Gone Girl Review - by Jessica

This review is full of spoilers! You have been warned.

Gone Girl is the second book I have read by Gillian Flynn.

I was expecting a dark book with a twist and I got what I wanted. The dark female lead is something I appreciate from Flynn, because she does it so well. Her leading ladies are always smart, but disturbed. Their horrifying deeds garner a certain respect, because of their craftiness and genius.

The story is told from two perspectives, which isn’t unheard of but in this case it is so revealing and it is also where we get the twist. Flynn likes to play with the reader and she is great at getting our support to flip flop from character to character as she reveals a little bit at a time over the course of the book.

We think Nick is guilty, then see that it is Amy. We support Nick even though he is a cheater. We don’t know if there is a baby or not, so we don’t want Amy to die, but we are happy when she is mugged. Of course she has someone to help her (Desi Collings), and he is such a creep that we almost root for Amy again, but then the way she handles him makes us feel bad for him and hate her again. We hate the cops, then like the cops because they are so wrong and then they get it, but can’t do anything about it all.

This book is like a roller coaster.

The ending threw me for a loop. When I first finished the book I was pissed at how Flynn ended it. I wanted justice. I wanted an arrest or a death. Some type of revenge to wrap it all up.

After settling down I came to love the ending for a few reasons.

1)      Nick was not smart enough to entrap Amy and get her arrested. My want of justice wasn’t going to change that.

2)      Nick was not the kind of person who would kill and Flynn stayed true to that character.

3)      There was a baby that Nick felt responsible for protecting. He needed to stay and make sure nothing happened to that baby. Amy was totally the kind of person who would throw herself down the stairs and kill the baby and blame it on Nick.

I did see the movie and I think they did an excellent job of translating the book to screen. There are always details that are lost in translation, but I didn’t miss anything.

I would like to read Dark Places and let Gillian Flynn mess with my mind and emotions some more. I enjoy her writing because she has a knack at combining darkness and refreshing originality that makes me feel equally pissed and satisfied.