Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Title: Gone Girl

Author: Gillian Flynn

Publisher: Broadway Books

Published: 22nd April 2014

Source: Local Library

Rating: 4/5 anythings

Goodreads summary

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?

Review

I went in reading Gone Girl after I knew about the movie and so not wanting to watch the movie but wanting to know about it I did what every single person on Earth would do I turned to Google and Wiki-ed it. So yes I went in reading gone girl knowing about the whole plot and mind you I Wiki-ed the book too thus I read Gone Girl because I want to know in detail to the ‘why’ less of the ‘how’

I can’t put into cohesive words my thoughts on this book so I will revert back to bullet points

What I like about the books:

• The POV/Narration

When reading the book you see that it is told between the POV of Nick and Amy Dunne and it was interesting to read to see how both of them viewed their marriage. They are in the same marriage yet when reading it seemed like both of them don’t view it the same way nor even feel the same things. What they experience in said marriage are so completely opposite of each other I started to wonder are they married to each other because of actual love or because they are in love with the IDEA of the other person? Which then made me think about actual marriages in the real world, how many people do this mistake of marrying somebody due to the thought that they think they are in love yet what it really is, is that they are in love with the idea of a person rather than the actual person. You get what I mean?

It is towards half way of the book that the reader will realize that these two narrators are completely unreliable in a sense that Nick is hiding an affair from the public and especially the police and Amy, well, Amy is just batshit crazy.

• Characters

Out of all the characters I could have liked, I ended really liking Amy and her batshit craziness. I mean you have to give a standing ovation to the woman and her dedication! All that self-torture, that planning, the time spent to actually go and do it like all that at least deserves a nod of acknowledgement and all because she wanted to punish her cheating lying husband. The evil side of me actually relishes all the torture she put Nick through. You see on facebook or wherever about how the wives beat the mistresses because obviously her husband cheated on her with this woman but I always think that ain’t the way to go because after beating the mistress and/or husband and scraping every cent he has during the divorce proceedings he will move on and be happy with a new woman/life and you will still be miserable. So instead why not torture him slowly and painfully by doing what Amy did. Destroy his reputation, his credibility and also that of his mistress, shred him to pieces so he would feel your pain and so at least that even though you are miserable he is too. I love how Gillian portrayed Amy to be perfect on the outside yet is so flawed on the inside. Like Amy is brilliant incredibly so and it shows in how she plans for her husband’s downfall. All that studying she did to pass the rape kit test, the interrogation process, the self-poisoning, the ambiguous treasure hunt etc and poor Nick didn’t even have a clue on what she was planning. It’s nice to read on how a female character can just be evil because she just is and not due to any other reason.

Yeah I get what some people want Amy to do which is just move on but come on, where is the fun in that especially since Amy isn’t the type to just let go. Just unleash the demon inside I say!

I also liked how all the characters in this book aren’t who or what they seem to be on the surface. Amy, she looks perfect on the outside like an all American girl (New York version) but deep down she is just a sadistic sociopathic bitch who is brilliant in executing anything she wants to do. Then there is Nick, who seems like a good husband and turns out he is an adulterer. Not forgetting Amy’s parents who I really do agree with her that they did the whole passive aggressive thing in raising her by subtly comparing her with her fictional self ‘Amazing Amy’.  Not forgetting Desi, who knew behind that loving exterior Desi is just as bad as Amy. He literally smothers you with love, his version of love, keeping you captive, pretty much having him change you to suit his idea of you which goes back to the whole do we really love somebody because of love or is it because we love the idea we have of them.

I feel bad for Nick though but at the end he really was addicted to her. I mean in his own words he acknowledged that what other woman would put him through hell to punish him and just as easily saved him and came back to him and he deep down would compare any other women he was with, with Amy. In a morbid way they are perfect for each other and Amy does make Nick a better man albeit through subtle coercion and possibility of him being killed by her.

Also, I would be 100% pro Amy had Nick been the first and only one to feel her wrath but she did it with others too so she is definitely a pyscho.

• The ending

While some people really did not like the ending I felt like the ending was the perfect ending for the story. Nick can only be truly free if Amy is dead and if he tried to leave well we all know what happened when he almost tried to do that. And it was almost an honorable thing for him to do which is by staying with Amy and being the best dad and husband he can ensure that his child will not be under the influence of pyscho Amy.

All in all it was a very satisfying read. Although now I kind of wished I read it without knowing anything so the oomph factor will double but even when I knew what was going to happen and such the oomph factor was there because I thought amy can’t be this pyscho right? I was obviously wrong.