Gone Girl

This book was beyond my expectations, beautifully done, and is why Flynn is a master of her craft.You know what makes this book so good? You don’t feel bad for anyone. Nick is a terrible person, selfish, lazy, just not a great human being. Maybe he could be, if he wanted to but he isn’t. Amy is a violent narcissist, but on a whole another level. Are some of her victims likable? Sure, but you find yourself rooting for her because how unsympathetic her current targets are. Desi comes of as a slimy needy control freak and Nick just wants everything to be easy as everyone else’s expense. So you can see then logic, even though their marriage is basically a nightmare, a DV situation to the uppenth power.While as the reader, you hope for some ethical resolution, you truly don’t think that will be the case. With all of the polarization on Amy’s behavior, she will likely keep it low key in the future, will see still do horrific things to people who in her mind, have wronged her? Sure! But she’ll do it in a way that means she won’t get caught. Meanwhile eventually Nick will give up, maybe not today or tomorrow but dude is lazy by heart so even with his wife as his personal archenemy, from the character traits presented, I don’t see him going toe to toe with Amy.So they story is essentially a reflection of the reality most of us live with, which is bad people win with their smart enough. Some people like to look at this book like a women scorned story but it isn’t that. Amy is an extreme polarization of antisocial personality disorder, she is abusive in the extreme, where the instances of that abuse are few and far between, it still creates this environment of terror for anyone who lives with her and truly gets her. And their bring a child into this senario, which it’s cute that Nick seems to think that the reasons Amy is like this has no genie steams. Look at Amy’s parents, they care about her in the sense of what she can do for this and are very much lessor versions of Amy. I think assuming any child she has will be free of her antisocial behavior is a leap. At least Nick can feel guilt, Amy doesn’t even know what being a person is and adapts her personality to whatever is needed at the time.Idk, I think as a reader, I root for Amy because she lacks the ability to be a good person with what she’s working with. I think that if people fell into the roles she expected of them, we would have never seen her extremes, I also think that this is a bit unrealistic as she is clearly attracted to individuals who reflect traits she has, that just set her up for failure.On the last page, we see that even with the stakes as high as they are, Nick can’t manage to just not be catty. He has to push. Which is only gonna set them up to crash and burn.Really when you look at it that way, this is a sad story filled with dissatisfaction slowly moving though life to their eventual doom.

Let me start off this review by issuing a massive SPOILER WARNING for a novel that came out a little less than a decade ago. There will be major spoilers ahead, so I would advise you to read this book (if you, like me, have been living under a rock for the past 8 years or so) before looking at this review.. As a matter of fact, this won’t be as much of a review, instead, it’ll be a series of my reactions to a couple of things in the story.I was meaning to read this book in 2015 after I read and enjoyed Paula Hawkins’s “The Girl on The Train”. I’ve heard many people comparing that book to this one and I wanted to see how similar the two were. In my opinion, I didn’t get as much similarities as I was expecting, but they were both enjoyable psychological thrillers.Anyways, Gone Girl has been in my library for a while and I finally decided to read it. I’ll have to admit, about halfway through, I had a strong feeling that I would be giving this book 5 stars. It literally grabbed me from the beginning and never let me go. All the high praise I've heard about it throughout the years didn't do this story justice.The first -I wanna say- half of this book is the main story. Married woman mysteriously disappears, and the husband is left to find out what happened to his wife. However, the story changes point of views from the husband to the wife’s perspective through a series of diary entries she wrote, and I have to admit. I was completely fooled!As the story goes on, I’m wondering who kidnapped this man’s wife. I started gathering suspects right off the bat. The neighbor who informed Nick that the door was open. He was my number one suspect at first. Then I blamed the people from Amy’s past. For a brief moment, I thought Nick’s twin sister kidnapped her. I was just looking for answers and I knew the only way I would get my answer is if I keep reading. The beauty of mystery novels.So, for the first half of the book, I’m looking at all of the surrounding characters funny. Someone here is a murderer. And as I’m doing that, Amy’s diary entries begin to take a dark turn. She starts writing about Nick’s coldness. Nick becoming a completely new person than the guy she told us about in the first diary entry. He became someone who I honestly started to dislike. He treated her horribly, he even shows a weird abusive side. The later diary entries made me think that maybe HE did it all along and that’s the big twist. I also had a small thought that maybe she faked her kidnapping because he was so abusive and she wanted to escape him, but that seemed like it wouldn’t be it, so I shoved that theory to the side. Not like it mattered anyway. Lol.Turns out, I was half-right with that theory I pushed to the side. The whole time, I’m worried about this sweet, lovable