I can’t stop hearing about Gone Girl. It’s everywhere. Every best book list for last year. Every bookstore has tables and tables of it. Every airport has it. Everywhere! People are telling me I HAVE TO READ IT. I mean, I see or hear about it as much as I hear that Call Me Maybe song.
Confession time: Hey, I just met you and this is crazy… but I love that Call Me Maybe song. Seriously… way too much. It’s on my iPod. I listen to it every time I workout. I listen to it when I don’t work out. It’s a total guilty pleasure just the way good pop songs are supposed to be. Despite all this, I am kinda convinced all the air time, over-exposure and gazillion parody videos that came from Call Me Maybe will probably resign Carly Rae Jepsen to one-hit wonder status, because how can she ever do anything bigger than that? It might be impossible. And if you are wondering what on earth this has to do with Gone Girl, I am getting there.
I first read Gillian Flynn when the Book Babes selected Sharp Objects for book club a few years back. We all read it, were super creeped out and loved it. Ms. Flynn was already starting to get quite a following with this book and her next one Dark Objects. But not a Carly Rae Jepsen-level following. You want to be good but not YouTube crazy parody good, which I am not quite sure how you even do with a book… but I think you catch my drift.
Fast-forward several years and everyone has read this Gone Girl book and is stark-crazy raving about it and Gillian Flynn is the new “Mistress of Mystery”. (I am making up that moniker, but someone has probably penned that nickname and if not, okay, I’ll take credit for it). And thank goodness this is her third book so she really can be the Mistress of Mystery and not the “Carly Rae Jepsen of Mystery”. Now if that Jepsen girl has another bona-fide hit, my iPod and I will be thrilled, but my analogy here will be screwed. And what’s that analogy again? Be popular, but not Carly Rae popular.
So, back in December, one of the Book Babes selected Gone Girl for our February read and we were all pretty excited. Here’s the non-spoiler overview:
Nick and Amy Dunn have been married for five years when the recession forces them out of their cushy writing jobs in Manhattan and back to Nick’s Missouri river hometown to care for his declining mother. Amy misses the life left behind—one of privilege and minor celebrity status as the namesake of her parent’s wildly successful children’s book series—Amazing Amy! Life in Missouri is hard hit by the recession, houses in the Dunn’s neighborhood are foreclosing and Amy is declining. Nick is trying to make the move back home work. Going in on a bar with his twin sister Margo, he’s the only one with a job. Long hours take time from the marriage. They take away the spark as well. The day of their five-year anniversary, Nick gets a call he never expected. Racing home, he finds an open front door, a ransacked living room, lots of blood and no Amy.
Enter the police. Nick can’t stop lying to them, which doesn’t help matters. His disposable cell phone keeps ringing at the most inopportune times and he quickly finds himself in the role of leading suspect.
But let me tell you a little secret. Everything I told you is laid out for you in the first 30 pages. Flynn is known for writing super topsy-turvy, twisty-turny thrillers and Gone Girl taps out at 419 pages. So guess what? All is not as it seems.
Told in alternating chapters with Nick narrating his story in the present day and Amy’s story from a few years back, the reader is sent down a pretty twisted (read: crazy) rabbit hole to figure out who killed Amazing Amy.
I really can’t tell you anymore, except to read it. Gone Girl is a trip. A road trip into creepy crazy town. Flynn sets the stage well, keeping you guessing as you drive the car slowly up the hill and just as you make it over the top, the car starts careening out of control and you realize there aren’t any brakes. It’s a totally wild ride that ends in utter shock. Some of the Book Babes didn’t buy the ending. Some of us felt it couldn’t have ended any other way. Not one of us could stop turning the pages.
Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 319
Genre: Mystery
It is funny how this book has hung on. I loved it and was stunned by it. My constant chatting about the book drove my husband to read it (out of self defense, he claims!). Once he got past the ‘mundane’ beginning, he was stunned, too. The ending??????
enough said.
After reading your review and seeing your rating, I wanted to know exactly what 3 stars meant—and yay, you have a little sidebar guide:) You’ve thought of everything!
It seems like everyone has read Gone Girl, but I don’t hear anyone RAVE about it…ya know? Friends seems to say, “I didn’t love it, but you should read it.” Like when a friend tries to get you to go out with someone she’s already passed on, “He wasn’t for me, but you should go out with him.” Life is short and there are so many good books, I don’t get it.
Brenda, I agree with you! It’s a wild ride and a stunner at the end. I think that’s why I am ultimately rating it 3 stars. It’s highly readable and engaging, even if the actions are stunning and even unbelievable.
Deirdre, there are always good books out there, but Gillian is a bit of a mystery darling and I think this is her time right now. It’s good for a thriller, an easy book to knock out over a weekend when you want something different and need a break from heavier stuff. The story’s structure totally works and it’s very engaging with some total impracticalities. But I think that can be a common issue with this genre, like action films. At a certain point you have to go along and say, “Okay, right, yes that can totally happen” even when it’s not likely. I’ve probably pushed it further down the list for you and there really were a lot of things I liked about it.
For those who loved Gone Girl, and it was a captivating read, I would definitely steer them towards Gillian’s first book, “Sharp Objects.” I believe the Book Babes gave this one a higher average grade. I would be interested to know what Ms. Flynn’s upbringing was like, she is one creepy chick!
I finished the book last night and wanted to come on here pronto because I’ve held off on reading your review until I was done. I felt the same way! Crazy twists and turns, totally readable and a great easy break from anything that requires too much thought. I was surprised and annoyed by the ending – but not as a reader, just as someone who couldn’t stand the thought of those two becoming “you know whats” when they are C-R-A-Z-Y and I feel sorry for the fictional character we never met who is stuck with them. 😉
I’ve read all three and would probably say Sharp Objects was my favorite, with Dark Places and Gone Girl tying (they’re so different). I am looking forward to book 4. Wonder if there’s one on the horizon?
We’ve all agreed that Ms. Flynn can write, excels at being twisty, and revved up her story as if it was entering the Indy 500. That was fun, until the end of the first 30 pages. Maybe you felt, as I did, that there were limited paths after page 31. I selected my three top paths; The remaining 400 pages were then a slog to see if I’d won a toaster or if the author had inserted aliens or the walking dead to throw me. My niece suggested I throw it through the window like Pat in Silver Linings Playbook – but that would be giving up. Unless you count Moby Dick, I am not a quitter! Wish I’d liked Amy. Would’ve helped.