Monday, February 11, 2013

CBR V # 4 - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn


Nick and Amy Dunne  moved to Missouri after years of gallavanting in New York.  
The novel starts off with a first person narrative from Nick Dunne, who is suspicious as fuck.  He is constantly hinting upon a secret, and how he's not a good guy and how his wife disgusts him.  Even sounding incest-y (or maybe just too much reddit for me).  I mean, I really got into disliking the guy.  Anyway, it's their anniversary (I forgot which number) and he discovers his wife is gone. The house is ransacked (like there has been a struggle) and his wife is just.. GONE.

The book then inserts excerpts from his Amy Dunne's diary, narrating their meet-cute up to the days prior to the disappearance.   Her entries also appear to make nick look guilty as hell, and it contradicts his present-time narration.  By this time in the book, you get start to get an inkling bout what's really going on.  

*spoilers*



Then the books includes Amy's present day narration.  No, she's not dead.  She is just simply evil and manipulative and one sick fuck.  She is scary. Turns out she had this convoluted plot to make Nick pay for his adultery.  She has some serious psychological issues.  Not surprising since she is the inspiration for a children's book series about a perfect little girl named Amazing Amy authored by her therapist parents.


*end spoilers

I really enjoyed the book as a psychological thriller.  The characters weren't particularly likeable (not even Nick) so the author was very successful in making you doubt everybody.  Who was really telling the truth?  All the characters were interesting, not just the main ones.  And the ending was brutal.  Not in a gory, kill everybody way.  Just, brutal.  Suspenseful and mysterious.  I liked it a lot.