woman and it turns out she staged the whole thing, knowing that all signs will point to her horrible, possibly abusive husband. After the halfway point of the novel, we find out that the Amy that we knew from the diaries was a made-up character. She’s nothing like who she appeared to be. She’s manipulative and has always been that way. There are a few moments where I screamed at my Kindle, “This woman is evil!” I was completely caught off guard and that doesn’t happen a lot.Then we see the beginning of Amy’s plan, living as a supposedly dead woman and even that builds suspense in itself because she has to continuously look over her shoulder and hope that nobody ever notices her. It’s a crazy way to live, but Amy is always three steps ahead in planning. She befriends two people who are also on the run apparently, and they end up turning on her, and stealing the money she had reserved for her new life, leaving her with a cut lip, no money, and a ruined plan. Leaving her to call her high school sweetheart, a man we met earlier in the story and he -to my disappointment- ends up helping her. Inviting a woman who is allegedly kidnapped to your house is a bad move. I knew that wasn’t going to end well. I thought Amy would somehow get into a fight with Desi (the guy who came to her rescue), but I didn’t expect her to actually murder him, but the more I thought about it, it makes sure he can’t tell the truth and pay a bunch of high-quality lawyers to make sure she spends the rest of her life behind bars. Another case of Amy being one step ahead of everybody. This woman is a criminal mastermind.Not only was this story a freaking roller coaster of a read, but it was just overall fun to read. So many layers to the story, so many twists and turns, clever dialogue all throughout, and even the end surprised me. I was sure this story would end with one of the main characters going to jail, but surprisingly, it was (sort of) a happy ending… at least for the puppet master it was a happy ending. 5 stars!

Gone Girl Book Review AG“I’d fallen in love with Amy because I was the ultimate Nick with her. Loving her made me superhuman, it made me feel alive.” (Gillian 202) Amy and Nick seemed to be the perfect couple celebrating their seventh year anniversary. However, that is not exactly the true story. Amy moved to Missouri with her husband Nick once Nick’s mom became very ill and their money was running low. Amy was a New York questionaire journalist and her parents had a series of books called Amazing Amy. These books portrayed Amy as the perfect daughter. Nick was a man who owned a bar with his sister Margo and was a laid off journalist. Although life seemed smooth on the outside, it was a disaster on the inside and became even worse once Amy suddenly went missing on their anniversary. The book takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of events traveling through each character’s side of the story and the paths they take. Gillian Flynn creates a twisted story that has the readers pulled in right from the beginning. Did Nick murder Amy or was she kidnapped? Is Amy missing on purpose to escape from Nick? All these questions are running through the minds of the readers as they read this compelling novel. Gillian gives the readers a look into the true complex minds of each character and the twists and turns that occur with each entry, truly making it something everybody needs to read.My friends and I were very pleased that we chose this book for our book club. Of course, we weren’t sure exactly what to expect. First of all, we had never seen the movie, the author and style of writing was unfamiliar to us, and it just wasn’t a book we would normally read. However, we really enjoyed the book and its twisted ways. The author made the readers feel as though they were right in the epic story with the characters. As a reader of this book, I felt as though each minute I was on another character's side, making the story even more intriguing. I loved how the author had the reader at one time love Nick and then the next hate him and love Amy. My only criticism for the book is that I was not fond of the ending. The ending was left with many unanswered questions. Although the reader finds out what happens to Amy, there are still many unanswered questions It made me wonder if there will be a part two to the book. The ending had many events occurring without much explanation. There were many areas that left me wondering why did this happen or how did Nick deal with Amy. The conclusion all happened too fast, seeming as though the author did not want to make the book a thousand pages so decided to end it at a random spot that seemed to fit but had its questions. Overall I recommend this book for everyone. It is not just a mystery book, it is a novel about dishonesty, love, abandonment, and trust. The themes presented allow readers to learn true lessons in life while also reading this intriguing story. I would also suggest reading the book before the movie because I hear they do not include all events or characters from the book in the movie. Also, when one reads the book before the movie, it allows them to put an image in their mind about what they think each character will look like. Gillian Flynn is a great writer and she truly showed her skills in this novel that deserves to be on everyone's bookshelf as a must read. Gone Girl is a book with both thrilling and intense aspects woven into it. The novel does not have one dull moment. Each event that occurred will have the readers at the edge of their seat. It is a captivating book that will have everybody waiting desperately for the truth, what really happened to Amy?

Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl is one of those books that you think about after you put it down. You have conversations in your head with your imaginary book buddy about it, even if only to talk about how f***ed up this couple is.I did a google search of Gillian Flynn, just to make sure that I'd spelled her name right. And, of course, being the curious person that I am, I also did an image search of her. She is a very unassuming looking woman. Who would know of the darkness that lies within her just by looking at her? As you're reading this book, it's very hard for me to imagine the very depth of insaneness Gillian had to feel while writing and editing this book. And all the time that she had to spend feeling it. It takes a lot of time to be able to write a book of the quality and error-free (and no, I'm not talking about grammar) of this caliber.This book is a murder mystery. Uh, well, excuse me... This book is about a possible murder mystery. It's told from the present viewpoint of a man named Nick, who is married to a woman named Amy. Nick comes from a less than stellar upbringing, which an unloving dad who holds very antiquated and religiously hateful opinions about women. However, he has a very close relationship with his loving mother and twin, so that's something.The book is also written from the viewpoint of Nick's wife, with the first part of the book being told by her past diary. So we're getting the story told from the present day Nick and the past day Amy. Amy is the trust fund, only child, of 2 parents who wrote children's books about her upbringing and made millions of dollars off them.The book starts off the morning of the Event, with Nick waking up to Amy making crepes for him on their 5th wedding anniversary. Then, Nick comes home from work to find the scene of a struggle and Amy missing. The rest of the book is about what happened to Amy, is she alive, did Nick kill her?Now, the whole hype about this book is the infamous twist. Because it's been very hyped up, I had certain expectations going into it and so I was very suspicious about everything. Unfortunately for me, because of all the hype, the twist wasn't as much of a surprise as it could've been. I tried to determine if I would've been able to figure it out if I'd hadn't known that there was a twist, but I just don't know. And even the very last chapters was a no brainer for me. I knew for a long time that she was holding onto those things, waiting for the right moment to use them. (I'm being vague for those who haven't read the book)I love how Gillian writes characters that aren't all that particularly loveable. Maybe Nick's twin sister, maybe, was the most "loveable" character in this book. But one thing I've learned as an author is that it doesn't matter if you like a character, as long as you care about what happens to them. And I can definitely say that I cared about Nick. All the way... to the very last sentence.***From here on out, Spoiler Alerts***I wanted him to nail that b*tch, Amy. Right to the wall. Of a long jail sentence.The frustration level of his lack of ability to pin down her confessions on a recording device (can't you buy some super spy waterproof recording device that implants into your skin??), the lack of concern by the extremely gullible police (except for Boney) builds as the book winds down and then, horror or all horrors, she uses those little baby-making sperm to condemn Nick AND THE BABY to a lifetime of hell with her. Of course Gillian ends the book there, without us knowing if she miscarries and if Nick ever gets his revenge. Because that's The Story: the story of the man and woman who's life is about the constant ups and down, about manipulation to the millionth degree and about Daily. Constant. Struggle. The author's way out though is the fact that in a weird twisted way Nick still loves Amy and actually has fun with her. His life isn't all that bad. I mean, he can never relax, never sleep the deep sleeps that he's so proud of, never turn his back on his wife ever again. But hey, at least they have some fun sometimes, right?One of the best, absolute best, ironies of the book was the Dancing Monkey. That at the end, both Nick and Amy become the ultimate dancing monkeys? The live the rest of their life in a continual dance, each trying to outwit the other for small prizes of love, affection, attention and staying alive.One area where I was very disappointed was in her lack of character development for Amy's parents. How on earth can 2 supposedly loving, caring and so in-love parents produce Amy. I don't buy her explanation: the expectation of perfection and being an only, and spoiled, child. I just don't think that those kinds of things would drive Amy to be the person that she became. I thought for a milli-second that we were getting to the realness of her when she explained that her dad had molested her. And then we find out that that's only a lie. Just like every...

