(77)Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Friday, June 1, 2012

Gone Girl

Publication Date: June 5, 2012
Pages: 432


I love a good gritty mystery.  That is no secret.  Author Gillian Flynn is becoming one of those authors that I regularly stalk to find out when the next book will published.  Not only do I love her work, but she is a Missouri girl and is originally from the KC area and all three of her books have been set in Missouri.

In Gone Girl Gillian Flynn takes us to the fictional town of North Carthage, Missouri along the Mississippi River.  We meet bar owner Nick Dunne and his wife, Amy.  They were forced to leave New York City and return to Nick's hometown in Missouri when his parents fall ill.   It does not take them long to realize that Missouri is not good for their marriage and it is on their Fifth Anniversary that Amy goes missing and Nick is the prime suspect.  As more and more information is revealed we, the readers, start to question Nick's innocence.   Did he do it or did he not?  And if he didn't kill Amy, then where is she and who took her?

Gone Girl is a psychological thriller like no other. It is one giant mind game that leaves the reader exhausted by the time it is over.  But, oh what a ride!  I wanted to like Nick, I really did.  But he is a shithead of a husband, but even I have to say that being a bad husband does not mean that you are a killer.  And Amy.  Anyone who has a single guy friend has heard stories about girls playing mind games, well, Amy has turned playing "mind games" into an Olympic sport.

Fans of a good, gritty mystery novel are going to enjoy Gone Girl.  While the "mystery" is revealed about halfway through the book, you are flying through the pages to find out how the whole thing gets resolved.  Is Amy really dead?  Is Nick facing the death penalty? And what exactly led them to where they are now?  This is most definitely a book to throw in the old beach bag or take with you on vacation.  It is just too good to pass up.
Luxembourg said...

This has got to be the best edge-of-the-beach towel read for summer 2012, but it's a masterful, memorable, brilliant, unusually clever novel for any season.

Gone Girl is just so far ahead of its genre, combining epic plot twists with astute psychological insight into relationship psychology, plus fine sentence-by-sentence writing that sometimes compels one to stop reading and savor the words.

Just a bloody brilliant theft of my life and consciousness, really.

I think I am not alone in finding the ending a bit disappointing, even while finding that the author has made it seem inevitable.

Sara Lucinda Bell said...

Okay I just finished this one last night and HOLY. CRAP. Definitely my favorite book of 2012!
And personally, I thought the ending was great... the scariest ending imaginable. It gives me the chills just picturing it all!

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