Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn
Published: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2012
Pages: 395

Nick Dunne has good life, but on the morning of their five year anniversary his clever and beautiful wife, Amy, disappears leaving chaos in her wake.  The search is on and Nick isn't doing himself any favors with his cringe-worthy performance for the press.  Amy is gone leaving Nick to wade through a series of lies and deceit to find out what really happen, and the question everyone is asking: did Nick kill Amy?

This book is a whirl-wind of mystery and plot twists and 'didn't-see-that-coming's.  I'm fairly decent at figuring out a some of the mystery in books before it's revealed, but this book caught me by surprise every single time.  I was thrown for a loop every time the characters revealed different aspects of themselves to the reader.

There is some incredible characterization in this book.  Gillian Flynn is excellent at revealing different aspects of her characters in the most intriguing ways; she can paint people innocent and then in one sentence break every conception reveal their innermost despicable qualities.  This is one of the reasons it is hard to choose a side in this story, it's hard to decide who is in the wrong.   This book will make you think hard about the people you know.

The story is told in dual point of view, Nick Dunne and his wife, Amy Elliot Dunne.  Nick's POV is told in real time and Amy's is in the form of journal entries.  I thought this was a really intriguing way to tell a story, it definitely gives us two very different perspectives of the situation at hand.  I really enjoyed tension that was added because of the differing POVs and the contradictions that happen because of it.  It definitely added to the suspenseful nature of this novel.

Gillian Flynn has crafted an excellent thriller that made me paranoid for a good couple of weeks after I finished the novel.  She questions the human condition and the plausibility for hiding true colors in your own home, from the people who know you the best.  I will be looking forward to the movie adaptation; I cannot wait to see how this novel turns out on the big screen.

4/5 Stars

Praise:

"Ms. Flynn writes dark suspense novel that anatomize violence without splashing barrels of blood around the pages... But as in her other books, Ms. Flynn has much more up her sleeve than a simple missing-person case.  As Nick and Amy's alternately tell their stories, marriage has never looked so menacing, narrators so unreliable."
     --Wall Street Journal

"Readers who prefer more virulent strains of unreality will appreciate the sneaky mind games of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, a thriller rooted in the portrait of a tricky and troubled marriage."
     --New York Times

"A perfect wife's disappearance plunges her husband into a nightmare as it rips open ugly secrets about his marriage and, just maybe, his culpability in her death... One of those rare thrillers whose revelations actually intensify its suspense instead of dissipating it.  The final pages are chilling."
     --Kirkus, starred review