Gone Girl is a book by Gillian Flynn. The book is about a man named Nick and a woman named Amy who get married. Nick is a laid back man who goes with the flow in life and Amy is a perfectionist who is very wealthy. Amy even has her own book series called “Amazing Amy.” These are books that portray Amy as the perfect child who never does any wrong. Both Nick and Amy are complete opposites of each other. Their marriage goes from blissful to a train wreck and the two grow to deeply resent each other. One day Nick finds his wife missing. The coffee table in their house has been knocked over and becomes a crime scene. The book is about trying to figure out if Amy is dead or missing and who is responsible for Amy’s disappearance. The middle of the book and the end are the most climactic in the story because you learn the truth about Amy and her true personality is apparent.Although the book and the movie are completely identical, Gillian Flynn has a way of writing that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. Also, I found her writing style refreshing and relatable. For example, one quote says, ““You drink a little too much and try a little too hard. And you go home to a cold bed and think, that was fine. And your life is a long line of fine.” I found this particular quote relatable to my life. Several of Gillian’s quotes are written poetically. Here are several quotes from the book which show the author's creative writing style, in my opinion,“My gosh, Nick, why are you so wonderful to me?'He was supposed to say: You deserve it. I love you.But he said, 'Because I feel sorry for you.''Why?''Because every morning you have to wake up and be you.”“I often don't say things out loud, even when I should… In my belly-basement are hundreds of bottles of rage, despair, fear, but you'd never guess from looking at me.”“I feel myself trying to be charming, and then I realize I’m obviously trying to be charming, and then I try to be even more charming to make up for the fake charm, and then I’ve basically turned into Liza Minnelli: I’m dancing in tights and sequins, begging you to love me. There’s a bowler and jazz hands and lots of teeth.”The book also has a sense of horror in it. For example, one quote goes,“I felt a queasy mixture of relief and horror: when you finally stop an itch and realize it’s because you’ve ripped a hole in your skin.”In addition to being relatable and poetic, the author also clearly explained the seriousness of Amy and Nick’s crumpling relationship. For example, one quote goes,“We weren’t ourselves when we fell in love, and when we became ourselves… we were poison. We complete each other in the nastiest, ugliest possible way.”I highly enjoyed reading Gone Girl but I was disappointed that the book and the movie were completely identical. I thought for sure that the book would have added characters or scenes that may not have been in the movie. Instead, there was nothing different between the two. Despite this, I would still recommend reading the book, if the reader had time to spare. I found the book intriguing, horrifying at times, thrilling and surprising. I was disappointed with the ending but I enjoyed the suspense throughout the book and it truly kept me reading until the end. I completed reading the book in three days because it was so well written. It was interesting to discover the truth about Amy and to see the growth of her character as the book progresses. The whole time the reader is trying to figure out what happened to Amy and who is responsible for her disappearance and the answer is shocking.I would recommend reading and watching Gone Girl. I wish that I had waited to watch Gone Girl until after I had read the book. Unfortunately, I saw the movie first and then read the book hoping that the two would have minor differences. This was not the case, but Gillian’s refreshing writing style kept me interested until the end- in a way that a movie cannot. If you like thrilling horror stories with a murder mystery theme, than this is the book for you.