Gone Girl Book Review

 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

2012

Thriller and mystery fiction

*Mild Spoilers for context*

Gone Girl follows Nick and Amy, a married couple of five years who at the beginning of the novel, are in a slump. The novel takes place after the 2008 recession in Nick’s small hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, a far cry from New York where the couple met. After Amy mysteriously disappears in suspected foul play, her diary the only evidence of why she disappeared, Nick becomes the prime subject. 

Gone Girl is split into two halves. Part One gives two distinct points of view which are essentially to set up the second part. During the first half, we see how Nick handles the police investigation and the media attention from Amy’s disappearance. Nick is really interesting, we see that he’s been cheating on Amy, that he acts suspiciously and apparently has secrets about his marriage to hide. Nick’s unlikeability is contrasted by Amy’s diary entries of the past six years, which paints their marriage as a fairy tale turned horror story. Amy outright writes she worries that Nick will kill her.

In the second part of the novel, we finally hear Amy's point of view, not what she wrote. Instead of being dead like the police suspect, she is framing her husband for her murder. I don’t read a lot of thrillers, but this is such a plot twist and extremely well written out. 

This book is unlike any other I have read. Flynn’s plot is addicting, making it hard not to plow through this in one sitting. Gone Girl is narrated by two unreliable narrators, we can’t trust what they are telling us, the reader, because Nick and Amy both have an agenda. The novel is narrated in the first person, and I loved being inside each of the character’s heads, especially Amy’s as she changes from the victim to a villain.

I understand why Gone Girl was so popular a couple years ago. I don’t think it is in any way overhyped, as I once thought it was. I loved that the book constantly kept me on my toes and guessing what I was going to happen next. There are very few books out there that have given me this sort of reading experience, but I hope to read another thriller soon!

5/5 I had a lot of fun reading Gone Girl. It’s well written, the plot is meticulous, and the characters are haunting. I’m sure any thriller fan will view this book as top of the genre, and as someone who doesn’t read many thrillers, Gone Girl works as the perfect introduction.