May 27, 2014

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

From Good Reads: 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. 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?


My Thoughts: I hated this book. I didn't really have an interest in reading it. I had heard a lot about it and nothing about it really intrigued me. Then, someone recommended it, saying that I needed to read it, so I did. Without actually being a romance novel, this book was basically a trashy romance novel. The book alternates from being told from the perspectives of Nick and Amy, husband and wife. Amy goes missing and Nick just really doesn't seem to care, which leads everyone to put the blame on him.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Here's one of the things I hated: Nick has this totally wrong attitude about his missing wife and keeps saying things like, "That's the third lie I told the police" leaving you to think that he did it. But there is SO much evidence pointing to it being him, that you know it couldn't have been him. It's too obvious. Then, you start getting a little bit more into Amy's diary, which makes her sound pathetic, and I started to think...she set this up. She ran away and made it look like an abduction...and then lo and behold, that's exactly what happened. Then you find out that 'Diary Amy' wasn't actually the real 'Amy' and that she found out her husband was cheated so decided to frame him for her murder.

Blah blah blah, you realize Amy is psychotic and then she kills her high school ex-boyfriend who was equally psychotic and she runs home to Hubby Nick, lies her ass off about how her ex-boyfriend kidnapped her, and moves back in with Nick. Nick knew she was trying to frame him, gets really pissed, has all these thoughts about killing her, and then she gets herself pregnant from some sperm Nick had donated some two years before and THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

***END SPOILER ALERT***

What a joke. I literally threw my book down at the pool and screamed, "That was the worst book I've ever read" loudly enough for the entire pool to here, and then got into a discussion with the girl behind me who also hated it. Please, don't read this book. It was well-written, but it was awful. The characters were very one-dimensional, even though everyone kept referring to how complex Amy was (The jealous-wife-who-goes-psycho character really isn't that complex).

The movie comes out in October and I'll probably go see it because I love Neil Patrick Harris (who plays Desi, the ex-boyfriend), but I think I'll wait for it to come out on Netflix.

Have you read Gone Girl? What did you think? Any interest in seeing the movie?

7 comments:

  1. I wasn't a big fan of this book at all, but Sharp Objects was surprisingly good. You may want to give it a try!

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  2. We read this for our bookclub and there were mixed reviews. I hear ben affleck is supposedly playing Nick.......

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  3. I really liked this book (sad that you didnt), but I didn't like the ending. I'm curious to see how they make it into a movie.

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  4. Hmmm ... I read about 2 chapters of this book and put it down. Now I'm wondering if I should just sell it.

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  5. I thought the book was very interesting. Lots of twists and turns. I thought the wife had been murdered, but then the end told a whole different story. Ending was a real surprise. Good reading and got me hooked.

    Aya,
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    ReplyDelete
  6. I was wondering if you might be interested in reading my parody of Gone Girl. Titled Go Away Girl I think it might poke a little fun at all the things you didn't like about the original. If you are interested, please email me for more information or a free copy of the book.

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  7. I thought I had this book figured out, and several times I was walloped over the head with plot changes. This book is very difficult to put down once you get into the plot and characters. I cannot wait to read other books by this author. I felt immensely satisfied with the ending. Do not read this if you prefer predictable conclusions tied up in cliche bows!

    Mica
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    ReplyDelete

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