Gone Girl (edition 2013)

I could honestly give this book 1 star or 5 stars depending on criteria.

The good - Gillian Flynn can write! She creates characters that come to life, she made me want to keep turning the pages quickly, she throws in most twists than any other 10 authors.

The bad - I did not like spending time with these characters. I hated every single person in this book. Most were just evil, vile, loathsome creatures and those that weren't (Nick's sister, Amy's parents) were so aggravating and complacent (how could you sit back and watch this stuff happening and not do anything!?) I wanted to scream at them.

This is one of those books that will stay with me my entire life - there is not a chance in hell that I will ever forget this book or the characters in the book (and I'm not sure that's a good or a bad thing).

Would I recommend this book? I don't know. It would depend on the reader, it's not for everyone.

I'm going to settle on 4 stars just based on the following criteria - I couldn't get the book out of my head, when I wasn't reading it I was thinking about it, I was counting the time until I could read it again. But let me say again that I hated these people and I'm glad I don't have to spend another minute in their heads. ( )

For 90% of the book I say kudos to Gillian Flynn. She had me hooked from the beginning. Her storytelling is very contemporary, realistic, and believable. Her idea to alternate characters, Amy telling her story through her diary, and Nick telling his story in the moment was excellent and kept me turning the page. As I would finish a chapter from Amy's point of view, I couldn't wait to finish the Nick chapter so I could get back to Amy. But then as I finished from Nick's point of view, I couldn't wait to get to Nick's next chapter. Many writers these days tend to write chapters from the point of view of different characters which I find interesting but sometimes confusing, and not once did I have to remind myself from whose point of view the chapter was from - that takes tremendous writing ability. Another aspect of the book that demonstrates a great skill in storytelling is the way Flynn gets the reader to connect with the characters. I was amazed at how I felt disgust for Nick and empathy for Amy and in the blink of an eye, my feelings reversed. I don't know that I've ever read a book that caused my feelings for the characters to flip flop in such a way. Also, without giving too much away, I will say that the "perfect crime" that is the basis of the storyline is so unbelievable that it's believable. Nick says once in the book "the bigger the lie, the more believable" and I think that's a perfect description of the storyline. The book was utterly amazing...until the last 10%. As other reviewers have stated, the ending was boring, anticlimactic, and just really a let down which is so sad considering how intriguing the rest of the book is. Even with the disappointing ending, I'm glad I read the book and would recommend it to others. ( )

I am conflicted about this book.

On the one hand, the characters are brilliantly drawn, deeply complex, and fascinating the whole way through. The narrative (especially in the first part of the book) is compulsively readable (literally... I spent most of the weekend ignoring my husband so I could keep reading). The twists and turns through Part One and into the first bits of Part Two were gasp-worthy and handled expertly to toy with the reader in just the right way. The crafting in this novel is amazing. The voices of the characters are spot-on.

I also really enjoyed the first part of the novel as a glimpse into how a man handles the disappearance of his wife, how the police handle it, and how the public handles it. It was fascinating to see the change (in the police, the public, and even in myself) from believing Nick must be innocent to seeing no other possibility than his guilt. I loved that.

But as Part Two carried on, I found myself getting bored. A little too much procedural at that point, perhaps, too much of no one getting what they want. Amy's cleverness was impressive to watch at first, fascinating to try and understand the way her mind worked and see how she thought of every little thing, but then her actions at the cabin confused me somewhat - how incautious she was with her neighbors. I found myself rooting for Desi when he was keeping her captive, hoping he'd go all Norman Bates on her and just put her out of the picture. Oh well.

Part Three was also a bit clunky and ultimately disappointing for me. Knowing what he did, I was surprised that Nick confronted Amy. I would have expected him to continue playing the loving husband while plotting his revenge, instead of showing his hand and giving Amy all the time and leverage she needed to screw him one last time. But in the end? Even that final "precaution" of hers felt lacking to me. There would have been records at the sperm bank about her withdrawal. If he'd kept up the investigation quietly, he could have gotten her to jail some day, right? Even if it wasn't until the kid was five? I wanted Nick to win, because I'm that kind of girl, but in the end he just rolled over.

I would have been happy with some other final surprise too - some revelation that I never saw coming (the way Part One ended, for instance) - (or something to do with Nick's father. I was sure something bigger was going to come out of that situation. Rats.). I suspect that as I ponder the story a bit more, I'll see that this ending was perfect and maybe even a little brilliant, but for the moment, I am dissatisfied.

3.5 stars, I think. ( )

Gillian Flynn has managed to simultaneously capture and hyperbolize the common flaws in modern relationships, and therefore, in society as a whole. When I first read about this book's release, I dismissed as another whiny, housewife-goes-missing story, where I'm supposed to feel bad for a rich brat with nothing to do. Instead, I was drawn, warp-speed, into a vortex of puzzles, masks, and lies upon lies. Flynn vividly illustrates what happens when communication seriously breaks down in a relationship, and then takes it to the next psychotic level. ( )

Totally engrossing story. Quite disturbing in the end. ( )