A wife goes missing. A husband is blamed. Fingers are pointed all around. Every little gesture, every little moment, every bump on the road is minutely analyzed. And in the end what are we left with? A place where almost all relationships reach a dead end, where psychotic maniacs are a dime a dozen and no one is really likeable.
Published in 2012, Gone Girl is the third offering from author Gillian Flynn after Sharp Objects and Dark Places.
The story unfolds from the points of view of Nick Dunne and his wife Amy Elliott Dunne. The entire book is divided into three different parts.
The first part, Boy Loses Girl, I’d say is the ‘skeleton’ of the story. The second part, Boy Meets Girl, fills in on the gaps left by Boy Loses Girl. In the final part, Boy Gets Girl Back (or vice versa), we find the whole story standing in front of us with the skeleton grinning from underneath.
Boy Loses Girl is definitely the most intriguing part of the book. With Boy Meets Girl, the story becomes more of a straightforward thriller. Boy Gets Girl Back is basically a continuation of Boy Meets Girl. It didn’t change my perception of the characters in any way.
Gone Girl reminded me of The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen and The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. Two points of view, an unreliable narrator and close family members under clouds of suspicion just like The Ninth Life of Louis Drax and a rather disturbing first person narrative like The Killer Inside Me.
Most of the major characters in Gone Girl are irreparably damaged people. The amount of time they spend messing with each others minds is unbelievable. If I had to live like that, constantly analyzing and/or be analyzed, I would go crazy!
The characters are all kind of one note. The mean and manipulative ones are just that, mean and manipulative. The weak ones are weak and the good are good. Just because they smoke, drink or curse doesn’t mean that they are multi-dimensional. Characters like Andie are there just to make a plot point. They are not well fleshed out and are faintly annoying.
I like books with unreliable narrators. It lifts books up from banality and adds an interesting twist to the proceedings. Gone Girl gives us a very fiendish unreliable narrator.
By Boy Gets Girl Back I kind of got bored with all the twists that were supposed to shock me. They are all screwed up people with serious problems. So they will act whatever way they want to. I was no longer surprised.
The book’s easy to read, which is I suppose a pre-requisite for all bestsellers. But at least it’s not banal or straight out stupid. Gillian Flynn has a way with words. I’d be interested in her other works Sharp Objects and Dark Places.
Overall, Gone Girl is a good psychological thriller. Good as an easy summer read.
A Paperback Life 
Every R.I.P. there are one or two books that you see everywhere and this is one of those. I wish I could say that the book intrigued me but it just doesn’t, and your honest assessment of your experience with it doesn’t light any fires under me to make me want to pick it up. I occasionally, though rarely, like a book with unlikeable characters but that doesn’t happen often and I generally won’t pick up a book if I know that is going to be the case. There are enough unlikeable people in real life, lol!
Oh tell me about it! Gone Girl is literally everywhere I look! It is ‘the’ book to read. I for myself found it to be an okay read. Good but nothing earth shattering.
“There are enough unlikeable people in real life…”
You’ve said it! A sad but true fact of life.
I really enjoyed this book and I would say that between Sharp Objects and Dark Places, I would highly recommend you go with Sharp Objects. Very unique and twisted.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll try to check it out. 🙂