Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl
written by Gillian Flynn
published by Crown

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Why did I pick this book: It was highly recommended and our book club choice for January.

Did I enjoy this book: It was very complicated, but overall, I did.

Flynn does a great job of keeping the suspense going all the way to the end. Whatever you think you know about where the story’s going, you’re probably wrong.

Interestingly, there were times when the book felt weirdly comical. And I’m not sure that was the author’s intent. But like I said, the book was complicated. The first time was at the mall raid. A former magazine writer turned college professor along with his Psychologist/writer father-in-law barge into an abandoned mall turned crack house with a handful of townie thugs toting baseball bats to rat out any suspects. It seemed more Paul Blart: Mall Cop than Dirty Harry.

And the author had the oddest habit of taking a word and adding –ily to the end to create an adverb. Someone sat down “pissily” or grunted “shitily.” But my favorite (I swear I’m not making this up) was when Officer Boney looked at Chance “winkily.” I got so hung up on this I had to do some investigating of my own. I started keeping a log. I looked them up in the dictionary. And my darkest fears became a reality. They aren’t words at all.

Main character, Amy, befuddled me even more than the adverb mystery. Even early in the novel, we know something is seriously wrong with this girl.

Apparently, she agrees with her husband that women who turn their husbands into “dancing-monkeys” are ridiculous and she’ll have no part of it. This includes behaviors most people would consider every day consideration. Like showing up for a dinner party with your wife when you say you will. Even stumbling in at 4 a.m. drunk and belligerent with a woman’s phone number and receipts from strip joints in his pocket on their anniversary is ok with her. She concedes that she’s “being a girl” by feeling upset over this.

I halfway expected to discover her parents had written a book in their children’s series entitled, Amazing Amy: Gets Her Brain Sucked Out. Why else would she behave so stupidily? (sorry, couldn’t stop myself on that one.)

But read on, there’s nothing stereotypical about this character. She’s goofy, creepy, psychotic, hard (maybe impossible) to understand. But like the story line, whatever you think you know about Amy early on in the book is probably wrong.

Concluding thoughts: really complicated, unpredictable book with some bright spots and a few awkward chuckles.

Would I recommend it: Unless you’re one of those weirdos who gets hung up on adverbs, you might enjoy this one.

Will I read it again: No.

About the book – 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 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?