmhouse in Kansas. In Dark Places, it seems like everyone wants to get as far away as possible from one. Even though their dreams are simp...

With a title like Dark Places, we know not to expect a Little Golden Book. If this were a kids' book, the Pokey Little Puppy would turn rabid, or the Little Engine that Could would derail and explo...

One thing almost all "true crimes" have in common is lies. Unsolved murders probably wouldn't go unsolved if everyone were honest. Just like true crimes throughout history, the Day farmhouse murder...

Justice is supposed to be blind, but in Dark Places, she's blind with a blindfold, Stevie Wonder glasses, and a paper bag over her head, just to be sure she makes the completely wrong decision. The...

The first line of Dark Places involves Libby trying to explain her identity to us: "I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop o...