Caragh Reviews // Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Published - 26th August 2014
Publisher - Broadway Books
Format - Kindle
Synopsis - 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?

Gone Girl is one of those books that I literally knew nothing about one day, and then it was everywhere. I'm obviously way behind the times here as it's such a huge book now and a major movie adaptation. Being totally honest here, the only reason I picked this up to read was because i'd heard great things about the movie and i'm getting pretty desperate to see it. However, i'm still a fan of Hank Green's 'Readit1st', despite the fact that I don't think it's still going. So in order to watch it, I was just going to have to read it - which I did.

Like many people, I was drawn in pretty quickly. Though i'll tell anyone who will listen that mysteries are just not my thing, that's really not true. From the offset I NEEDED to know the outcome. I think that's why I don't read too many books like this. I get filled with this uncontrollable urge to just KNOW things and it makes me an anxious reader. Anyway.. so I started reading it and wondering what the deal was between Nick and Amy. 

As I read this book so long after everyone else, I feel like I lost out a little. I didn't know what was going to happen in any way, but I had this huge expectation that something incredible was going to happen; that a twist would appear that would knock me off my seat. That didn't really happen. I was let down by my own expectations (not for the first time) and ended up finding it kind of...dull? I'm not sure that's the right word. I could see what was coming a mile away and so it felt predictable in a really strange way. Obviously, anybody who is familiar with Gone Girl will know what I mean when I say it wasn't entirely normal, but because i'd built it up in my head, it wasn't really surprising either.

One thing I will say for Gone Girl though, it definitely got a rise out of me. Every single character, at some point anyway, was absolutely infuriating. I talked briefly to a friend at work who quite rightly said 'every character gets what they deserve'. That's so true! Nobody was likeable, nobody deserved a happy ending - maybe with the exception of Go but she was such a rigid character anyway that you barely even remember her by the time things are wrapping up.

I rated Gone Girl 3 stars, purely for the intrigue and the way it so immediately pulled me in. It wasn't a bad book in any sense of the word - it was just a little flat considering all of the great things i'd heard. I really need to start reading new releases when they're still new rather than pushing them aside for a while and hoping for the best.