Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn #review @HachetteAus
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 from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. 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?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
I bought Gone Girl back when it first came out but for some reason it took me all this time to get to it. I did want to read it before the movie adaption came out, normally I shy away from movies adapted from books but at this stage its most of what Hollywood is releasing so to the book I went. Gone Girl is not my first Gillian Flynn novel, part of my interest in it was that there was so much hype about how good it was and how big the twist was that I thought okay let’s give it a go. I’ve read her book Sharp Objects which was one that I loved, a really great read that one so I went and picked up her book Dark Places only to end up not being about to get into it. I read a ways in and just put it down. After having a good and bad experience with her work I thought were does Gone Girl fit, the oh this is great category or the omg my brain is mush category.
I’m not quite sure now how I feel about it and its hard to describe without giving anything away. It’s brilliant yes, dark and a fine example of what psychotic nut jobs are like. Pathological liars, evil, devious and highly manipulative. The twist was one I actually figured out. I don’t normally sit there with a must figure it out mindset but of course I’ll wonder and usually what I’m wondering is wrong. This time I had it down and this disappointed me. I remember going oh so I am right and then I kind of backed off the story, perhaps wanting to be wrong, perhaps wanting it to not be so obvious. I then got wrapped up in the story again and the last 100 pages I just sat and read and read and ignored everything around me.
So what does one do when on your 5th anniversary your wife goes missing and suddenly you are thrust in the spotlight. All you do, say and even facial expressions judged and reviewed for guilt or innocence? An interesting psychological analysis of people. Those in the mix and those on the outside who all want in, want to be on tv and interviewed who stood in line with someone to buy milk but end up on tv saying yes we were best of friends. The relationships we have and if they are even what they appear to be to those who live it. A brilliant book but one that I wish I hadn’t been able to figure out. Highly recommended to those who like thrillers, mysteries and books that analyse the human psyche.
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