Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Blurb

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Who are you?
What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears.

The police suspect Nick. Amy’s friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn’t true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches.

He says they weren’t made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick’s beautiful wife?

Book Details

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Literary awards: Barry Award Nominee for Best Novel (2013), Anthony Award Nominee for Best Novel (2013), Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award (RT Award) for Suspense/Thriller Novel (2012), Shirley Jackson Award Nominee for Novel (Finalist) (2012), Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel (2013), Puddly Award for Fiction (2013), Women’s Prize for Fiction Nominee for Longlist (2013), Grand Prix des lectrices de Elle for roman policier (2013), Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller and Nominee for Goodreads Author (2012) and Nominee for Best of the Best (2018).

Format: 415 pages, Paperback.

Published: April 22, 2014 by Broadway Books.

Language: English.

Original title: Gone Girl.

Setting: North Carthage, Missouri (United States), Missouri (United States).

My Review of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

First of all, I want to say this is a really crazy book that will mess up with your mind. I mean, I’ve read books and I’ve met psychopaths through books and movies, but Amy Dunne is a league on her own in the sport of psychopathy.

The book started slow for me, because I didn’t fully grasp it. The first part is about a regular romance story about a couple who would spice up their marriage every anniversary.

They are married for five years, and each anniversary, the wife, Amy would prepare a treasure hunt and give her husband clues.

The clues are from things she had talked about the previous year. It’s always about her.

The husband, Nick Dunne would struggle to get the hints correctly, because he loves his wife and wants to please her.

But everything would change on their fifth wedding anniversary when Amy would disappear without a trace.

That is where the story starts getting steamier and confusing. What happened to Amy Dunne? Was she kidnapped or killed? Is her husband the perpetrator, or is he innocent?

The characters

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Amy Dune: Amy Elliot Dune is the only child of her parents. The Elliots. Having gone through a series of miscarriages, they are so sure Amy won’t stay, but she is determined, and she stays.

Amy is the kind of girl that wants to steal the show whenever she steps in. She wants to seize breaths, to make everyone bow down to her.

She wants the spotlight to always be on her, because she is Amazing Amy, and the whole world has to bow down to her amazing.

Now, Amazing Amy is a book series her parents write and have written over the years. In this book, Amy is portrayed as a perfect girl, and is modelled after the real Amy, their child.

But no one is perfect, and Amy is not an exception. So, because she wants to be as amazing as the book Amy, she starts acting the part, but there is only so much she can do.

Amy is ruthless, patient and tenacious. She gets whatever she wants. She follows due processes.

She knows results take time to show, and so she takes her time planning and researching and planning again, before she finally executes.

One thing I love about her, even though she’s a psychopath is her tenacity. If she wants to mete out a single punishment, she plans and works towards it for months, years even. Her meticulousness should be studied.

I know she is to be blamed for her every action in the book, but I think her parents should share the blame with her too.

The Elliots are a sanctimonious couple, who wants the whole world to see how beautiful their love life is, how perfect.

They want everyone to know that they are the perfect, human representation of soulmate.

So they write a series of book with their daughter’s life, making Amy feel like an appendage of the fictional character.

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Wherever she fails in real life, the fictional character would excel. Do you know how crazy that is? Struggling your entire life to be better than a fictional character. Having people compare you to a fictional character your whole life.

It’s like your entire existence is a joke, and since your parents do not love the way you are, they have to make their own perfect daughter, as a fictitious character.

And they make big money from the sales of the books, because the whole world loves Amazing Amy. But they don’t even pay Amy royalties for stripping her life bare, for making her life a story everyone reads to be entertained. This gets into Amy’s head and drives her to the brink.

But Amy is one interesting character. We get to know her through her diary entry. And just like in Verity by Colleen Hoover, it would get to a point where we don’t know what to believe in. Is it the diary Amy or the narrator Amy?

Nick Dunne: Nick is another complex character in this book. He also has a troubling and traumatic childhood, having grown up in a home where his father is misogynistic to a fault.

He hates every woman and treats them like trash, and their mother is not an exception.

As a coping mechanism, he tries so hard to be everyone’s sweetheart. He wants to please everyone.

He would go the extra mile to make people love him, even if it has to do with him telling lies.

But you can’t fool yourself. You can’t make everyone love you. People who try so hard to appear perfect to people are so self-sabotaging and are rarely good people. But is Nick an exception?

Does he truly love his wife, Amy, or is he just putting a front? I’ve said it before. This book will mess with your mind.

I love Margo, Nick’s twin. I love how supportive and blunt she is. She does not need to massage her brother’s ego to make him feel good. She tells him the truth and asks him difficult questions.

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Conclusion

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

One thing I will advise you not to do as you are reading this book is to believe everything you see. Just read it with an open mind to avoid being shocked a lot.

The recurring questions in this book are what happened to Amy, and who is responsible? Every indication points to Nick, but is he truly innocent.

And given the fact he is too calm for someone that has lost his wife, he becomes too suspicious. But is he truly stoic as he claims, or is he guilty?

I love this book. A lot. I love how the characters are properly developed, and I love the author’s simplicity.

I also love the fact that the points of view are being alternated from Nick to Amy, the main characters. It makes you understand them and their choices and lives more.

I did not like the ending though, because I was expecting the opposite of what happened.

But I guess that is the beauty of a thriller, the unexpected plot twist. And some people love their leashes. They would rather stay with their abuser than leave, because of familiarity.

They are already used to being abused. The pattern is already familiar to them, and so they would not know what to do with a whole, new experience.  I will rate this book as a solid 5/5. Yes, it is that good. And I highly recommend it.

Have you read the book? What do you think about it? Please share your thoughts with me in the comment section and do not forget to subscribe to my newsletter, and follow me on all social media platforms. Thank you for visiting Bookish Pixie.