Title: Gone Girl
Author: Gillian Flynn
2012 – Fiction – Psychological Thriller/Mystery
Rating: 4.5/5
The Story: Nick and Amy seem to be the perfect couple. At least for a while. Then they both lose their jobs within a short time span, so they move from their New York City home to Nick’s childhood town in Missouri to take care of Nick’s ailing parents. One day, Amy disappears. And that’s all I’m going to say because MYSTERY.
The Opening Line: When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.
What I Loved: Okay, here’s the critical, structure type stuff you need to know that really made this book work. The story is told through a dual-narrative structure that switches between Nick’s perspective and entries from Amy’s diary. There is a slow build up of suspense and the pacing is perfect. Great. Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the emotional, this is how I felt sort of thing. OMG WTF just happened??? I thought I knew what was going on, then some stuff happened, then more stuff happened, then my mind was COMPLETELY BLOWN AND HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT COMING????? Days later, I’m still thinking about the ending.
What I Didn’t Love: I do have something specific here, but I can’t really talk about it because it would definitely detract from your reading experience. And I don’t wanna do that.
Final Thoughts: As always, I was a little slow to get on board for this insanely popular book. I mean, even my aunt read this one before me, and that almost never happens! But now that I’ve read it, I can’t believe I didn’t read it sooner! Sooo good! I always forget how much I love mysteries and psychological thrillers until I read one, then I always want to read more immediately, but I don’t, so I forget again! Now my dilemma is that I want to see the movie, but neither of my roommates have read the book, and they’ll probably want to, so I have to wait until they aren’t around to see the movie, and I don’t know when that will be. Sigh.
Jancee's Reading Journal 
Great review for a complex story – I enjoyed the structural elements and there were also aspects i felt went overboard. There are some deep themes about relationships and marriage that linger after the suspense of the book.
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Thanks – I went in completely blind without knowing anything about it…so I wanted to preserve that for anyone who hasn’t read it yet. And yes, I love what Flynn writes about marriage.
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The twists are definitely good in this book! I sometimes appreciate reading a book way after all the buzz. That way, I know the reaction is my own and not shaped by all of the accolades.
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I hadn’t thought of that, but you make a great point. It is so easy to get caught up in hype these days – but I generally find myself disappointed if a book that’s been so thrown at me doesn’t live up to those impossible expectations. I went in to Gone Girl clean and expectant, and it was worth it!
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I can’t believe this, but I’m still behind on getting to this one! I’m glad to hear that you liked it 🙂 I’ve generally heard it’s very different from Sharp Objects, which I didn’t like very much, and I’m hoping that I’ll like Gone Girl better.
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I’ve never read Sharp Objects, but I was thinking about it since I liked Gone Girl so much. I figured it would be completely different, or maybe I would’ve heard more buzz about it. Let me know what you think when you read it!
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