Maddy's Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Author: Gillian Flynn
Genre: Literary Thriller
Publisher: Broadway Books
Length: 422 pages
Original Publishing Date: 2012
Series: Standalone
Where I got it: Christmas gift
Links: Goodreads Amazon Author's Website
Synopsis from Goodreads:
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
Usually when I read books, I try to guess the ending, or I at least have some notion of how I want the book to end. However, when I was reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, I realized I had absolutely no clue what was going to happen next or even what I wanted to happen next. It pulled me in in a way that I never expected to be pulled in. I had no idea who was the good guy or who was the bad guy, or who I even wanted to triumph in the end. I thought one thing was going to happen, yet something else entirely happened at every turn. It has a unique quality of making you think that you know everything that’s going on, when in reality, you know nothing. It was amazing. I’ve never read a thriller quite like Gone Girl.
It was so creepy in ways that I never expected it to be. At first, I was drawn in by the portrait of a failing marriage, and it ended up being about so much more. This book is creepy; there’s no question about it. Even thinking about it makes me afraid to walk around my dark house at night. But its not overtly, horror-movie creepy. The novel’s intense psychological thriller aspect becomes just as a part of the setting as North Carthage, Missouri, the fading town where the action takes place.
Yet, while it is creepy, its also completely enjoyable. I’m the kind of person to start up a book and then not finish it and leave it around for a few months before picking it back up. I recommend not stopping in the middle of Gone Girl because the new revelations that happen at every page turn make you think completely different things about all the previous chapters. Flynn has so adeptly created an entire world within this novel that you truly fall into this story. In a short period of time, a bunch of my friends also read this book and they all were shocked at the twists and turns; it was really fun to see their reading experiences play out on social media.
If you’ve read this book, what do you think about this book? Let me know in the comments!
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