Gone Girl (4)

“She wasn’t on the water, she wasn’t in the house. Amy was not there. Amy was gone.” – Gone Girl

GoneGirl surprised me, and I like to think that that’s hard to do. Not only was the plot relatively unpredictable, the characters and what they’re each hiding is thrilling. Gillian Flynn surprised me by not being your run-of-the-mill mystery/thriller author. Flynn’s characters were not only dynamic, they brought to mind a person that you knew and never understood before. There was an amount of Humbert Humbert (from Lolita) in them. I won’t say how much, that would spoil the novel, and the subject matter is thankfully quite different. In Gone Girl, Flynn discusses our ideas and ideals of marriage. But I digress, here’s a synopsis for you:

            The book starts with Nick, a married man in his 30s celebrating his fifth anniversary with his wife, Amy. They live in Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, where they moved almost two years previously, after each losing their jobs in New York City and Nick found out his mother was dying. Amy resents Nick for having moved them away from her hometown, and Nick resents her resentment.

            And then, Amy disappears. The novel switches to a diary entry from Amy from seven years before, when she met Nick. From then on we see Nick’s story unravel in present time while we get to hear Amy’s side of the story through her diary.

                        “Give me a man with a little fight in him, a man who calls me on my bullshit. (But who also kind of likes my bullshit.)” – Gone Girl

            I don’t know how much I can say without ruining some plot twist for you, but do be warned it is a bit slow for a thriller. I would not say it was boring, or that you could leave it for long, but you are physically capable of putting the book down, as opposed to The Hunger Games. I might even classify it in the Song of Ice and Fire realm…you can put it down, but inevitably you want to know who done it!

            All of the characters seemed like possible suspects: from old stalkers to jealous in-laws, the husband or too-good-to-be-true parents possibly masquerading as psychotics? this is where my mind goes. And while the suspect was on my list of suspects…when every character you’ve heard mentioned even once is on your list, it’s rather likely that you’ll at least guess. But the method, and the story behind Amy’s disappearance…just wait until you get there.

                        “It’s a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.” Gone Girl

Faster read than: A Casual Vacancy (which I loved), The Thirteenth Tale (which was sweet)

Slower read than: Cinder, The Hunger Games, The Da VinciCode

Another reason to read it: Reese Witherspoon is booked to star in the film adaption. So you can read the book before the movie, which is always a better choice than the alternative. And more importantly you can read the book before the movie is being talked about, which will make you look smart. Which means its happening. And also that Reese Witherspoon is about to make a movie worth watching, which I’m excited for. Maybe I can get famous and dye my hair in time to play Andie.

            I’m actually kind of curious to see how this plays out in the movie…I feel like it could be made into a decent thriller but won’t have the same lovely psychological insanity unless the adapter is really good at his/her job.