Gone Girl Got Me Good

This is a tragically cynical book. But God, I loved it. I read one review that opened 'marriage is a real killer'. I wish I'd thought of that. Gillian Flynn's crime/mystery novel explores the darker side of marriage, the idea that we are all dancing monkeys putting on an act to attract the opposite sex. An act that cannot be upheld and when the cracks start to show the 'cool girl' image disintegrates. Gone Girl is expertly written and extremely addictive. The prose is fast-paced and thrilling and the structure of the book (protagonist, diary-form, first person) adds to this. Gone Girl is split into three parts and in each of these parts the reader's loyalties are cruelly toyed with. We are Team Amy in the first part, Team Nick in the second and, arguably, neither in the third. Exciting, sinister and somewhat exhausting - I cannot recommend it enough.

I'm very aware that this has been made into a film (I hear it's good, some excellent acting) so I'll make a conscious effort not to give anything away...

Gone Girl starts out as (and continues to be) a well-written crime novel, a 'who killed her' / 'what happened to the wife' storyline. As a reader, we enjoy a bit of background information from Amy's diary in which she paints the picture of a husband who failed as a writer in New York, felt obliged to return back to his hometown to care for his dying mother and dragged his suffering wife with him. This 'suffering wife' (hint) is also very wealthy and he has been rinsing her of her money for the past 5 or so years.

On their 5 year wedding anniversary, Nick comes home to find evidence of a struggle and a missing wife. The police are involved, she becomes a 'missing person' and all the clues point to him. This makes up part one of the novel. But there is a glorious twist and part two will Blow. Your. Mind. It takes an extremely unexpected turn that is absolutely delightful (I won't give anything away but please read!).

I've heard a lot of people describe part three as disappointing. But I actually found it quite satisfying. I felt little sympathy towards either of them by this point anyway. I enjoyed the fact that Flynn must have had many options on how to end her novel (who wants to end with a bang anyway?) but chose to end the exhilarating narrative on a fairly conventional (ironically - nothing about their relationship is conventional. Or is it?) note.

If any of you have read the book or seen the film - let me know what you thought!

I've decided my next blog post will be something other than a book review - just a heads up!

Thank you for reading.

Alice x