Dark Places

About 2 years ago, I read a book called Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn. I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone. Although, I adore Gillian Flynn's writing and her uncanny ability to think the story is going one way, then make dynamic and sudden twists and turns. I think this book was a little too dark for me, (my fault, I mean "DARK Places" I really should've  seen all that coming. She was literally as up front as she could've been-- I should've judged a book by it's cover.) ANYWAYS, I will spare you the nitty-gritty details, but this book had all the things that made your skin crawl: lying, rape, bullying, murder, someone being pressured into Satanism, etc. So. Much. Darkness. So much sin in one book. 
Sometimes, in my life, it's kind of difficult for me to point out sin. It’s in my life, daily, yes. But it’s different when it’s all together, page-by-page, staring at your face, collected in one book. When each character is worse than the next, and the story keeps getting twisted and darker and darker.
Some of y'all might ask me why I kept reading it when it made me feel some type of way. There's a few reasons why I kept reading it... 1. How did it end!? I must know! What happened to these poor characters and their families? What was their fate? 2. I kind of like the fact that it made me feel something deeper than the usual book, even if that something was not a great emotion. I remember my heart feeling so heavy after each time I read it. The sin in the book was so heavy and dark and everywhere. The main characters were put in terrible circumstances and they had choices to make. The book made me feel for these characters and their life circumstance. It may sound odd, but the book made me pray more. The book made me seek Christ more. And the book made me aware of the sin in my life. 
I have a hard time admitting I read a dark book, and I would not recommend it to anyone, because it really could put you in a dark place. But after finishing the book, I remember praying, "God, thank you for the cross. Thank you for my salvation. And thank you that I don't have to spend eternity in a place that's even more awful than this book." Because ultimately, yes, the book made me feel terrible for the sin in these fictional characters' lives, but it made me think and changed my thinking. How broken am I for the sin around me? How joyful and thankful am I that Jesus overcame death and every terrible sin in that book and in my own life? That's why I continued reading.